Nick Whale...?

Anyone purchased a motorhome from Nick Whale, Evesham?.....If so, how did you get on?

I bought mine from them in February.

How were they?

Just 'Ok' I guess?

They didn't bend over backwards, but then they weren't applying any heavy sale pressure either.

One thing I thought unusual, but perhaps it's common, I don't know, but once the 'sale' part was sorted, the salesman kept then referring me to their after-sales team. SO any questions I had after I'd signed on the dotted line were off handed to another guy / dept.

This is my first and only experience of purchasing a brand new van from a main dearler so I don't have anything to compare them to.

Sorry this is all a bit vague!

Happy to answer any questions you may have though :)

Roger, you've just nailed it......
We've just paid £62,000 for a 3 year old van with just 4,500 miles on.
They gave us a 6-month warranty....it turns out to be just a standard Car-Dealer's warranty covering major mechanical components.
We've found a few issues since we bought it just a week ago, all habitation stuff...broken this and broken that etc, but the only communication we get is with the customer service man, who is very polite, but not forthcoming.

We were told it would be a 2-hour handover when in fact it turned out to be 6 hours, in a stuffy room on a very hot day....
They took over an hour inspecting our part exchange van, picking out many petty faults before we could continue with the sale. 
They then asked for another £1,000 to pay for any repairs that may have been needed on our van.

They used to be car dealers and have recently moved into motorhomes instead. 
It feels like I have bought a very expensive motorhome from your average car dealer and that once they recieve the money they no longer are interested in after sales.

We would definitely never buy another motorhome from them and hope this heeds a warning to other potential customers.
(This, of course, is just our point of view).

Sorry just had to comment, only a 6 month warranty on a three year old van and cost, £62,000  wow!!!i
When I bought my 10 year old Anniversary Clubman, from Spinney I received a 12 month warranty, dod have to claim, no issues so recommended, Last Dec, bought the Amethyst, only got 3 months warranty, but this was from a broker, the Topaz Recently bought is 20 years old, and I have 12 months warranty.could have had another 2 years making it a 3 year, at a cost of £300, I didn`t bother with that.

So would have expected you to have 12 months.

Quoting from their advert in latest MMM...

' A different approach...our customer-led approach has seen us become one of the most successful Auto-Sleepers dealers in the country in just two years. Come and see why!"

mmm.

Spoken like a true marketeer 

Just an update...Nick Whale have very reluctantly said they will repair the broken blind, replace the broken window and replace the peeling decal "as a gesture of good will"......how very thoughtful eh?

Me and the wife went and had look as we’re looking to gets motorhome now, as soon as we said we don’t like the layout of new vans , attitude changed ?. Even though I don’t know much about motor homes first thing I do is grovel on floor and look at state of engine, got to add I’ve been a mechanic/ technician for 40 years and the last 15 on land rover but when you find water in the injector channel you think No?. Still looking?

Have you been to Cotswold Motorhomes?
http://www.cotswoldmotorcaravans.co.uk/   (New company name - old website name.)

You won't find anything dodgy there. They have a superb reputation among our members, including us. We've had four vans from them, and although they are not the cheapest their after sales support and service is second to none.

Nobody but a mug would buy from the cheapest anyway - in my opinion! If they are significantly cheaper than all the others, there has to be a reason, and it's usually poor after sales support. 

I have to disagree bought our Suffolk on a Mercedes Sprinter and had few minor problems which were sorted without question. Then van went into limp, I rang Attila the after sales manager who said book it into local mercedes dealer to sort it. Turned out to be a backlog of error codes. Then a failed regen caused excess smoking, again I was told take to dealer just to check nothing serious. By this time the warranty period was over. All with no argument. 10 out 10 is my opinion. I will add the issues were due to the van having only covered 18,000 miles in 9 years.

Mozz wrote:I have to disagree bought our Suffolk on a Mercedes Sprinter and had few minor problems which were sorted without question. Then van went into limp, I rang Attila the after sales manager who said book it into local mercedes dealer to sort it. Turned out to be a backlog of error codes. Then a failed regen caused excess smoking, again I was told take to rdealer just to check nothing serious. By this time the warranty period was over. All with no argument. 10 out 10 is my opinion. I will add the issues were due to the van having only covered 18,000 miles in 9 years. 

Attila? I did wonder if that was a nickname for a difficult after sales manager but having Googled it , it appears it's a real name.

