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Junction 17 Cars, Peterborough - A Review - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly


DivadElrac

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In June 2014 I bought a Nissan 350Z from Junction 17 Cars in Peterborough.

 

This is my review ...

 

The Good

The have an impressive showroom filled with a large variety of very desirable cars, including Porsche, Mercedes, Lotus, and several 350Z's. There was even a Lamborghini.

Friendly, professional seeming staff.

 

I was told that the car that I was interested in had just arrived and hadn't yet been prepared for sale, but it would be sold in the same condition as the other cars in the showroom. After a test drive, I went round the car with the salesman, Jamie Lunnis, and pointed out the items that needed attention. These included some marks on the bumper that they agreed to respray, a tear and several marks on the hood, and the seats needing treated. Jamie happily agreed that all of these would be dealt with pre-sale, so on this basis we negotiated a deal, including delivery of the car to my home near Glasgow. With hindsight, their willingness to deal with everything I pointed out should have been a warning sign, but in the excitement of buying a 350Z it's easy to lose sight of this. I should at least have detailed everything on a sheet of paper and asked them to sign it.

 

The Bad

Fast forward a week or so, and the car was delivered. On checking it over, I noticed that they hadn't repaired the tear in the roof and had only put a small rubber seal over one of the holes in the roof. The seats had not been treated, and they'd somehow managed to scratch the rear bumper that they'd newly painted. I wasn't happy but the delivery driver called Junction 17 cars and I spoke to Jamie. He stated that if I had the repairs done locally then they would cover the cost. On this basis I paid the balance and took delivery of the car.

 

A few days later the car would not start, so I had to call out the RAC. They quickly diagnosed the problem as being that the battery connections were loose. They tightened the connections and the car started. However, the RAC guy also pointed out that the battery was not secure and that the brackets to hold it were just lying beside it. He mentioned that this would be an MOT failure - which is strange because Junction 17 had sold the car with a brand new MOT. I was also told that it was not the correct battery for the car, which is why it wasn't secured, since the mounting brackets didn't fit.

 

There aren't many places near me that repair roofs, but I did manage to find a local company and took the car to them. Their advice was that due to the labour involved in removing and refitting the roof, it was actually more cost effective to replace the roof rather than repair it.

 

The Ugly

At this point I tried to call Jamie but he was never available to take my calls.

 

So, I sent an email but got no reply.

 

So, I sent a recorded delivery letter but got no reply.

 

Then I phoned and asked for the name of the Managing Director. At this point I was put through to the General Manager Neil Tetherton who agreed to look into it and call me back. Neil did call me back, and we had a long discussion - his view was they had only agreed to very minor fixes and denied that they were going to repair the tear in the roof (which was the most severe issue that I'd pointed out pre-sale, and without which I would not have bought the car). We ended the conversation with Neil stating that he would speak to the delivery driver and then call me back.

 

I didn't hear anything back for several months, so eventually sent another recorded delivery letter with a proposed solution to them. Now this may not come as a surprise to you, but they didn't reply!

 

So the outcome is that I've given up all hope of getting any after sales service from Junction 17 cars. In order to take the car to the standard that they'd agreed will probably cost me about £1000 (it would have cost them far far less).

 

In addition it has (and will) cost me several days of my time to arrange the repairs and drop off and collect the car at various repairers.

 

It seems to me that their approach is to agree to anything you ask for and then just make a token effort at actually doing it. I was at a disadvantage because I'm several hundred miles from their showroom - If I'd been local then I would not have accepted the car in the condition they supplied it. I really wish that I'd used my phone to record a video of the pre-sale walk round of the car.

 

I'm also rather shocked at the apparent mechanical incompetence in supplying a car with the wrong battery, unsecured, and with untightened connections.

 

Now you'll understand my comment above about "professional seeming staff". They did seem professional, but sadly this is not the case. It's amazing to me that a company can apparently be successful while providing this level of support and virtually non-existent after sales service.

 

I wish I'd researched the company before I visited them, as I've seen several critical reviews of them on various forums.

 

Hopefully this story will prevent other customers being treated as I was.

 

David Carle

Edited by DivadElrac
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Sad to hear your story ... but we have heard the same before on this forum ... I know that doesn't help you but if you stick around, the guys and traders on here will give you as much help as you need to get your Zed into tip top condition

Edited by ATTAK Z
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Sad to hear your story ... but we have heard the same before on this forum ... I know that doesn't help you but if you stick around, the guys and traders on here will give you as much help as you need to get your Zed into tip top condition

Basically the same as what he said. ^^

 

Sorry to read that you've experienced a less than enjoyable start to your Zed ownership but hopefully it won't mar your enjoyment of the Zed. :thumbs:

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Shame you didn't collect it in person, then you could have refused the payment till fixed. Good to get written proof as if the salesman had left the company, there would have been no record of the conversation. Do hope you get it all sorted and hope it doesn't put you off.

