Vertu Motors - Volvo Exeter Avis 

I had a good customer experience pre sale. The p/x & purchase journey was slick and hassle free.

Where my experience falls down is the obvious lack of quality in dealership stock and apparent sly prep for sale techniques.

I purchased a low mileage (<8k) Approve Used Volvo for a large sum of money. The dealership has clearly used polishes and fillers to hide paint blemishes, chips and dents. I found this out after washing the car and finding the fillers disapearing and paintwork marks surfacing.

To date, I've had to fix one dent, two door chips down to primer, a stone chip, rotary polish marks on the bonnet and a seat tear - all found quickly after sale. The car also requires a two stage polish to bring it up to a satisfactory quality and remove abuse marks.

This was a partial remote purchase (I live 6 hours from the dealership) and the Sales Exec stated the paintwork and interior was in excellent condition, which is a stretch. This car required a more through eye for detail to classify the quality.

I'm now having to spend additional funds to bring the car up to a satisfactory quality, something that should have occured pre-sale.

Would I make the same decisions again about remote purchase? Likely not, I will insist in a visit before handover.

Would I use Vertu again? I'd be hesitant on what they're using to hide paintwork issues and so I'd be wary.

How would I have prepared the car? Firstly a thorough review of paintwork to identify and fill in stone chips. Secondly a quick single stage polish to buff out the paintwork blemishes. Not a rotary, but a dual action handled by someone experienced. Lastly I'd check the interior for damage and repair/replace. The summation is an approved used that is mechanical and cosmetically ready for sale with no further work required - it may even fetch a higher pricetag.

How do we know you didn't cause the damage post sale? Good question. The seat tear was found about 5 minutes after leaving the dealership, the door chips when stopping at a service station. The dent was while walking back to the car after parking at the rear of the services and covering about 100 miles. The stone chip may have been on the drive home so we'll chalk that up to motorways. The general paintwork condition is obvious post clean using a two bucket method and air drying to avoid additional touch steps.

Could these issues have been found and sorted before sale? Yes, with a little bit of time and less out the door mentality these could have been resolved before sale and I’d have never been any wiser.

Overall I'm disspointed in the dealership quality and the onward cost to me.

05/09/2023 - Have emailed in response to Vertu below and so far nothing has come of it. No resolution or discussion. I have downgraded the rating to 1 STAR because of this.

25/09/2023 - No further contact from reply to Vertu. Subsequently the car rejection has been accepted under the CRA 2015 for non disclosure of repair work and sub standard and unwarrantable paintwork resulting in the aforementioned review. Verified by an independent Volvo Approved Bodyshop, the issues included; Lacquer blend lines, sanding marks, misaligned door, silicone spots, imbedded dirt and unpainted sections. Cost to put right came into the £1.5-3k range. The vehicle was sold as ex-demo.

The car is back on sale within 5 days. Be vigilant with WF22UOY. The dealership is pleasant but the vehicle history is questionable.