I don't usually blog about stuff like this but I think people need to know just incase they ever encounter similar issues. I made the mistake in purchasing a car April this year from an official garage called Wynford Williams Car Sales in Aberystwyth. Mistake number 1 for buying a car from far away... Anyways, from the very beginning, the car was with us for only 2 days and we weren't happy because the clutch was unnaturally high, there was a rattle in the engine and the gearbox was very loose (a lot of play in gears). They came down to pick the car up and off it went back up to Aberystwyth where it stayed for over a week. During this time I rang them to see how things were getting on and they said that they couldn't do anything about the clutch but they did sort the rattle out (no mention of the gearbox). They brought the car back and because I wasn't happy, the car just stayed in work. I hadn't yet passed my test so it was only being driven in and out of the garage ect. 

A week later I checked in the car and noticed that they didn't give me my Service book back or the car manual so I rang them up and I got this answer:  "Oh, I don't know where that is, i'll have to ask the guy who did the service but he's currently on holiday".... I was assured that I would get a call back once they find it... 1 weeks went by and I rang them back in which they said the same thing. Another week went by and I rang them back and got this answer: "I'm sorry Gavin, we did find your service book but it was on my desk and my desk no longer exists because we had a building fire".... Infuriated but trying to remain understanding, I asked them if they could replace the documents to which they said yes but it may take some time. 4 Months goes by and I hadn't received any documents and not a single phone call to date off them regarding any of this so far. At this point, I pass my test! So finally got the car on the road, to which I encounter LOTS of problems with the car... The Gearbox was 10 times worse, getting stuck in 5th and generally hard to get into forward gears 1st, 3rd and 5th. The clutch was also struggling to engage and generally hard to find the bite because of it being so inconsistently high. At this point the brakes were squeaking and the steering wheel was making a weird mechanical noise unlike the typical power-steering sound that it was having previously. 

SO, at this point as you can imagine, I was getting very frustrated but issue I had now was the car was out of warranty but after nagging on the phone,, Wynford sent someone down for the car and it was back up to Aberystwyth for yet another service. The result however wasn't what I expected as he returned the car having only sorted the squeak out on the brakes.. The rest of which they deemed 'normal' and there was nothing wrong with the car at all. Even the guy who dropped the car off said, 'there's nothing wrong with it'. Before they picked it up this time, I wrote an official letter to Wynford stating the issues with the car and what I'd like to have done to try and restore some confidence in this purchase. He replied saying that he didn't like the 'tone of the  letter' and that he doesn't have to do anything (because it's out of warranty). Upon arrival back to me, we took the car to a local garage in which they immediately found everything that was wrong with the car.. Something Wynford somehow 'didn't (want to) see'.. 

The gearbox linkage cables were held together with CABLE TIES!! Our local garage has now had the car for a week having had to take the hole dashboard off to access the cables and the bills are going up and up. Wynford had sold me a car unsafe to drive and to date has presented us with nothing but grief. Most likely because he doesn't want to have to pay for the fixes himself when in-fact  it was his responsibility to check the car over WAY BEFORE selling it to anyone!!.

I'm absolutely disgusted at him for doing this and I still haven't received any paper work for anything they've done on the car or a replacement for the documents they burnt: Documents that reflected on the overall price of the car in the first place! I paid for a car with full service history that drove 'perfectly' and had low milage. Yet, I have a car with no service history that to date has been deemed unsafe to drive.

Moral of the story, don't ever do business with Wynford Williams Car Sales and ALWAYS make a copy of your service history book so if anything does happen to it, it will be easier to replace. Also never purchase a car before you pass your test or atleast have someone else driving it full time so that you can find any issues within the 3 month warranty...