Car dealer lacking integrity
Although our experience with Shift Automotive was a little while ago now, my irritation at the experience compells me to still write this review.
Very unpleasant experience with this dealer. Although Gary was quite helpful with our car purchase from overseas, we feel he took advantage of the fact that we didn't buy locally from him, and had the car delivered, some 300 miles or so.
Specifically, the service history that the car was advertised as having never came into our possession, nor did we receive the documents for the 12-month-guarantee the car was supposed to come with. When we queried this with Gary directly after receiving the car, he claimed he had given the documents to the car delivery driver. The driver assured us he had never had them, and in contrast to Gary struck us as very trustworthy. The VR5 paperwork never arrived either.
The car interior also had some damage Gary never mentioned, despite our questions - glove box broken (has to remain locked so it doesn't swing open) and a broken hand grip handle or two. The car almost smelt of smoke/dog (poorly disguised by a car air freshener), had dog hair in it, and in general was not very clean.
Across a period of many months my husband or I tried chasing Gary up, either calling, or sending messages and he always had an excuse (he was on holiday and would do it when he was back, he didn't have the details - message him an email address and he would send the guarantee documents).
This became particularly pressing when - less than six months after buying the car - the clutch needing replacing. Whether this might have been covered under the guarantee we'll never know, as despite many attempts, Gary never sent the documents. We also eventually forked out for a new VR5, because - despite promising to do so - he never sorted that out either. The service history never turned up, and as a result lowers the value of the car (which we are currently in the process of selling...)
Overall, the car that we bought from Shift Automotive - though probably overpriced given the state it was in - is not too bad (although it drives well now, only after we have sunk a couple of thousand pounds into repairs) but we were not at all impressed by Gary at Shift Automotive's lack of integrity.