Peter

Tatty Stock, Very Poor Practices.

Research Fiat Nuneaton sold a family member a Fiat 500X that was supposedly approved used with full Fiat backup and comprehensively inspected to ensure its quality. Unfortunately she had owned this automotive embarrassment for seven months (although she had only driven 3000 miles) when she first showed it me I was frankly appalled at what a tatty, unpleasant example it was inside and out. It had suffered accident damage down one side and the filler and paint repair was awful, the interior had split seat bolsters on the drivers side, badly marked interior and stunk of oil when the climate control was switched on. She didn’t realise this smell wasn’t right (as I’m sure people have gathered she knows nothing about cars) and I think this wheeled abomination was palmed off on her as she went on her own and in her naivety thought that a main dealer would be a safe place to purchase. On looking in the engine bay it was immediately apparent that it had an oil leak from low down that had been ongoing for a long time (judging by the state of the engine bay and the amount of oil in the undertray and all over the bay in general). Anyone who knew anything at all about cars would have ran a mile. Now this wasn’t a couple of grand old cheapie here she’d paid over eight thousand for a 16 plate, official approved used vehicle, it also had three previous keepers and a string of MOT failures to its credit, I’m not sure how even without its general condition being awful this would even have qualified as a manufacturer approved used? It came with twelve months ‘comprehensive’ Fiat approved warranty (still makes me chuckle) so I advised her to get it taken straight back to have its faults rectified, warranty or not Research Fiat Nuneaton would not even look at it without her paying a £120 diagnostic fee first! I’ve spent years working with and around the motor trade from prestige main dealers through fleet sale auctions and car supermarkets to family run, non franchised operations and have never heard of anything so bizarre so decided to pop in myself to ask the service department what the diagnostic fee was covering and why it would even be applicable in the circumstances. They said they were unwilling to look at anything unless it went onto their diagnostic machine first to check for additional faults. This is an odd and completely unnecessary step in these circumstances but they refused to even book it in without it being agreed to! The oil leak was repaired but they refused to waive the completely unwarranted diagnostic fee and within four days of its return the vehicle had a complete electronic meltdown with pretty much every warning light on the dash coming on and refusing to go out, even the remote locking refusing to work, I checked the usual suspects (battery output, poor earth etc.) Went to plug it into my diagnostic machine and found that the cover to the OBD port was chewed to bits (obviously having already been off numerous times) and no OBD port behind it (I found it hanging loose behind the dash). On reading the car was displaying tens of fault codes dating back months prior to it being sold to my unsuspecting relative. On returning it to Research Nuneaton and pointing this out I was told that they were absolutely sure that it would have been correctly inspected and read before sale and the few days before that they had charged the fee for, they couldn’t supply an answer as to why if they had done this the codes had been left or the OBD port left dangling loose behind the dashboard rather than in its allotted socket. What they did do was immediately offer to buy it back! Brilliant result but unfortunately this buy back wouldn’t cover the £2200 deposit put in, merely cleared the amount of finance owed. This also left my relative with no car, Research offered to sell her another (of course they did) thankfully she asked me to come and take a look at what they were offering her, tat, just more complete and utter tat. I pointed out the misalignment of the bumper and near side headlight and a poor smart repair of a doom blue specless Tipo they were desperate to palm her off with, and similar poor repairs on the side of an equally tatty black one parked next to it, I’ve no idea who is carrying out the used approved inspections at Research Fiat Nuneaton but from my extensive time in and around the motor trade most garages I’ve had dealings with would be embarrassed to display such tat, maybe things have changed due to used car stock shortages but the garages I regularly visit maintain their standards and stock fewer vehicles rather than fill gaps with rubbish. In summary if you want an expensive, tatty car with absolutely no back up when it goes wrong and have cash to burn I can highly recommend Research Fiat Nuneaton and the staff there, “caveat emptor” as they said in Rome!