I bought a car from Arnold Clark Stafford on January 30th and 30 minutes into the journey home, thick smoke started pouring from under the bonnet. I was genuinely worried it might catch fire. The AA was called, and when the mechanic arrived, he told me he would be very surprised if Arnold Clark hadn’t known about this fault beforehand. The main cause of the smoke was a major oil leak, which was dripping onto the manifold. He said the car wasn’t safe to drive, so he towed it straight back to Arnold Clark. Also, I took the morning off work to collect the car, only for it to break down almost immediately. Then, because I was left without a car and couldn’t get another one until my refund was processed, I was stuck and unable to get into work. Understandably, I requested a full refund, as the car was clearly not roadworthy. Since then, I have had to constantly chase for updates, only to be met with delays, excuses and vague responses. The only explanation I was ever given was that there was a "serious mechanical fault"—no details, nothing. To this day, I still have no idea what the actual fault was. Their customer service was non-existent after they had my money. Before the sale, however, they were calling me at least once a day, sometimes more, desperate to close the deal. Whenever I called to ask for updates, no one seemed to know what was happening with my car or the refund process. When I asked for the right person to speak to, I was always told someone would call me back with more information—but that never happened. When I finally managed to speak to the manager, Christina, after explaining my situation to a kind receptionist, her dismissive and unhelpful attitude only made things worse. To make matters even more frustrating, I put £45 worth of petrol in the car before it broke down. They promised to refund me, yet now, on 10th March—well over a month later—I’ve only been refunded £5, despite providing the photo proof of my receipt as requested. Now, they’re claiming they need the log book to process the rest of the refund. What does the log book have to do with fuel reimbursement? It’s beyond ridiculous. I still have the log book and spare key because I told them I’d send them off once they refunded the money they promised—and now they’re using that as another excuse to delay. After all this, Luke, the sales rep who handled my sale, started responding to my emails with one-word, all-lowercase messages—completely unprofessional and just another sign of how little they care once they’ve got your money. Safe to say, I will never buy from Arnold Clark again. Thankfully, I’ve since bought a car elsewhere and the experience was night and day—fantastic service, couldn’t do enough for me. If you’re considering buying from Arnold Clark Stafford, don’t bother. They’ll chase you non-stop before the sale, but the second things go wrong, you’re on your own. Absolute nightmare.