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A couple of months ago my daughter bought a black Kia Sportage SH11 YKS from Simply Vehicle Sales in Knutsford. Finance was arranged by the dealer through their tame broker, and the car was brought home to North Yorks. There were some issues with the actual handover of the car due to her part exchange breaking down on the way to the dealers, but that's not relevant here.

When she got home with the new car and we had a good look at it, it became apparent that the car had been involved in an accident and had been badly repaired. Overall, it was in a pretty poor state once you looked past the fairly clean and tidy bodywork.

They contacted the dealers and told them they weren't happy with it as it was significantly "not as described" and told them they would be bringing it back for a refund and cancelling the purchase. At this point the dealer decided that not answering the phone and not replying to any emails was a viable course of action, and the situation dragged on to the point where she sent a final email saying the car would be returned at a stated time and date, and off we went on that date. When we got there the people in the business next door said they'd decided to close early and had gone home at lunchtime. So with no one there to hand the car back to we set about the phone.

The dealer refused to answer, the finance company (arranged through the dealers tame broker) informed her that she didn't actually have a finance agreement for the car, but she'd been arranged a personal loan which had been paid direct to the dealer.  The finance broker had managed to get himself a sudden 10 day holiday at conveniently short notice and left his workmate to look after business. So with no other option we brought the car back home.

More phone calls next day to Trading Standards, the Financial Services Ombudsman, Citizens Advice, the actual finance company again, and also to the local Kia dealers (SG Petch in Richmond) who were fantastic. They booked the car in the next day for a full check, and provided a detailed report of the condition of the car and stated it was unsafe to drive.  Trading Standards replied saying the dealers parent company were already under investigation by Cheshire Police and that they were in liquidation. The Ombudsman was very interested in the mis sold finance package (which is also not entirely relevant here), and will be looking closely into the dealings there.

The deposit for the car was paid on credit card, so they were contacted and sent all the supporting documents, and they immediately refunded that part of the payment, so that was a bonus. Also the finance company deferred payment until the issue could be sorted one way or another.

The car remained off road until two weeks ago when finally the finance broker (still no contact at all from the dealer) arranged for the car to be collected and returned to the dealers, and once it was back there they would be cancelling the finance and refunding all payments. So the car was now back at Simply Vehicle Sales (who are claiming they are sending it back to the people they bought it from), Creditas Ltd (the broker) will be updating us "this side of the weekend" (his favourite saying which generally means I'm not going to be in touch any time soon), and we started looking for another vehicle.

 

Fast forward two weeks and this is still rumbling on, but coming to a conclusion (apparently) this week.

The finance broker (Creditas Financial Solutions) has been hounded on the phone nearly every day, and has been forthcoming with an endless stream of misinformation and bodyswerve tactics in an effort to prolong the conclusion of this farce. They quite readily accept that our daughter is not going to be in the frame for a substantial loan against an unroadworthy vehicle, but were seemingly unwilling to actually do anything about it.
 
Until yesterday that is when we spoke to them. They were apparently waiting for the dealer to return the funds as soon as the car had been returned to the people they bought it from (a Kia dealer in the lake district), and the car had been sent back to them. At exactly the same time our daughter received an email from the Financial Services Ombudsman stating that they'd spoken to the finance broker and had been informed that before anything could be done the car needed to be returned, at which point we could expect some movement. At this point daughter phoned the Ombudsman and blew up, telling them that the finance broker had actually collected the car from us 2 weeks ago, and we had a signed collection form stating as such. She really let rip at them, and the end result was the case was upgraded to an official complaint, and we would hear something positive by Friday.

So, yesterday afternoon we were called by Creditas and told that they will be clearing the finance by the end of the day (or tomorrow) and have been to Simply Vehicle Sales that morning and collected the car, and is now in their possession under lock and key until the dealer pays up.

Now that strikes me as a little odd, given that Simply Vehicle Sales apparently sent the car back to Kia in Windermere (of course I believe that, who wouldn't?) so how could they collect it from Knutsford? So, either the dealer is bullsh*tting and hadn't done anything with the car at all, and were still stonewalling in the hope we'd go away, or the broker is bullsh*tting in the hope we'll go away and he'll still get his commission from arranging the loan.

Overall, it would appear that Creditas Financial Solutions have paid for and bought a rather expensive unroadworthy Kia Sportage.

Truth be told, I don't trust anything either of them say, and I never did. Typical sales personnel full of fragile promises and hollow facts, and I wish them all the best in their newly found fame.

I'll provide a final update as soon as we have the documents tying all this up.
 
So, if anyone sees SH11 YKS up for sale or anything, then don't buy it.
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Solid warning thanks for that.... I really feel for your daughter since it's a bitter learning curve... Curious though wasn't there a HPI done and the level of roadworthyness was this detrimental toward an  MOT?

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I did the HPI check, and it was all clear.

I challenged DVSA about the lack of advisories on the MOT (checked that as well prior to purchase) and they simply said it was too late to do anything about it and we should've brought it to their attention sooner.  So the radiator being held in by only one bolt (three missing and the support bracket itself damaged and bent), the rear numberplate lights having no lenses, the rather large oil leak, the tyre scrubbing off on the inside edge, and various other faults were not something a mot tester would note as an advisory? I think the dealer had his tame mot tester do it, as well as the tame finance broker he used.

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  • 1 month later...

I don't really know who I could report it to. Autotrader aren't interested, it's not an insurance write off and it's HPI clear so as far as they're concerned it's a car for sale (and they're getting paid). It may've had some repairs, but I doubt it to be honest (the towing eye blank would cost pennies to replace and it's still missing), and ultimately it's just a matter of trying to make sure no one else buys it without noticing the damage.

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