Anyone have any comments on the stoneacre group?

AtreuS

AtreuS

AtreuS

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We are looking at a car for the mrs from the stoneacre group of garages and im wondering if anyone here has experiance of their after sales service?

Ive googled and not found much in regards to customer feed back. The car itself seems well priced and in good condition/history. Im just interested in the after care as it comes with one year warranty, which as we know is pointless if they are going to argue and fart around over every little thing.

So has anyone experience of these guys? im under the impression they are a franchise system where indi-s have got together under one group name for sales and advertising purposes, but they come over as being "one big family" when it comes to support and after sales.

The car itself is currently at the stoneacre liverpool branch but is being transfered to the rochdale one for us to go and see tomorrow ( hopefully ).
 
i used to work for them about 4 years back.OVERPRICED is one word for their second hand cars.i personally wouldnt buy one from them becuase if seen behind the scenes but im not prepared to give a detailed account
 
Ive researched the car in question and the price is fine.

We are stuck between a rock and a hard place due to our bad credit rating. Its pretty much either stoneacre or "yes car credit" or *shudder* carcraft!

The finance they are offering is acceptable and the car is priced correctly, compared to others of the same type and spec.

We are going to go and have a look tomorrow anyway and see what shape the car is in.

We have priced up the costs of public transport and the cost of this car and ( unsuprisingly ) the car is cheaper!.. im self employed and need a car to work, and the mrs has to get from manchester to st helens each day to work. Hopefully in the next two years we will move to st helens and so drop one car, but meanwhile we are at the mercy of the old finance shafting :p
 
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therealnerd2 said:
With excellent reliable cars around from £500-£1k, I am yet to understand why car finance is ever necessary.
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Considering the bad finance history would it not be far better to start paying off debts and get yourself a £1k Mondeo, doubt you'd have much go wrong with it in 2 years.

Even if that's too much a £300 Mondeo with 8 months MOT and run it into the ground, then buy another one. The more you spend on a car the more you will lose over the two years.

Seems silly to risk already rocky ground on a purchase thats not necessary.
 
Peerzy said:
Considering the bad finance history would it not be far better to start paying off debts and get yourself a £1k Mondeo, doubt you'd have much go wrong with it in 2 years.

Even if that's too much a £300 Mondeo with 8 months MOT and run it into the ground, then buy another one. The more you spend on a car the more you will lose over the two years.

Seems silly to risk already rocky ground on a purchase thats not necessary.
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We are already paying off the debts now. We got in trouble because my GF was training to be a teacher and could only work part time. She got made redundant and couldnt find another part time job to fit round her training in time to stop the bills mounting up. She now has a well paid secure job in a FE college and im on far more money than i was. ( this was over 2 years ago and well before the troubles of late ).

We have decided to aim lower and get something like a 1.4 Pug 206 for about 3k and haggle over a warranty and so on. As long as it lasts her a couple of years thats ok, in 2 years time she will be on a fair whack more money. Personally i would buy a 500quid car but you know women.. she wants something that looks nice and is "newish" and damn the practicality and expense!

Thanks for the feed back though, and we are not using stoneacre now... i had a few more sour reports come up on google about them.
 
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AtreuS said:
We are already paying off the debts now. We got in trouble because my GF was training to be a teacher and could only work part time. She got made redundant and couldnt find another part time job to fit round her training in time to stop the bills mounting up. She now has a well paid secure job in a FE college and im on far more money than i was. ( this was over 2 years ago and well before the troubles of late ).

We have decided to aim lower and get something like a 1.4 Pug 206 for about 3k and haggle over a warranty and so on. As long as it lasts her a couple of years thats ok, in 2 years time she will be on a fair whack more money. Personally i would buy a 500quid car but you know women.. she wants something that looks nice and is "newish" and damn the practicality and expense!

Thanks for the feed back though, and we are not using stoneacre now... i had a few more sour reports come up on google about them.
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Wouldn't get a 206. Two of my mates have had them for the past 4/5 years and had massive problems. How about a KA? Cheap to run and buy, cheap to service and repair and generally known to be quite fun drives.

Maybe even a new style Panda? You can get a pretty good example for under £3k. You'll get far more than you would for a 206 and she may just be swayed by how new it looks and a few nice mod cons?
 
AtreuS said:
We have decided to aim lower and get something like a 1.4 Pug 206 for about 3k and haggle over a warranty and so on.
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Don't buy a 1.4 206, they are neither reliable nor decent cars.

Personally i would buy a 500quid car but you know women.. she wants something that looks nice and is "newish" and damn the practicality and expense!
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If you've got debts and bad credit history might it not be a good idea to explain to her she cannot have something nice and newish for now? I mean I really want an Aston Martin but we can't all have what we want, people thinking they can and hang the consequences are in part responsible for some of the issues today...
 
[TW]Fox;13311184 said:
If you've got debts and bad credit history might it not be a good idea to explain to her she cannot have something nice and newish for now? I mean I really want an Aston Martin but we can't all have what we want, people thinking they can and hang the consequences are in part responsible for some of the issues today...
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I wouldn't like to be in any debt because of a car. Atm can't see me ever wanting a loan or to finance a car. Would rather wait and save.

Get her a cheap Panda (still nice cars, just very girly and not very powerful) and explain once you're both totally debt free you'll look at getting something more fun for her.
 
