Hilton Car Supermarket
View company profile →
Car not fit to drive.
I have waited a month after purchase to write this review as I wanted to be completely sure of the car, a 2018 Mazda MX5 RF, I bought from Hilton. I also wanted to allow Hilton time to deal with a couple of issues that I had. The most serious issue is Number 4. below. Beyond the cosmetic, the car is in a fairly good condition for the age, although there appears to have been some respraying going on in various locations on the body, as evidenced by the overspray on the side windows. This was not made clear to me at the time of purchase. I do have issue with several points during and post purchase. 1. During the sale I was quoted just shy of £1000 for a years extended warranty. When I declined, the salesman reduced the price twice which immediately got my hackles up as they state in their blurb there is no haggling. His last words were 'how much would you like to pay?' This final quote nearly caused me to dump the purchase. The final extended warranty price offered was £600ish for the year. Subsequent investigations with a well known National Warranty supplier revealed that even this reduced quote was more than double what they would have charged for a far superior package. Looks like I was correct to decline. 2. When I went to pick up the car, I ask them to confirm that it had been serviced, but it turned out that it had not been serviced for at least a year before and probably considerably more. I was not happy. The salesman offered to service it but that it would not be possible on the same day. Given that I had travelled 150 miles by train to pick up the car, this prospect was not what I had expected or was satisfactory or even possible. They had had just shy of a week to prepare the car after I had paid the deposit. 3. The car had no floor mats and was not really in a state of cleanliness that I would have expected for a 12+K purchase. The passenger seat was stained and the body work only clean at a casual glance. I would expect a used car offered by a reputable dealer to be pretty much pristine upon pickup. 4. This is the most worrying aspect of my experience. I left the showroom in the car hoping to thoroughly enjoy my drive home in my retirement present to myself. As the traffic was slow all the way to the motorway I noticed nothing untoward...... And then I accelerated to 60+ mph.....and got the fright of my life. The car luched violently to the right upon acceleration and then to the left upon decelerating. By this time the showroom was closed, or would have been by the time I got back to it, so I decided to press on home at no more than 40mph, while trying to accelerate or decelerate as gently and as little as possible. The next day I took it to the local garage to see what was wrong as my drive home had been extremely scary and dangerous, to say the least. The garage quickly found the problem. This 2 litre, fast and powerful sports car had been fitted with four entirely DIFFERENT tyres, and I mean ENTIRELY DIFFERENT!!! I was informed by the garage that had it been raining the day before, I most likely would not have made it home without a serious road traffic accident. Two of the tyres were winter rated and two were all season with the former on one side and the latter on the other. All four had different speed ratings. All four were different brands. The tyre treads at first glance appeared similar on the front and differently similar on the rear, which is why I hadn't noticed. So in summary, I can never forgive Hilton for putting my life in danger with their careless preparation and suspect inspection. I contacted them about my concerns and heard deafening silence. So, I swallowed the cost of four new tyres (more than £400) just to make the car driveable. I also absorbed the costs associated with a full service as no service records were sent to me, despite the salesman's promise that he would email the records of work that had been done to the car previously. Luckily for Hilton the car is now sorted, and I survived the journey home, otherwise I, or my family would be hitting them with a lawsuit. A simple apology for endangering my life and an offer to refund my additional, not inconsiderable expenses would have gone a long way to putting the situation right. But alas, no response. I expect this review will illicit the usual bland reply from some poor sod in the typing pool tasked with responding to negative summaries, as is evident in Hilton's other plentiful negative Trust Pilot reviews. I would not EVER purchase a car from Hilton again, and I suggest, if you are reading this, that you think seriously again if you are considering heading down that road with them. I feel as if I escaped a potential disaster and possibly even worse by the skin of my teeth.