Bradley

Do your research and stay away.

I purchased an Audi A3 on the 20/05/25 with only 31000 miles on the clock. This vehicle was supposed to be my pride and joy. However problems started the day of purchase as the car was making an odd knocking sound that was coming from the steering rack. I booked the car in with Chariots to find out the problem as at first I thought it was simply a minor issue. The car was then found by Chariots to need a complete steering rack replacement, auxiliary belt, top mount, near side front shock absorber and a rear wiper motor (NOT what I expected from a car I’d only had a few days and supposedly had an MOT on the day of collection as well as costing me over £17000!) at first I was told I was expected to pay for it all however, I flatly refused as I’d only had the car less than a month and the noises had been present from the beginning. The car had been booked in for the work on the 6th of June for the work to be carried out on the 19th of June (a few days after the purchase). I then spoke to Franco (MD) and Pete (GM) regarding this and told them I was rejecting the car and had the letter of rejection in hand ready, Franco told me in his words ‘’let us put this right’’ so I agreed and gave them the opportunity to rectify this problem at a cost to themselves, they assured me it would be Audi genuine parts and that they would sort it. The car was with them for a week and I got a phone call saying it was fixed and ready to go. I went to collect the car on the same day and I was advised when I arrived by Nick (Service advisor) to go out for a test drive alone in the car before taking it home. I found on the test drive the noise coming from the steering rack was still audible and not fixed so when I got back to the dealership I explained this to Nick and he told me to take the car home over the weekend and that ‘’it may need to settle’’ and if not to bring it back if the noise was still there on Monday. Safe to say the noise was still there on Monday so I took it straight back to Chariots and told them I was not happy and handed Nick the keys. At this point I was suspicious of the service history of the vehicle as I was assured multiple times that it was FULL Audi service history all the while waiting for Chariots to get me the code, beforehand they kept making excuses in regards to getting the ‘’code’’ needed to access the service history within the vehicles MMI system and telling me Audi wasn’t getting back to them. I decided to then take it upon myself to visit the Audi dealership and get this code for myself. I was shocked to find the car had NO service history at all! (the car was advertised as having FULL service history) The only history it had was the collection from the Audi dealership by the original owner. At this point the trust in Chariots had exhausted itself and I’ve also been told the vehicle has ‘’history’’ by the DVLA of no registered owner for over 6 months. I have now rejected the car and after various attempts to get invoices/receipts for the parts supposedly put into my car to support the rejection, I finally got them after multiple attempts of Chariots refusing to give me them and to my further shock after Chariots promising Audi genuine parts I find out they are not and that there is no invoice or record of the steering rack being changed. the dealership now will not acknowledge the finance company, myself or my solicitor. I only wish I’d read the reviews on multiple sites and done some research on this place as their practices are extremely questionable, Steer clear of this place.