Nick Bundy from Colin Moston in response to numerous problems

Thanks for your review; your points have been noted, however you seem to have missed out a few key points. When you came to purchase the Mini, you bought your part exchange vehicle along with you. Upon inspection, we discovered that your car had no oil in the engine (this was the vehicle which you had just driven approximately 40 miles to our dealership in - with no oil). We stressed at that point that it is absolutely imperative to check a cars oil level regularly to avoid engine damage. Some 2 months after purchase you took the Mini to an independent garage in Newbury, who advised that the engine oil level was below minimum. They advised us that after adding oil the engine timing chain quietened. The car was then returned to us at a later date for further inspection and it was found that there was run on damage due to lack of oil and this had caused extensive damage to the engine (which therefore, due to the nature of the damage would not be covered by any warranty). However, as a good will gesture we sourced and funded a replacement engine which had covered 30,000 less miles than the current engine in the Mini and had full documented BMW/Mini service history (it definitely was not from a scrapyard). The engine replacement was carried out by the independent workshop which is located on site. After collecting the vehicle you then encountered a problem with the cars cooling system. The car was returned to the independent workshop on site who replaced the thermostat and all appeared well. Some weeks later the car developed a similar problem, which was diagnosed by the same independent workshop as a sensor in the thermostat housing (this was replaced). The car has been perfect since. The workshop on site are totally independent to ourselves and in this instance we were relying on them to resolve the issues for you. Unfortunately the two cooling problems, although associated, were totally different components within the cooling system. With you living some 40 miles from us, we agreed that it was not ideal that you had to return the car 3 times. We therefore agreed to refund you. The refund amount was based on you having the car for 4 1/2 months and a covering approximately 2500 miles, thus accounting for wear and tear. In one of your final emails to to us (09/03/2018) you stated "I'd like to reiterate my complaint is not with you personally (you have been perfectly polite and quick to deal with)" and we are confident that we did do our upmost to resolve the issues as quickly as possible. So we refute your claims of "cowboys" and "lemons", as in our view we have gone above and beyond considering the original engine failure was caused by run on damage due to lack of oil and you not adhering to our advice of regularly checking your cars engine oil level.

Colin Mostons Cars from Colin Moston in response to Dodgy

In light of this review, as a company we are genuinely shocked and disappointed. You came to view a vehicle and put down a £200 non-refundable deposit which was agreed to and signed by yourselves on your invoice. We then got the car MOT'd and had ordered a rear windscreen wiper for you as this was requested at the time of doing the deposit. The following week we received a phone call saying that you no longer wanted the vehicle because it needed 3 individual seats in the back (despite this already being the case with the vehicle you put the deposit on), leading me to believe that the real reason could have been somewhat superficial. Due to the fact that we don't like to see our customers money go to waste, we explained the two options that were viable. 1. We can source you another vehicle that would be suitable to fit your £1000 budget with all the requirements you needed and we can then transfer your deposit to this vehicle or 2. You can source a vehicle elsewhere but unfortunately would lose the £200 deposit that was agreed at the time of sale. We decided it would be best to source a vehicle for you and spent over 3 weeks searching daily for a car for you. In this time we made it clear that we would not buy from another independent dealer or a private seller as we do not trust that they would have been checked over to a satisfactory standard. Unfortunately we were not able to come to an agreement over a new vehicle and your deposit was lost. As I explained on the phone to you, we want to do all we can to use your money wisely for you should you change your mind on a car you purchased. A word to all customers regarding not just us, but any dealership you may be looking to buy from... Make sure you are 100% happy with the vehicle and the agreement made at the time of sale before putting down any sort of deposit! If we had sold the car to another party after taking the deposit then the customer would not be happy as we have let down our side of the agreement, but an agreement works both ways. We could not have been more helpful and I trust that you have found a car that fits your requirements. As mentioned multiple times on the phone, the offer still stands if you would like us to source you another. Regards.

Another Customer in response to Bumper

Wow we have had exact same experience. When we said we were unhappy with the car we had previously agreed on Joe (the only salesman) became defensive, disrespectful and refused to give contact details of the owner, so feel appalled by the service. Would highly recommend the owner of Colin Moston's to rethink their management.