I recently purchased an Approved Used BMW from Arden BMW Tunbridge Wells. Big mistake. 1: The PCP agreement was supposed to be over four years but when I received my copy, which admittedly I had signed electronically, I discovered it was over three years. I was told there was nothing they could do about it now. 2: The day before collection I was contacted and talked into having the ceramic coating and interior protection package at a cost of £450, this was so poorly applied, the whole of one side of the roof had been missed and there were plant seeds all over the passenger seat. 3: On closer inspection of the car when I got it home I found a largish stone chip just above the grill, a bird dropping burn mark on the roof and scratches on the top surface of the rear bumper and a wheel arch. After contacting Arden with my findings and supplying images along with an estimate for the remedial work I basically got the runaround for the next six weeks. I was offered a touch up stick, totally unsuitable, I was told that £320 for the remedial was very expensive, not really, I countered that statement with the fact that I had paid over £500 to have the tailgate of my wife’s Mini to be repainted, by BMW/Mini. I was eventually offered a one off exgratia payment of £150 which still took six weeks to be credited to my account. All through the process I was told that as long as the car was roadworthy then that was all they were worried about, they are not worried about what they classed as minor cosmetic damage, but if I’m paying £34,000 for a two and bit year old low mileage car I don’t expect to find any cosmetic damage. To back this up, the salesman complemented me on the condition of the car they were accepting from me as a trade in, he said he could not find a mark on it, the car was nearly seven years old and white, so marks are difficult to hide.
Having read other reviews of Arden BMW Tunbridge Wells since buying the car, if I’d have known then what I know now, I would never have dealt with them. The only reason I bought the car from them was it was the only car with spec I wanted that was available within 200 miles of my location.