...
And here we have jamjar.co.uk
To make this review in any way worthwhile I have to review it as a website, then as a car dealership.
:-( The Website )-:
It is reasonably well laid out and seems comparitavely easy to use if you know which car or cars you are interested in. However ... Read review
Advantages: Cheap, Reliable Disadvantages: Site out of date and unusable
Ok time comes to buy a new car, its a big purchase, a big item with relatively low volume sales, which means that the dealers make a big markup on each vehicle sold.
What if one organisation could buy cars from many different manufacturers, avoid the inherent costs of being a franchise of a particular make but sell in enough bulk to be able to offer a good discount.
What if that organisation was able to do it all online, ... ...cars and demonstrator vehicles that depriaciate hundreds of pounds every week they sit on the forecourt. Surely more discount for the customer.
Well thats Dixons Motor Group
What if by clever marketting and a (apparently) clever name that organisation could gain a large market share of new and used online car sales...
And here we have jamjar.co.uk
To make this review in any way worthwhile ... more
Ok time comes to buy a new car, its a big purchase, a big item with relatively low volume sales, which means that the dealers make a big markup on each vehicle sold.
What if one organisation could buy cars from many different manufacturers, avoid the inherent costs of being a franchise of a particular make but sell in enough bulk to be able to offer a good discount.
What if that organisation was able to do it all online, avoid the costs of a showroom, overpaid salesmen with company cars and demonstrator vehicles that depriaciate hundreds of pounds every week they sit on the forecourt. Surely more discount for the customer.
Well thats Dixons Motor Group
What if by clever marketting and a (apparently) clever name that organisation could gain a large market share of new and used online car sales...
And here we have jamjar.co.uk
To make this review in any way worthwhile I have to review it as a website, then as a car dealership.
:-( The Website )-:
It is reasonably well laid out and seems comparitavely easy to use if you know which car or cars you are interested in. However unfortunately in my expereince the information is out of date: - The details of car models are inaccurate, listing models or sepcial editions that have not been available for some time and sometimes not listing the current versions. That said there is some basic info about the models that are listed although you will want to check out other websites including the manfacturers and Ciao before buying a car, particularly as the photos often don't do the cars justice. - The prices, in my experience particularly the special offers, are not up to date. I selected my car of choice through the website placed the order and was ready to hand over my £150 deposit when it all came crashing to a halt. It would not accept my credit or debit card details. Being late at night, as most of my online purchases are, I was not able to contact their customer services so I saved my order and came back an hour later but no joy, and another 30mins later and no joy. First thing in the morning I tried again with no success to leave my card details so I took note of the customer services number and rang them when the office opened. It turns out that the website is no longer able to accept payment and that the car I had chosen was no longer available - They admitted the website was currently pointless and thoughtfully offered me a 1 year old used car of the same specs for the price listed on the web for a new car.
SUMMARY: apparently easy to use but as the information is by their own admission virtually all out of date and you are unable to reserve a car or pay the deposit online as a car sales website it is pretty pointless.....
:-) Car dealers (-: I was dissapointed with the above situation but after doing the rounds of various street based dealers and test drives I chose a different cheaper vehicle (Fiat Doblo in place of the Vauxhall Zafira) {BTW as an aside in dealing with online car sales, or as this became, telephone car sales, you need to test drive the vehicles at your local dealer. The most saditic amongst you will do your research before the test drive and afterwards start mentioning internet prices and watch the salesmen's faces as they see their bonusses dissapear before their eyes} So I learnt and phoned them from the start. As a telphone car dealer they were frankly great. The staff were courteous and professional and seemed to know what they were doing. I was fortunate that the particular model I wanted was in stock as someone else had ordered one but been unable to complete the purchase so I received a further discount. I ordered and paid the deposit over the phone on Saturday, on Tuesday (Mon was a Bank Holiday) I confirmed the details, received a delivery date and paid the remaining balance. The following Tuesday the car was delivered to my workplace by another professional and courteous man who showed me all the controls, gave me an inspection drive before handing over the keys to me. The car was in perfect order and there has been no problems thus far. My one criticism is that all communication was by telephone. They were unable to email me confirmation of details but assured me that paperwork would follow through the post. This did not happen. I have a new car, registered in my name, with Jamjar stickers on it but no actual written proof that I bought and paid for it, an unusual situation.
SUMMARY: Great phone dealers, good customer service with deadlines met and no hassles delivery of my new car. Shame they couldn't at least have sent a letter confirming the sale/
NB: my score for the Specific Criteria below is for the website The star rating is for the overall jamjar service.
