For the majority of us buying a used car isn’t exactly something we look forward to. Of course getting a new car is exciting, but when that car is second hand it can be a doubt filled experience, where you are constantly worried that you have been sold a car under false pretences, a car that will ultimately turn out to be more trouble than it’s worth. Nine times out of ten you will get what you pay for and everything will run hunky dory, but we all know a story about someone who has come out of the used car market feeling conned, and down hearted as my daughter Rachel has just found out with her Skoda Citigo.

Whilst learning how to drive Rachel spent a fair few ours in her mother Skoda Fabia, and from that she felt that she was comfortable with Skodas and seemed to like that they aren’t too common. Though she felt comfortable in the Fabia, it was an estate so she didn’t want the same car as her mother, did a little research and found the Citigo, deeming it the perfect car for her. I had no problem with her logic so gave her a budget and let her to her own devices. Sure enough the next day she had found the car of her dreams, she had already enquired and was raring to get to the dealership, so off we went. We looked at the car and everything seemed to be fine with the dealer reassuring us at every turn that there was nothing at all wrong with the car. I could tell Rachel wasn’t really listening too much that was going on, as she was too excited and desperately wanted the car and if I’m completely honest I spent a lot of time day dreaming about the Maserati Ghibli that was sat at the other side of the forcourt. But the dealer seemed like a genuine enough guy so I figured what the hell, it will be fine. How wrong I was.

After an hour or so we had done all we needed to do and before we knew it, she was driving us home in her very own Skoda Citigo and after 30 minutes on the road things started to go a little wrong, the little Citigo began making an awful sound before it completely cut out, we pulled over, (fortunately there was no one else on the road) and it was quite obvious that it had overheated.

The car was taken straight to the dealership but they refused to do an immediate repair so after a very heated argument I ended up walking away with my money, minus a deposit that they conveniently made up that I couldn’t be bothered to contest and a daughter with a broken heart. For now she will have to share her mother’s contract hire Skoda Fabia but we have both learnt a very important lesson, firstly, go in knowing exactly what you want, secondly pay attention and thirdly take the car out for a test drive before you commit to it! Have you had any used car nightmares? If so let us know!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2014 at 11:16 am and is filed under Advice, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.