Being a girl I thought buying from a garage would be less risky than buying privately. Initially I was looking for a small car and chose a Mini Copper that Gaston Gate was selling. I was promised a few bits of work would be carried out, new car aerial, the seat belt was sticking and a mark on the car bonnet would be polished out. The car was sold with a service however after returning 51 miles to collect the car I was told to go for lunch and they would get it done, after some hours i returned, the car wasn’t ready so left empty handed again. After some WEEKS of calling about the car to find out the status, after being told they would keep me updates & never calling me & taking payment, making me feel like I had been ripped off, I was finally able to collect the car. Another 50 mile trip to find none of what was promised to be carried out. After driving just a few miles on my return trip home the car was clearly not driving right and making a strange noise. Back to the garage and I left empty handed AGAIN. It was some time before the car was again ready to be collected. The car still wasn’t right and at this point I should have told the garage I didn’t want the car but as i had now been without for some time I was desperate to get my life back to normal (single mum of 3 and being the summer holidays). I had the car for 8 weeks before the engine cut out and it wouldn’t start again. The amazing warranty the car was sold with wouldn’t cover it and the garage were refusing to take the car back and carry out the work. I had to seek legal advise who all told me the work is the responsibility of the garage to complete. After many legal letters and being reported to trading standards they eventually agreed to carry out the work. Again I was told I would be updated, but had to call to find anything out and dealt with a very hostile Mark. Ryan was a bit more helpful but even he said Mark the owner would make promises he was unable to keep. Weeks again without a car, it was returned and was used for around 6 months before it dying on me. I’ve been told by a local garage that the car I have brought will cost more to fix than the 4.3K I brought it for and recommend I scrap it. This garage has lost me thousands and many sleepless nights. A lesson learnt from me and however difficult it now is to try and afford a new car, I’m happy I’ll never have to deal with this company again. Never trust a garage that doesn’t allow reviews on their own private website.

I went a long distance to see a good priced Mazda 3 test drove but handling too light with no feel. Then, I found a black Golf GTI, test drove and decided to buy. My mistake: I should have gone home, found out market price and then negotiated but agreed too much for car with my Fiesta trade-in and paid deposit. Arranged to pick up car days later after work when I was nearer then poor experience started. I got two miles down road and petrol light came on - thimble of petrol in car. (cheapskates). I was in dark in unknown,rural area - found petrol station via satnav. Had to look up petrol cap and found they had given me a Touran manual not a Golf. No Service history either apart from a few recent receipts and some worrying MOT advisories. Back end squealed a bit but drove home. I took to trusted local garage who immediately said binding calipers. I found the 3 month warranty provided was useless (I rang insurance company) and exempted just about anything. (Ryan told me you can get things fixed at your local garage and then claim.) I emailed Gaston Gate a few times politely about issues. I did get a reply that advisories had been fixed. Also, no license tax receipt because no email address was entered. I did after two weeks get a patronising phone 'lecture' from his dad,Mark. The bindings seemed to free and so I drove for many months until MOT just now and had to pay for both sides calipers + pads. (approx £340)