Hi , I am new to the forum and only oredered my F500 1.2 pop from the Arnold Clark dealership in Scotland ( Broxburn branch) at end of Jan 08. The dealer has not taken a deposit from me although I keep insisting he does. He says the car is due the end of March 08 but says he cannot tell me delivery date until it is on the boat.

Does this sound strange? Has anyone else ordered from Arnold Clark in Scotland ...any problems?

I would be greatful for any feedback or advice.

Thanks.

Seems strange that the dealer won't take your deposit - usually they are al too eager to do so.

John

Everything sounds normal there.
Bearius has bought from AC Edinburgh.

Admin can only speculate as to arrival times. If your car isn't even on the boat yet then they could only invent a date as an accurate one would be impossible.

Yes I know. When the original order was made I was out of country on business and said to the dealer that I would drop by with a deposit when I was back in the country because I also wanted to have a copy of the terms and conditions of the 3 yr warranty. Anyway when I got back I went into the dealership and spoke to the salesman again ( he was the Sales Manager) ..he gave me the warranty t's and c's... and said order was placed no problem. I asked if he wanted to sort out deposit there and then and he said that he did not need the deposit. I asked him again and he said the same - that was fist week Feb.

I called the sales manager again a couple of weeks later to find out a status on the build. He said he could not tell me delivery date until the car was on the boat ..but he expected the car to be at end March/beginning April ...so I thought ..no problem. On the same call I asked again about the deposit ..he said it was not necessary?

Anyhow last week I called the sales manager to find out if we were still on track to have the car for end March beginning April ..he said all looked fine and he would contact me again in a week. Again I asked about the deposit ..again he declined!??

To be fair he seems a very genuine guy and has always called me back whenever I have asked him to so maybe I have found a genuine AC saleseman!? Although I dont want to speak to soon!

Hows the refurb at Broxburn coming along then? Place looked like a bomb had hit it last time I was there.

...still a bombsite!!

As long as they get me the car I am not fussed on the aesthetics of the place!

Seems weird to me, I knew my approximate arrival date before my car was even built and my deposit was taken the same time I confirmed my order (5% deposit).

Is the car a special order, ie, to your spec or are you buying a car the dealer has already ordered for their stock??

If it was one of your own choosing and they wont take deposit that seems a bit strange, but maybe thats just me lol :slayer:

Ive never known a dealer not want a deposit... I had to put down £1000

Hi Nouvapanda/seadragon,

the car is a build to my own spec (1.2 pop/crossover black with ivory ambience/BlueandMe/chrome kit/16" alloys).

The whole deposit thing seems wierd to me as well but I think the dealer thinks it is enough of a standard spec that he can sell it on easy enough if I pull out of the purchase? I have offered him the deposit over 4x now but he is not interested to take it??

Hopefully there is no problem. I'll call again on Monday and try and get an update. I would be interested if anyone else knows of anybody who has used AC in Broxburn. I'll be gutted if there are any issues. I do havee evidence of offering the deposit in emails to the salesguy though so if any issues at least I have back up evidence.

Hi there, im a fiat salesman and im certain your salesman should be able to give you an estimated delivery date (to the depot).

These dates are listed on the order page for your car. They are by no means definate (maybe thats why your salesman is reluctant to tell you) They can change at any time- even by a week or more.

Hope this helps.

mikedam said:

The whole deposit thing seems wierd to me as well but I think the dealer thinks it is enough of a standard spec that he can sell it on easy enough if I pull out of the purchase? I have offered him the deposit over 4x now but he is not interested to take it??

Click to expand...

Fiat franchise within Arnold Clark. Has a list with over 150 500s. Arnie is buying as many as he can within his allocation. He knows he can sell them and as a cash rich company, unlike most other dealers where the money is tied up within stock and bank overdrafts he can afford to.

They won't lose too much sleep if in the end you don't take you 500.


Try ordering a Bravo T-Jet Sport with every extra and see if they will order it without a deposit.

As Beasty says, I ordered from AC Edinburgh with no probs...I actually was worried before I went in because of the bad things I had heard about AC, but speaking to people on here and actually going to get a feel for the place made all the difference.

I kinda regret not waiting a bit longer and ordering from Beasty himself but gf and I had to get that order down in the 1st week and the times didn't work out. Sorry Beasty!

Edinburgh have been good, they had a customer service guy visiting them for 6 weeks, some kind of consultant and when my sales exec didn't get back to me he always would.

I phoned them yesterday to get an update and they looked into the system for me. Apparently my car is built and waiting outside the factory waiting to get put on a ship. Until that happens they can't give me an exact date but claim that it shouldn't be later than 14th April.

All in all I think they have been very helpful and polite. And so have I as a result....well I probably would have been anyway but my sales exec who was on his first week when I ordered my car (24th jan) seems to have been 'off' for a month now, so a number of other people have been helping me with my order... they won't say what's happened to him but I kind of get the feeling he might have left already...

Anyway my very real worries about AC vanished pretty much in that 1st week and thanks to Beasty. But I'm reserving judgement until I take delivery of my exactly specced car...with no HG probs...

Anyway if it all goes to sh*t I'll go up to Beasty and order from him.

Got Januarys CSI reports couple days ago. Glad your not having too much trouble at Gorgie.