AvailableCar Castle Donington - Derby

Lucy Hawthorn Performer

I was miss sold a car. I stated I do around 12K miles a year. Went on a test drive in an electric car and was told they do around 200 miles. My research they only do 90 miles.
Was still happy with this. Car needed a new battery so pick up day was delayed.
When I got the car took a few times of going back asking for proof. Paper work does not state a new battery. As I could tell as I kept having issues with the car.
All I was told is it’s on my to do the research. Even though when I went to Sutton on Trent they stated sales DO have a duty of car not to miss sell. Clearly different sights have different values as the guy sat and told me and my family who came with me as they couldn’t believe the service I was having from this site. It was all on me that I ended up with a car that is supposed to do 90miles but runs out of charge after around 40 if I’m lucky.
Also sometimes doesn’t turn on at all.
They took the car back to have a look but as I already assumed as I’d lost trust in them they just came back and said no faults found.
I still have issues with the car but the way most of the team made me feel no way will I come back.
It’s caused so much anxiety and isolation I can’t go anywhere that isn’t work so I don’t get to go and see family. Disgusting. I’m having to deal with the issues rather than go back as I have no faith in them what so ever.

Daniel Herlihy-starr

Amazing staff, they had plenty of cars to choose from and got me on a test drive almost straight away. I believe they said the team that helped me was the white team and were honestly amazing. Overall great experience and will definitely be recommending available car ?

Elena Bradbury

good experience with a huge car selling place, which is unusual. friendly, helpful, no pressure attitude of staff. one criticism only - I asked at the reception to check the specification for the particular vehicle because we couldn't find heated seats buttons. The answer of the receptionist was that if WE couldn't find it - it's NOT there, which, in my opinion is wrong. I had to insist on my request, which was then addressed promptly.
On this visit we did not see the desired vehicle but we have a good feeling about this place and we certainly will be back

Georgia Ball

I bought a car recently, and couldn’t be more disappointed. A few days after purchase I realised the heating did not work at all.
I have a newborn baby (the reason I bought a relatively new 2023 car) and we are having to drive around freezing, unable to defrost the car in the mornings.
I reported this fault swiftly and have spoken to available several times to try and resolve this issue. The best offer they could give was a courtesy car 3 months in the future whilst they fix the issue. Which is just not suitable in winter.

I couldn’t be less impressed and find it ridiculous they are able to sell a car with a major fault and then I am stuck with the problem.

Janice Astin

Large selection of cars mostly outside so can be a pain if it rains though they do provide umbrellas for those that want them. Great to be able to look in and sit in all the cars without having a salesperson following you around. Free tea/coffee from machine and a payable snacks machine. Plenty of tables to sit at for refreshments. Good clean tidy toilets available. You are able to test drive any car. There is a indoor play area for small children. All in all well worth a visit if you are looking for a car.

Zoë Charlesworth

I’ve had nothing but a stressful and disappointing experience with Available Car in Castle Donington. After finding a car I loved on a Saturday and arranging to pick it up the following Tuesday, they completely messed me around for three weeks. They knew how urgent the situation was as my partner’s car had been suddenly written off, leaving us in a stressful position. Yet, they made everything worse.

The first delay came on Monday, when I was told I’d have to wait until Thursday to pick up the car due to a newly found fault. Annoying, but I was willing to be patient. Then, on Wednesday, I got another call saying it would be delayed by another week because of a different issue. Already frustrated, I had no choice but to agree due to my partner falling ill and the urgency of our situation.

This whole time, I was forced to rely on taxis and other expensive transportation alternatives just to get around. Finally, on the day before I was meant to collect the car, they delayed it by yet another week. At this point, I was fed up and completely disappointed by the lack of professionalism and communication.

I’ve since had to find a car elsewhere and will never be using Available Car again. If you value your time and sanity, I’d recommend avoiding this company entirely.

Nicole Elin Hodgkinson

Awful after sales team. We picked up our car 1 month ago, today my husband was on his way back from his 90 minute journey from work to be met with an engine failure light. Upon his arrival at home he was greeted with another message to tell him the car won't start after 700 miles, baring in mind my husband travels 700 miles a week to work (he told the sales staff this upon purchasing the car and they agreed this car would be sufficient to travel so many miles a week). He called the after sale team and they told him they can only offer him an appointment in 2 weeks time, can't give him a rental, can't swap it for another car. Their only advice was to wait until the appointment and limit the usage of his car. Overall, thanks to Avaliable car Derby, he has a endure a loss of earning for a week and a half because they are super unhelpful, terrible service.

George & Danielle Milne Henwood

We had been looking for a car with this specification for some time and even planned on driving to Bristol to view one. Until we saw one listed at Availablecar Castle Donington. Me and my partner both work within the motor trade, and we saw the vehicle listed on Autotrader the same day it was advertised. As it was advertised as unprepared, my partner called Availablecar Castle Donington to ask if we could come down and see the vehicle, which we did on Saturday 24th February. We were dealt with by a salesmen called Richard, who was pleasant and even boasted about how Availablecars customer service is better than Arnold Clark and their other competitors. We were both delighted with the car, but were not able to test drive it as it hadn't been prepared, so we arranged to test drive the car on the following Tuesday. Before leaving on the 24th, I had explained that I work within the vehicle body shop trade and specifically stated that I did not want any body work to be carried out or wheel refurbs doing, which Richard agreed would not be done and noted on Availablecars internal job card. We came down on the 27th and test drove the car with Joel, we agreed that we would purchase the car and sat down with another salesmen to go over the details. I stated again that I did not want any paintwork or wheels doing, as I would sort these repairs at my own work place. I was shown the job card on the computer screen and was happy that it was definitely noted down. I did ask if there was any movement in price, as Availablecar didn't have to spend money and time prepping the body work and wheels, but was straight blank told no, as this is something that they usually do and do not charge extra for, which I accepted and was still happy to pay full asking price. We arranged to collect the vehicle on March 4th.We arrived on March 4th and our handover representative was called Lucas. We cannot fault Lucas. We inspected the vehicle once again to find that the body work had been poorly touched up and the wheels had been ruined! The wheels had been "refurbished" very poorly, even though I specifically said I didn't want anything doing to them. They are no longer damaged diamond cut wheels (which we initially accepted) and are now badly painted black wheels with a silver blow in to look like diamond cut, with DA sanding marks and the silver line bleeding into the black inlays, due to poor prep and masking. I pointed out the issues to Lucas and had asked why the job card had been deviated from. Lucas understood our disappointment but couldn't do anything to help us. Lucas said that he would speak with his manager, who I believe was called George. We were then told that we can "either take the car or leave it" and that if "you don't take it, someone else will as we rely on volume" Which I was absolutely shocked and disgusted by... not what I would expect after purchasing a 20k car, or any car for that matter! The service that we recieved was disgusting and regardless of Availablecar relying on volume, should treat all customers with respect and like they're the most important thing to them. From this point it was clear that Availablecar do not care about the customer. Lucas was only relaying information back from his manager, who couldn't be bothered to come and speak with us about their mistake, or even apologise. The service history that was also present when viewing the vehicle had been disposed of and wasn't available anymore, which made us think there was something to hide. If it wasn't for the fact of arranging insurance and searching for so long, we would not gone through with the purchase based on principle. The vehicle was handed over to us, in my opinion in an unprepared state. There was internal Availablecar paperwork left on the passenger seat, the SD card for the satellite navigation was not in the car and half a mile after leaving the TPMS warning indicator came on the dashboard, which shows the car had not had a road test after the wheels had been removed to be "refurbished."