Horrendous experience
I bought my first car after passing my test in September 2025 from Vehicle Trade Centre Kilwinning, dealing with Craig. We bought the car for just under £6k without finance.
We arranged with the dealership to pick it up on the Wednesday and started travelling down to pick it up. On the way there, we received a phone call from Craig saying they’d started the car and found an issue that needed to be fixed in their workshop before they could give it to us, so we were told to come and collect it the next day. The next day arrived, we went to pick it up and took it home.
In the following weeks, we found that if the car was sitting for more than around 24 hours without being driven, it was misfiring and not gaining any power when driving. The first time it happened I was on my way to work alone and the car was heavily rumbling whilst driving and it was very scary. The engine light came on and I pulled over, my husband had to come collect me. Once the car heat up it seemed to be okay, but this happened consistently when the car hadn’t been driven for a little while.
My husband and his friend decided to look into the issue and found that the spark plugs and coil pack needed changed. The spark plugs were very old. Spark plug 4 was broken and came off in 2 parts when removing. The coil lead was also broken and split in half when removing. My husband and his friend replaced these.
It was clear to us that the issue Craig experienced the day we were on our way to pick up the car initially was the same issue I was having in the first couple of weeks of owning the car. The workshop ‘looked over’ the car and decided to sell us this car anyway, with the spark plugs and coil pack in this condition.
Craig admitted fault and decided to refund us the cost of the spark plugs and coil pack, which we were thankful for. But it does not rectify selling a brand new driver this car when they were fully aware of the issue. Their workshop signing this off to drive is horrendous.
A couple of months later, my husband had to fix the tube that the washer fluid travelled through to the back of the car, as there was such a hole in it that it soaked the inside of my car at the passenger side. He then spent hours drying out the car with a carpet cleaner.
Fast forward to March 2026, the service was due on the car so we put it into a garage near us that we trust. We got the phone call from the garage to pick the car up and were told that in order for the car to pass its MOT that will be due this June, it will need £930 of work. We were obviously really shocked by this having bought it for £6k only 6 months previously from a ‘trusted dealership’. It wasn’t advertised in such a condition that it needed over £1k of work in order to get through an MOT. We asked the mechanic who performed the service whether these issues could have been caused by myself driving it only in the last 6 months and his reply was ‘absolutely not’. The service book hadn’t had a service stamp since 2020. The mechanic seemed quite shocked at the amount of work needing done when we boutht it only 6 months ago from an actual dealership. He said he may have expected this if we done a private sale.
When the car was lifted by our garage on the ramp, the suspension top mounts were completely corroded and this resulted in the suspension hanging freely. The suspension is currently being held together by the weight of the car.
I presented this information to Vehicle Trade Centre who have said they will not reimburse the costs of the work needing done. They said there is ‘no suggestion’ that the work needing done is older than 6 months - even though a professional who just done a service on the car told us otherwise.
They did not say they would fix the issue needing done but rather ‘assess’ the vehicle and go from there. In order to do this, my husband and I would need to take time away from both our works twice in one day in order to travel to Kilwinning. I would also not have my car for the day for work. I’m self-employed so this is a loss of earnings. This is with no commitment to even fix the work needing done. After this, we’d then have to get the work done anyway at our own garage in order to get it through its MOT. We do not trust their workshop so do not want to take the car there. The fact they let us leave with the car with the spark plugs and coil pack in that condition leaves us with no trust in them at all.
We totally realise wear and tear on a car is possible within 6 months but this amount is not normal, as told to us by a professional. We already had to spend time and money fixing the coil pack, spark plugs and washer fluid tube. Another £930 is just ludicrous for what we paid for the car.
After a few emails back and forth, they have decided to firmly stand on that they will not be covering the costs of the issues needing fixed, so I’ve had no option but to write this review.