I’ve had an awful experience with lookers in Ellesmere Port.

Bought a Vauxhall Grandland X 67 plate, and the oil light came on after 2 weeks.

see another review for lookers vauxhall ellesmere port here

We bought a 1 year extended warranty, and the dealership said the car needs a new engine and they need to strip it to get it covered by the warranty.

Long delay…as need to get car up in the garage pit to take pictures for warranty.*

I suspect they were trying to kill time so that we no longer had the right to ask for a refund within 30 days of purchase. Another unethical sales tactic I’ve seen this method used In my time in marketing, dragging out the returns for as long as possible to emotionally exhaust the stressed out customer. Which they definitely did accidentally (maybe) to my wife who was crying on the phone to them at least 3 times.

Anyway, they’ve not replaced the engine, instead they’ve fixed the cam cover.

The belt issue is a known problem with this engine and other manufacturers did a full recall on there cars, but not vauxhall unfortunately. Fault therefore existed before we bought the car.

we can, apparently, no longer give the car back, as its outside the 14 day window they offer (although legally this is at least 30 days) although I believe yiu have 6 years to get compensation if garage sells a car with pre existing fault.

we’ve basically paid 11k for a car that’ll need a new engine within a year or two, at a cost of 5k to 8k according to the grandland forum.

DO NOT BUY FROM LOOKERS VAUXHALL

every man and his dog knows about the issue with the grandland x…but not my Mrs unfortunately (well, she does now).

I made a rap song and video to accompany my review

turns out the peugeot and Citroën cars with the same engine, all got recalled because the “wet belt” issue, but not vauxhall cars.

*I submitted a freedom of information request, asking to see the photos that took so long to take of the engine – the team that dealt with the request could not find any photos or emails to the warranty company. To me this suggests the whole thing was just a delaying tactic to push us beyond the 30 days within which we could request a full refund.

we spoke to a solicitor and CAB and managed to get a full refund on the car eventually.

We were however lied to about our right to request a refund, and several breaches of the consumer rights agreement occurred.

the used car sales manager continually ignored questions regarding our rights and up until the very end, even after a refund was agreed, tried to trick us into picking up the car (right to full refund is dependent on the time owner has possession / use of the car).

Had to ask 4 times for all communications in writing, despite this being a statutory right.

the same car is now for sale again at the ellesmere port dealership.

• If someone at a bank or similar organisation lied and breached consumer laws in regards to an £11k issue, they’d be fired and or struck off. Why is nothing done when it’s regarding a car?
• lookers should look at who they are hiring, how they are monitoring staff behaviour and how the staff are Incentivised. This level of corruption is going to damage or destroy their brand long term.