BMW 420d M Sport - LO17 VOC Where to even begin, hands down the worst experience I have ever had buying a car. I first contacted Lee about buying the BMW 4 Series (LO17 VOC) early September and arranged to view the car on the 9th September. Took the car on a test drive the same day, Lee did not show me around the car or talk through it by any means, but I was so exited by the car I did not think anything of it. Put a deposit down and agreed to buy it outright when my car had sold. I then had the money and picked up the car on the 14th September. I did ask about the service and Lee explained their service is “written on the invoice”, each BMW has the service history built into the infotainment system. Imagine explaining that to someone you were selling the car on to? No service mate, it’s just on the piece of paper I could’ve written myself… Took the car to the beach the following day (Friday 15th September) and just as we were leaving the car went into limp mode, drivetrain issue and had zero power. Managed to drive it home and contacted Lee first thing Saturday morning. I was then met with an EXTREMELY patronising “it’s fine don’t worry, it’s fine, we’ll sort it” no apologises for the car breaking after less than 24hrs of owning it… Took it to Lee on Saturday 16th September and left it with him to sort. He did call me back a few hours late to say it was the EGR value which they would replace first thing Monday when the part arrives and the engineers are back in. He then gives me a courtesy car which was a Fiat 500, “don’t worry mate it’s got loads of fuel in” only had a quarter tank and he full well knew I had to drive 1.5hrs home. He then passes me a form for the courtesy car which stipulates I have to INSURE MYSELF - another cheap way of them cutting corners to save money (I’ve been a commercial insurance broker for almost 10 years and never once seen a policy where your customers have to insure a loan/courtesy car - might want to look to pay slightly more and get a better policy, eh?) After then going out for the day on Saturday, I called and asked if there was any he could pay towards some of the costs which he had made me liable for (fuel, insurance on the loan car) to be met with “no, that’s not something we do” after you’ve sold a car that’s broken you’d think they would at least contribute to some of the costs I was now out of pocket on. They then “fixed”, used extremely loosely, and I picked up the car the following Monday 18th. It drove like a can of spanners and felt completely wrong. Took it to Howard’s BMW and they confirmed that the new part (EGR Value) Castle Motors had fitted, was not coded to the car and would naturally show the same issue and probably go into limp mode again (considering they sell high end performance cars, you’d like to think they’d spend a bit of money to buy the kit needed) Needing the car for work, I continued to drive the car with the intention of calling Lee again to sort the car out. On Friday the 22nd of September i got it diagnosed again and the EGR value popped up again showing as abnormal on the report. The code was cleared, to see whether it came up again after using it over the weekend. On Tuesday the 26th September it went back into limp mode, you guessed it… because of the EGR Value. And the fact it had NOT been coded. I called Lee yet again on the same day to explain the situation and he just came back with “it’s fine, don’t worry, bring it in and we’ll sort it” in a very sarcastic, patronising manner - bearing in mind he knows it’s a 3hr round trip for me to bring it back. I asked if there was any way the car could be collected by them as driving in limp mode is NOT advised, especially for long journeys, Lee said not something they do. I expressed my frustration to him as this would cause me to be further out of pocket to insure the courtesy car and 6hrs of driving to drop it off and pick it up when it was “fixed” no apologises was made and told “this is something that happens with old and new cars, not our fault, we didn’t make the car…” Castle Motors showed no attempt to alleviate the stress and inconvenience of the situation occurring for the second time in less than two weeks. Having lost confidence in Castle Motors and their ability to rectify the situation and fix the car to the standard expected, I suggested taking it to a well-known/trusted BMW specialist as this is what the car needed and local to me. He declined and said “under the warranty, it needs to be fixed by us” but given the history, their engineers clearly just cleared the error on the diagnostic as opposed to actually fixing the issue. I declined and promptly asked to return the car for a full refund (a site note, on my paperwork no warranty had been selected and I was not made aware of what I was entitled to prior to this conversation) Lee then retorted with “you can’t do that, we need have the opportunity to fix the problem first” I then explained he has had the chance already and reminded him of my rights under the