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Did you get anything in writing re the roof? I suspect not given the tone of your post.

 

One day, I'm going to go up there and waste an entire day of their time & their fuel driving as much stock as I can, just to get my own back for folks that have had a bad experience from here.

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Did you get anything in writing re the roof? I suspect not given the tone of your post.

 

One day, I'm going to go up there and waste an entire day of their time & their fuel driving as much stock as I can, just to get my own back for folks that have had a bad experience from here.

 

Their approach is so short-sighted from a business perspective. They could build a great business through repeat custom but that seems unlikely.

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Sorry to hear you had a bad experience buying your Zed David, don't let it

 

spoil your enjoyment when it's all done, there are a few bad experiences listed

 

on here of Junction 17. Hope you get it sorted soon with as little pain as possible.

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Gutted, nothing but bad news from this company all over the place. They do seem good when you see the pics etc but obviously that's not the case. Hopefully potential Z buyers on here get sight of this and AVOID as they do always seem to stock a lot of Z's.

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I had a close escape there as nearly got a car there myself. I must say when you go there it does look pretty impressive with their stock of cars. Hopefully we can put a few people off of spending their hard earned cash there,

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not the first bad report of junction 17 i have heard

Unfortunately a few of us on here have heard the same thing and now another unlucky punter has had a bad experience. I'm pinning this so hopefully others will be pre warned.
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Sorry to hear you had a bad experience buying your Zed David, don't let it

 

spoil your enjoyment when it's all done, there are a few bad experiences listed

 

on here of Junction 17. Hope you get it sorted soon with as little pain as possible.

This +1

 

And a well written topic too - not a rant, just the facts. :thumbs:

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I've been on here previously with my experience of J17 and just to repeat it wasn't bad at all. Certainly no worse than I would expect from any car dealership trying to flog their stock for the max they can. Go in with eyes wide open and don't bend over and you should be fine.

 

To the op, hope you get things sorted out ok and you enjoy your car.

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Junction 17's not the only one here in Peterborough to avoid. Being local I have the advantage of word of mouth but I found out about our local car world when I picked up the hyundai S111 I had before the Zed full service and new MOT yet it only had 10 psi in the tyres instead of 32 makes you wonder what was actually done, and how all these cowboys stay in business.

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Thanks to all the posters who added comments and good wishes.

 

I'm sure that many of Junction 17's customers are happy with their purchase and after sales service, but it seems from comments and posts here that I'm not alone in being disappointed with them. I understand that mistakes happen and every business 'drops the ball' from time to time, but for me, the real measure of a company is how they resolve the problems and whether they do what it takes to make a happy customer. At this, unfortunately, they failed miserably.

 

I had originally hoped to write a positive review for Jn 17 (and actually mentioned this to them in correspondence) but it seems they don't care about reviews either!

It's not my intention to cost them sales, but I can see that this could happen as more people read critical reviews. For the sake of a few hundred pounds (well covered by their profit, I'm sure) they could have had a happy customer who would have praised their efforts, but sadly that didn't happen.

 

I also posted a shorter review on Google as I suspect that will get seen more than reviews in the forums. I'd encourage others to add Google reviews too (whether good or bad) so that prospective customers know what to expect from a dealer.

 

Oh, and I also posted this review on 911uk dot com, as before the 350Z I was a 911 owner for 4 years. If anyone's interested I could write a comparison of the two at some point.

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First few z's I went to see were at Junction 17 (Peterborough), they had a lot of v nice cars there but I didn't get a good feeling from the staff, one of them smirked at my Clio 182 when I arrived and asked sarcastically if that was what I would be part exchanging, and later on I saw one of them burning off up the road in a customers car from a cold start, so just used the visit for research and swiftly buggered off!

 

Sorry to hear about your bad experience dealers can be a fickle bunch...

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Hi David,

 

I bought my 350Z from Junction 17 Peterborough May 2014. Your story is pretty much the same as what I experienced. There were minor things that they agreed in writing to fix but like you never happened. Dent removal, bumper respray, generally bodging a few cosmetic bits for the sale. Like you I had to travel quite far to them and was initially attracted to their large choice in 350Z's. After sales communication was non-existent and when I did speak to someone they were very rude and clearly tried palming me off in any way possible.

 

I would never buy a car from them again and urge anyone that does to be extremely cautious. They hide behind the nice showroom full of supercars but don't me fooled!

 

Like you my car came with a new MOT so I'm actually pretty concerned when the next one comes around.

 

We really need to name and shame these dealers because its disgusting how they can run a business like this.

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