Advantages: Buy a new car online for less than dealer prices, used cars available Disadvantages: Website is inflexible and needs updating, most things done by phone and post
Jamjar.com, yet another silly name from (one presumes) marketing consultants who believe consumers won't touch anything online unless it has a silly name, is a joint venture between Direct Line insurers (part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group) and Dixon cars, one of the UK's biggest car dealerships.
After several years of being a company car driver, my partner moved to a company where cars are not supplied as part of the contract of employment. ... ...of his first points of call after dealership websites. Prices are a little cheaper than the prices given by manufacturers, even after allowing for special offers (e.g. cashback offers). It's possible to view plenty of combinations of car, colour, trim, engine etc., but jamjar only allows you to save details of three cars in an online 'glovebox' for later viewing, but does not allow you to change or delete those details once saved. It's pretty straightforward ...
angehodgson 18.06.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of jamjar.co.uk
Advantages: Good range of cars Disadvantages: Expensive
Well I have just been helping my mate buy a car online. What a minefield it really is! After shopping around the web, we can safely say there are much better sites out there with better savings and a better service. Im not saying avoid but I am saying check out the competitors before parting with your cash. Layout. ------- Looks nice. Easy to follow navigation but perhaps too much going on in the background and too many images on screen. Also, the ... ...tad cheap and tacky. With the high amound of images, the site is slow to load. However, the database listing of cars is good and does not take hours to return a list of matches.
Variety of models. ------------------ Loads of choice. I cannot knock them for that. There are many search criterias to find your ideal car by. Whether it is Model, Make or price, there is a way to find your car. They not only have a list of new cars but Used cars too. Something ...
andycharger 20.08.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of jamjar.co.uk
Advantages: Cars quite cheap. Delivered to your home or place of work, even at weekends. Disadvantages: Don't get to test drive the car or pick the registration number. Site is very poor. Communication is poor.
If you want to buy a car at Jamjar.com then the prices will be a lot lower than what you might pay at a Dealership. But be prepared for a lot of stress, hassle and poor communication.
Take the website. Most times we used it the site was really slow and often we couldn't access it at all. Navigation around the site is also difficult. The prices they offer for a used car trade-in are about 25% lower than the trade books recommend, although getting ... ...expected. We were offered £2,300 for an M Reg (1995) Renault Laguna RT Auto Metallic Paint with 59,000 miles and an MOT. We ought to have gotten about £3,000. However, the overall discount on the Mondeo we bought was about £1,500, so we came out slightly ahead. Be prepared to pay a £150 deposit when you place the order. We were slightly annoyed that they wasn't a picture of the car we ended up buying.
One thing to watch about the trade-in is that ...
fallen121 05.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of jamjar.co.uk
Advantages: Excellent value for money, (2nd hand) vehicles in immaculate condition, Included: Warranty, Breakdown Assistance, mechanical checks Disadvantages: Ordering process 'niggly', Could improve on their phone service, Website slow to load
In February I bought a second hand car from jamjar.com. This is the first time I have ever bought a car from a dealer - I've always bought privately - so I don't have anything to compare against. Searching for a car on their website was easy enough. No major complaints here, except that their website could have made the buying process easier. On a number of occasions I had to ring them by phone to get an answer - emails didn't seem to be replied ... ...But things got better once they had my money (payment was via inter-bank transfer). Delivery dates were arranged and agreed ... and then cancelled because their mechanics had found a fault on the car which they wanted to fix before delivering it to me. Once ready, delivery was delayed again because I happened to order my car during jamjar's busy periods - just before the new reg cars were being delivered. Luckily, I found a good deal in small print ...
harvster 05.06.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of jamjar.co.uk
Advantages: excellent prices, vehicle delivered direct Disadvantages: long wait, difficulty in getting through
I recently decided to change my car and I went to the dealer who would not move a bit from the standard price which I could not afford.
I looked at the jamjar website and found the car I wanted was about £3500 cheaper than the dealer which is a good saving.
I decided to do everything by phone rather than the internet on the basis that there is always something that you need to ask.
I did find I had difficulty getting through to someone (queue ... ...a while.
However the staff are very helpful, and can answer any questions you ask.
I did find I had to wait a long time for the delivery just over 3 months as the car was ordered from the works in Italy and they had a back log etc.
I decided to part exchange my old car, but as the months go by they give you less for the vehicle " depreciation" reasons.
Having said that it is nice to know that it will be taken away with no problems which I feel ...
thylacine 01.02.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of jamjar.co.uk
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