The Barrem Motors Vitesse
In September I took delivery of my 1990 Rover Vitesse from Barrem Motors. The motor was well presented and only had 58,000 miles on the clock. No faults with driving the vehicle and three months on I am still pleased with the vehicle.
The Vehicle has now been moved on after some rather nasty events have transpired, it is now being done up, ready for sale, just minor wear and tear items, here's the sad and sorry tale.
I had always wanted a Sterling, and Scott Page (mate of mine) had a Sterling of the exact spec I wanted, we talked over the swap and he suggested I do an HPi check on the Vitesse, just to check it was kosher, I did, and it came up as having outstanding finance, I hit the roof. I contacted the finance company who told me that it had been registered in 1996 as outstanding, the exact amount was not divulged but I managed to ascertain that it ran into thousands, around £9000 to be exact.
I contacted the person who sold me the car, Barrem Motors Rab Riggs and was told by him that I should 'Let Sleeping dogs lie', being me and not wanting to have the car repossed I contacted the company, they sent me some questionnaires which I filled in and asked me to forward copies to Rab Riggs, I did as I knew Rab knew nothing of the cars history when he had got it, and had subjected it to a full restoration, alas, 4 weeks and nothing, I informed the company that Mr Riggs hadn't furnished me with the documents, they allowed the debt to fall and the car to become mine.
I am not at all happy with the way the dealer treated me on this issue and therefore cannot recommend him, I am sorry that it had to turn out this way as I did really like the car and after travelling over 1400 miles for it, I hoped it would be what I was after. Still, you live and learn I spose.
4th September 2001
Tonight I received some interesting emails from the owner of Barrem Motors, apparent perusal of the net the previous night had lead him to my site, to which he discovered the information above, which I am not going to retract, as this was the story told from my point of view, in the interests of legality, I am publishing the dealers views on the situation.
On receiving the documents from me, the dealer acted upon this and discovered that I would not lose the car etc etc, he also found that there was nothing to worry about, he managed to clear his side of things, which is fair enough. I wasn't going to lose the car.....BUT
Common courtesy dictates that I should have been kept informed all the way through, I was not, and only found out about the dealers efforts tonight, six months after the problem was originally discovered, six months!! during which time I was worrying about the car being reposed, losing over £1000 of investment, fortunately this did not happen.
The dealer prides himself on a quality service, but I did not see this on this occasion......suffice to say, on mentioning my misgivings, I was informed that all vehicles are now subjected to a full HPi check, I also asked what would have happened if I had lost the car, I was informed that the costs would have been re-imbursed, which is something.
In conclusion, this is one I am going to chalk down to experience. I am not happy about the lack of corrospondence, and was told by the finance company, a month ago, that they had heard nothing, maybe they had, but had to hide this fact. The dealer should have kept me informed thus saving me a lot of time and misery.....I may even still have the car now, which to be honest, was not a bad car, well restored by the dealer, and well presented on pick-up, it is missed, but there you go.