Any £500-£1000 Panda is not girly, its a wreck. They went out of production in what, 1994? They are all ancient heaps of crap. It's not the answer to the question in this thread.
 
What about a new style micra? she seems to like them also.

And fox, im assuming you arent engaged/married? if you are then thank the lord god almighty that your mrs is easier to talk to than mine :p

As for the debts there really isnt much left to pay off and like i say we are on much more money now. The bad credit was basicly defaultments we ran up on 3 things then sorted about 8 months later. We can easily afford upto £200 a month for a car, but actually getting the finance at a good rate is impossible now with defaultments still on our history. The finance deal we have got is actually not so bad, as we can pay it off early ( which we intend to do ) for a small fee.

The banks wont lend to us at all currently due to these defaultments unless we secure on the house, something i utterly refuse ever to do.

So what type of car for 4k would you look at? its basicly got to do about 40miles a day 5 days a week, drive mainly on the east lancs at approx 60mph and be something a female would like. :eek: and of course fuel economy is a must.

As for saving and waiting, in my OP ( well second post ) i mentioned the need we have for 2 cars NOW... the public transport costs are now approaching £80 a week!
 
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AtreuS said:
And fox, im assuming you arent engaged/married? if you are then thank the lord god almighty that your mrs is easier to talk to than mine :p
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I'm sorry but if you've got debts and bad credit history letting her dictate to you that you must finance a vehicle so she can have something 'nice' is foolish and silly. No I'm not married but come on, is marriage really a justifable excuse for more debt? Whats the point?

So what type of car for 4k would you look at? its basicly got to do about 40miles a day 5 days a week, drive mainly on the east lancs at approx 60mph and be something a female would like. :eek:
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A Ford Focus. But bear in mind it'll do absolutely nothing a £2.5k Ford Focus won't do and given £4k wont really buy a new shape one yet it wont even look any different.
 
Id get another focus as well but thats a "no chance" from her option. We have a 1.8 collection atm thats nearly at 80k miles and served us well, drinks the juice though. I will be using that car for my work, as being self employed i can absorb most of the running costs. She hates the style of the focus, always has.

And i know its a daft thing to do fox, but we have a house together, getting married next year and quite frankly i just want her to get something and get on with it. The costs arent so important, i think some are over dramatising the debts thing, its about 3k we still owe and are paying it off at about £500 month. Affording the finance isnt a problem at all, getting a car right NOW with cash is. We have had to pay out lately for some wedding costs as well as paying for some training for her.

In 6 months time we could easily have saved up 3k cash its just that we need a car NOW. The timing sucks but thats how life always works :p AT least we have a really low mortgage and shed loads of equity ( amazingly ).

What about a fiesta?
 
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Stop letting your missus bully you into taking more debt on because she wants a nice car. As said previously there's loads of cars around for under a grand.

Its only 40 miles a day so why take on a whole heap of debt at a very high interest rate on an overpriced car. Tell her to lower her expectations and be a bit more reasonable. Grow a pair and speak up for yourself
 
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[TW]Fox;13311212 said:
Any £500-£1000 Panda is not girly, its a wreck. They went out of production in what, 1994? They are all ancient heaps of crap. It's not the answer to the question in this thread.
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I meant cheap as in cheap for the new shape. Not spending £3k-£4k on a 206 but £3k on a Panda.

New ones are suppose to be pretty good, won't be much fun on a motorway but with mod cons and the fact that it'll be newer than anything else they could afford it might be enough until they can get some real funds together.

@Fiesta - You'll get a lot more car if she doesn't mind something bigger, get more mod cons and be a lot better, but Fiesta's are suppose to be good first time small cars. Still I'd go for the Panda but I'm a bit of a Fiat fanboy.

Will she not drive around in a £300 shed for 6 months if it means a nicer Wedding? Why not a £300 shed for 6 months if she gets a nice car at the end. Will stop the financing, give you breathing space to pay off all your debt before you get hitched and instead of a £3k Panda/Fiesta/206 you can look at getting her something really nice.
 
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Hey you dont need to convince me guys, ive already said ill buy a wreck and use it and she can use the focus but im just "bullying her" :rolleyes:

Lets rephrase the advice i need then. Forget the money and how much its gonna cost me..... i can argue till im blue in the face and grow as many balls as i like, i love her so she gets what she wants and i get my quiet life back. Like i keep saying in the long run the money doesnt matter much, we are both earing WAY more than we used to and if it wasnt for the bad patch 2 or 3 years back we could now be just getting a low interest loan instead. The bad credit was worth it as she is now a qualified FE special needs teacher on a good salary and great prospects and it will be gone in another couple of years anyway from our record.


Spec me an economical car thats reliable and cheap to run for approx 4k that will last a good 2 or 3 years. :p
 
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Focus. And it will last a lot longer than 2 years, there's plenty of good focuses around so you can be picky and shop around.

Buy a 206 and you will suffer a lot more than if you brought a 1k runabout
 
AtreuS said:
i love her so she gets what she wants and i get my quiet life back.
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What even if you don't have the money, how totally odd. I guess thats how you got the credit rating in the first place, sigh.

Anyway lets move away from finance and onto cars then.

What about a Toyota Yaris?
 
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