I notice this is your first post. Please take a moment to post an introduction here..

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com/f36-asof-welcome-section-new-members-please-introduce-yourself-here

Visited Nick Whale twice and even as first time purchasers we seemed to have more product knowledge than the sales staff. I was tempted to trade Morgan Roadster for one of their Aero 8s!
Dropped in on the off chance to Cotswold Edge at Beckford nr Tewkesbury. They had taken a (locally owned from new) 8 year old Warwick in part ex for a new caravan.
Knowledgeable and interested staff resulted in a test drive and us buying. 
Excellent, comprehensive handover to us newbies.

I have to agree and disagree with a few of your comments;
Agree with Ovovjan and Segabike...
Their knowledge of motorhomes is not good as they are ex motor traders and know more about specialist cars.
They are really helpful when it comes to sales - but not so with aftersales. Although I have to admit after a lot of chuntering and emails, Attila has offered to sort all the minor issues out now - even though Ive had most of them done now.

My real beef with them is they give you a measly 6 months car-dealers standard warranty (A1 approved) and ask you to contact the warranty company first if you have a problem - they do not want to deal with problems themselves....the warranty covers the mechanics but not the habitation.

Agree with Gromit.
Cotswold Motorhomes are just down the road from me and our friends have bought from them and sing their praises.

Mozz...Thats good to hear, Attila is a very pleasant man and has eventually agreed to sort my minor issues out. He also sorted some issues out with my part exchange vehicle direct with Peugeot on my behalf (a Broadway)....so I have to give credit where it's due....

Would I buy from them again?.....um......NO.

Just to balance things - Cotswold only gave us 3 months warranty but as we bought in October Frank recognised that we probably wouldn't get full use through winter so increased it to 6 months. It isn't an insurance backed warranty but Cotswolds own and it is total vehicle and habitation and I mean everything. Insurance warranty is a pain to have to get claim in, get inspection which they don't pay for, then get approval or not, then get repaired. Always easier to get dealer to deal with claim. Only advantage is that it is nationwide.

Every dealership will be the subject of favourable and unfavourable comment, it is inevitable.  From our experience 6 months ago we were very happy with Nick Whale.  They were professional, prepared the van in accordance with our instructions and followed up on all issues.  We had some minor snags in the first few months and they addressed them without any fuss and with no involvement from the warranty insurers.  We would have no hesitation in going back to them.

Insurance backed warranties aren't worth the paper they're written on. You're contract is with the dealer, if they choose to have an insurance backed warranty it's up to them. But any problems are down to the dealer to put right up to 6 months from purchase. Three months from date of purchase without question. Consumer rights act

Mazz, I agree with you - but actually the law has changed.
Even though they give you a six month warranty this does not replace your consumer rights - which now, under the new Sale of Goods Act. allow you to return your item, ask for a refund or repair your item in the case of a serious fault occurring, within ANY REASONABLE TIME.....
Not necessarily six months.

Just to reconfirm though, Nick Whale have now sorted all issues out for me and after a little applied pressure, been quite helpful.

big'nuf wrote:Just to reconfirm though, Nick Whale have now sorted all issues out for me and after a little applied pressure, been quite helpful.

Hi Biggie

Should you have to apply pressure though?

After sales support and service causes more concerns and issues than most other aspects when buying a van. You only need a quick browse on here to see how important it has become to many members. 

Motorhomes are complex beasts, assembled by fallible humans (not robots) and if things don't go wrong the lucky owner could almost claim a modern day miracle. This (imho) makes after sales support probably the most important thing to consider when buying a van from a dealer, even though it's obviously quite difficult to predict their likely response to after sale issues.

It's where reputations are made or broken, and I can never understand why dealers don't make it their number one priority!! Personal recommendations by word of mouth, or keyboard in recent times, is worth more than anything to them . . . or so one would assume!! 

True True True, Well said Dave...Although they sorted my issues eventually and Im very happy with my van now....would I use them again?
A big fat NO....for the reasons you've already covered.

See what Paul and I said about Cotswold Motorhomes.

Just down the road from you, and Frank Williams will not let you down if you buy your next van from him.

We bought our new van from them and initial snags easily sorted out. We were all old that a couple of the service techs, used to work in the autosleeper factory and have found them very knowledgable.

AS must get a high turnover of technicians, Cotswold Motorhomes have at least one in the workshop and another on the sales team.

Nick Whale's close proximity to AS probably helps :)