Consumer Act 2015 as the vehicle was faulty upon purchase. He then simply agreed and said to bring it in and he’ll give me my money back. Returned the car on the 30th September to be met with no greeting as I was waiting for Dale to finish his 20 minute phone call. He then passed the paperwork to his colleague, and I assume brother, Dean who helped me with my refund. Again, no apologises or remorse or even kindness in such a horrible situation. Left feeling relieved I would never have to deal with any of them again. Looked at their website today, 2nd October, to see the car is up for sale with an extra owner (me - 4 in total) and an extra 400 miles on the clock to see it is up for sale for £750 more than I purchased it for as you will see from the two listings attached!!!!!! Lee’s customer service skills need immediate improvement and his level of compassion and courtesy for those of whom he has caused a huge inconvenience. Considering the company turned over £34m last year, all they had to do was apologise, let me take the car to an authorised BMW repairer, offer me some kind of compensation and I would have had more faith in them as a reputable company. Clearly they are only interested in those who purchase the cars where they make more profit - I wonder if I’d experience a better service if I bought one of their Ferrari’s? After all of that, I collected the exact same car for a better price, full 1 year warranty wise warranty from another dealer, with no issues and had been throughly looked after by a reputable company unlike those at Castle Motors. Please, if you are reading this DO NOT buy a car from Castle Motors. You will regret it.

Many Thanks to John after buying a car last week from Castle Motors a Top Spec Mini Cooper Convertible with only 3,600 miles on the clock

I had my car (Audi TT 8J) delivered due to the distance I live from the dealer. The delivery was arranged and car delivered as per the agreement. The Vehicle was immaculate condition generally, and nicely presented on first view. However, upon sitting in the vehicle and plugging in my OBD reader I found 2 error codes. One stating 01273 Fresh air Blower (V2) (The air conditioning/ air blower did not work confirming the problem). I also had a 00952 Key 2 error (I will discuss this later) I immediately phoned the dealer who offered to repair the vehicle, although I would need to drive it to him to instigate this. All well and good, however, the windscreen would not clear and fogged up when sat at traffic lights or stationary, (especially bad in the rain, and with November temperatures) therefore to drive the 90 miles would be dangerous, considering the implications of continually needing to remove one hand from the steering wheel and wipe the screen. Therefore I have fixed the problem myself at my expense. I have never received a follow up call to see if the problem had abated. I replaced the fresh air fan which required removal of the glove box so relatively easy procedure costing me around £80 for parts (reconditioned). Now, onto the further niggles with the car. I only have one key fob (indeed a second key fob was not promised so this is not the issue) which works sporadically. I have had to unlock the car manually on two occasions due to the remote not working. Further to this I have the following problems: The passenger and driver door handles stick outwards, you must ensure that you push the handles back in, otherwise the doors will not shut properly. The passenger door window catches on the trim and does not retract properly when opening/shutting the door. I believe that over time this will weaken the glass and damage to the trim/glass is already evident. On the subject of glass, upon lifting the bonnet there were a number of shards of broken glass on the top of the wings, in the alcoves near the air vents. This also had to be removed by hoover. Finally, the car has no MOT certificate with it which will cost me another £10 at a local dealer. Now, for a dealer to make me pay full price, and to state that "all of our vehicles are presented to the very highest standards possible, having gone through our comprehensive multi-stage preparation in our in-house workshops" and to release this vehicle is quite frankly, alarming. As I have stated beforehand, the dealer did offer to fix the problem. However, being a car dealer established in 1972, they really should understand the problems that would result in a blower not working and should have allowed me to go to a local dealer for the repair to be undertaken, without question. I do not believe that my vehicle was subject to a comprehensive multi-stage preparation at all, and the dealer's comment of "hand on heart, the fan was working yesterday" was quite frankly a little patronising. Given that I am a little long in the tooth and having heard every excuse in the book from car dealers over the years. I now prefer to let trading standards to deal with the issue. I have contacted them and I will be posting reviews to warn others.