Opinions on Clelands of the Borders and Lloyds of Carlisle

[Teejay1]

Hello all
I've tried the local Volvo dealers and since we were refused a longer test yesterday with my wife refusing to pay them her hard earned; I said I would look slightly further afield. So my next "local" dealers are Clelands of the Borders and Lloyds of Carlisle. Lloyds is closer but I am willing to travel for the right experience.

We visited Lloyds in Cockermouth, not impressed, I wonder is it because we tend to visit on Sunday?

I'm more interested in where someone has had a problem and how the dealership has handled the customer. I'm a potential new Volvo customer so my face would not be recognised at the dealer so that too is of interest.

thanks

[X90 LVO]

I have just taken delivery of a new XC90, supplied by Lookers Volvo in Colchester. The whole process couldn't have been easier. Rob Lang of Lookers looked after me all the way.

Distance wasn't an issue in all my dealings with Rob. In fact the only issue was the result of EasyJet delaying our flight to Stansted by four hours (yes, four hours !!) on Friday when we had arranged to collect the car. Rob had already arranged a driver to be at the airport at 0745 to pick us up and get us to the garage. When that didn't happen because of EasyJet's failure, Rob pulled out the stops and got another driver to head again to the airport to pick us up at the re-scheduled time. Rob Lang's customer service is impeccable.

My advice would be to forget about restricting yourself to local dealers for supply of the new car but go with the one that stands out for you. It's a bit like the elephant test - very hard to describe, but you'll know it when you see it.

Oh, did I mention too that Lookers Volvo was streets ahead of other dealers in the price for the deal. If you're interested Rob Lang can be contacted on 01206 717300

Good luck.

[Bernard333]

I recently purchased a V70 T5 with 154 k miles on the clock , one owner from new and mainly serviced by Clellands , the previous owner spent about £7k with them within the past two years with the largest cost being a new automatic gearbox and new ETM costing nearly £4k in total . The standard or work carried out by Clellands has been good and what I would expect from a main dealer because the mechanics of the car are excellent and they have used good quality engine oil as even at this mileage its still clear and I am reasonably sure that the previous owner had no interest in the car and relied on the garage . I have a long history of bad experiences with main dealers (various makes) over the years but would probably trust this one in the event I needed to which I try to avoid as I now do my own servicing and repairs.

[bluesnappa]

I traded with Mill Garage at Middlesborough and played them against Mill in Newcastle/ Lloyd in Carlisle and a dealer in Leeds (name forgotten) and Mill Middlesborough gave me the best deal all against the same XC90 that was in Glasgow. Mill had it shipped down and the saving was really worth the ringing round and travel. So play them and the one that wants to do the deal will give you the best price. Lloyds did ring to say they would match Middlesborough but initiallythey wanted to charge fitting price for the extras I wanted whilst Middlesborough only charged for the parts so I went for the one that gave the best deal straight off. I did tell Middlesborough that I was prepared to travel and unless they gave a good deal I was out of there and they upped their offer on the spot for my Disco and brought the XC 90 down to do a deal there and then...I said I would think about it and rang the others to see if they would match and none did there and then so Mill got the business. There is little loyalty as far as a dealer is concerned so do not feel obliged to stick with the local guy. Try them all and tell them you are shopping around...if they want the deal they will go the extra mile to get you. Lloyds did find me the 3.2 to try as well as lending me a D5 for half a day...so they thought I was probably hooked but the price was not quite right...I did kinda feel sorry not to deal with them but money is money and better off in my pocket. I have had a 740, 850 and a T5 from Lloyds in the past and cannot fault them. So tell them all you are after the best deal and are prepared to travel and you never know they might start a bidding war to get your custom. Good luck and tell us how you get on.

[eilean mor]

hi,
I've just taken delivery of my 3rd dealer supplied car - I was working mobile when looking for my first, which gave me the insight into chatting with different dealers, and not just the local ones - my summary is that there are some really bad ones out there, and some who really want to try and go the extra mile.
newcastle, and a couple in the central part of Scotland were all very reluctant to let me know there was a very good percentage deal available just now as a current volvo owner, and I was very unimpressed with the dealings with them
I've always had excellent service from PV Dobsons just outside Kendal,
and this current one, came from some very good conversations with Taggarts in Motherwell.

[RoscoMac]

I used Lloyds for several services on my previous car and was very happy with the service I recieved. I arranged to test drive an xc60 with them last year and found them very helpful - they even tried to encourage me to take the care out longer than the 2 hours I requested!!

R.