I have seen a few posts on here re the above , some good some bad, however we bought a yellow fiat coupe turbo from James Twist garage in June 2012 , it has been a nightmare, problem after problem ,and paid far too much for it when it had these existing problems since last mot / owner had it , yet this garage , said they Mot'd it for me, slapped Mot on it , despite all the things it has wrong with it , I have had 2 other coupes before and know they need a bit of upkeep but lots wrong here and some things verging on dangerous . Paul from James twist basically told me to clear off when i contacted him, so I am progressing things with Trading Standards and VOSA , car to be inspected shortly , if Mot on car is not genuine or well done , he has risked a lot for the sake of an extra £100 for car price .
Thought i was being sensible , buying from a garage too , he said at the tie he was a forum member and the car was genuine etec etc , was looking at another couple at the time and missed out on a nice exaple down in kent , from another forum member which really was a genuine car , argggghh , well should get sorted out soon , but just to warn anyone considering going to this garage , avoid , bit of a coop graveyard there, although some posts on here have said after being at james twist and having nonsense told to them , they have gone ELSE WHERE ANYWAY .



XXXX

What isues has the Coupe got?

some things just usual car / coop wear and tear and things you need to replace but some things that I suspected that he assured me were not what they seemed , and have in fact been needing repaired from last mot when i spoke to old owner .

Bought the car for £1300 , spent around £200 to get car, from warrington , travelled down from dundee, scotland .

car was FSH , turns out is just over half ish service history , last service in books was like 40k ago

windscreen wipers didnt clear screen , despite it being mot day before i collected it .

wipers also act very slow / sleepy , like alternator but alternator is fine, seems to be wiper motor , even on fastest setting they are so slow , sometimes they work ok .

interior was very very very badly scratched , full of dog hair , like dog had been living in the car , I had had this all treated and restored , looks pretty good now, but i was so disappointed to see it like that getting there, but was desperate for the car and travelled so far for it , it had a years mot just put on, thought it must be good car .

car has oil leak , he assured me drips I seen were not from mine , but from dead coop also at garage , drips are in fact from mine.

car has a knock and a pull from front passenger side ,maybe not a huge issue , just usual suspension I think ,will know more after VOSA inspection .

Car has a few rust spots/ fifty pence sized holes on various bits of underneath .

Headlight was out

1 HID conversion bulb was in upside down

Handbrake has serious excessive travel , doesnt actually hold the car still

brakes were rusted on , when i drove car , he denied this , i dont think car moved in 6 months before i got it

brakes have a judder , likely to be warped /seized , had problem before on old coop , but needed fixed for mot .

drivers seatbelt jams, sticks , chokes driver .

passenger door / handle does not open well inside or outside, struggle to get out car , surely an mot / safety issue .

accelerator cable / pedal jammed and snapped 4 days after bought coop , maybe just bad luck , wear and tear .

steering pump needs replaced , confirmed by last owner as he had been told to get it last year , twist garage demanded heaviness was because i had driven 2012 plate tiny pug from scotland and coop felt heavy with large alloys !!!

tracking is very much out , twist tried to deny this

we discussed warranty , obv not possible in the normal way due to being in scotland but assured he would cover any costs of something going wrong in x number of time, said he would cover accelerator fixing costs , then never got back to me .

Car paintwork is pretty good , engine runs fine, would be / will be / has been a good car , needs a lot of tlc , as its kind of turned out to be a bit of a badger , it drove ok on test drive and road home, although i didnt discover pull / judder as drove it home at 60 mph max for speed camera fear !!

oil cooler unit /pipes I had a good look at on the day as had problems with my old coops, it was actually in good condition, although i did / do plan on replacing it .

last owner and myself and gobsmacked to discover and confirm with each other all things wrong with car have been for over a year, this "new " mot cant be genuine and that last owner sold car for a very very low amount , literally a few hundred pounds , having advertised it with these things needing done , this garage has sold it on to me , done none of the repairs and made more than 1k from us .

i understand buy , fix , tidy up , sell on , make a profit hopefully , not always , but not buy , dont repair , slp mot on, sell for profit , shaft customers and tell them to clear off !!

hope to get things sorted out soon , feel bad for last owner, he was shafted with what they paid him , and then sold it to me too .

xxxxxx

why did you buy it?

sure you travelled far, but if when you turn up its a lemon....

ive been to look at half a dozen golf tdis and have walked away from all of them, one of them because i didnt like the seller. the buyer is in control and has the cash. if i dont like anything i walk away, regardless.

that would go for ebay too, if it was wrongly described. Of course if possible id inspect any car to avoid the agro.

I hope it works out mate, pushing cash into a pit aint a good idea - but it sounds like you know what youre doing anyways....

good luck

rudi dudi , I didnt know half of the things wrong with it when i arrived to see it , these are things I have discovered since getting it home, talking with old owner and noticing different things as I drove it etc .

on first seeing the car , bodywork was good, wheels etc, on quiet , slow driving it was fine , it had a lovely fresh 1 years mot on it , 6 m tax , from a nice garage , warranty , all very nice, i didnt think anything was amiss , apart from a family of wolves had been living in the lovely leather interior , and scratched it all , that was only thing that seemed a major concern , but easily tidied up .

he assured me heavy steering was because i had driven 400 odd miles in a tiny little city steering car, and coop had fat tyres and heavy alloys , and engine was v clean on the day , no sign of oil leak , although i suspected it , my main worry was oil cooler , but it was in good nick .

im just very angry that these things ive discovered / suspected recently , the old owner has told me have been needing done since last year and this was reason he sold car to garage soo cheap , what a cowboy , robbing the old owner , and now me , so he thinks .

i will see how VOSA turns out on whether i can and or would like to keep car and take partial refund / full refund etc , if it is beyond hope , then will return it to cowboy motors or break / scrap / sell etc .

thought garage would be better than some private sellers due to reputation etc , obv not . poor car ,its not its fault .
thanks for posts guys ,

katie xx

Katie I deal with quite a few cars from Scotland due to trust issues or paranoia involved with this particular vehicle.


Sorry to here about your experiences with them.

I think it's maybe inexperience on this particular vehicle on there behalf.

As a forum were not usually into naming and shaming but they do Generally have a good name but a few posts on here haven't been pleasurable at there hands from the sounds of it.

Rm Motorsport in Ayrshire have a great name for the Italian stuff

It's easy to see how this kind of thing happens, car looks good and has a fresh ticket so you presume all is ok. Any little niggles on the way home are written off as paranoia and the excitment of a new car pushes the worries to the back of your mind. I ended up spending £1000 fixing my coupe two weeks after getting her.
Hope you get it sorted Katie

james twist garage generally have a good name ? it cant be inexperience , paul balfour told me he had owned many coupes himself , so he knows a fair bit about them , and he was made fully aware of what the car needed at the time he bought it , for a silly low price last year , things he advised old owner he would fix and then obv sell car on as he is a garage , yet he fixed nothing , exact things are still wrong with car , yet he sold it on for 1k profit.

cant say its been worth his while , now VOSA are involved, they are taking it very seriously , hope to have it sorted soon . love the black coop in your pic

katie xx

Don't hold your breath with VOSA or trading standards,.

Unfortunately there powers are very limited unless they physically catch you in the act.
The traders always have the law on there side.but I wish you luck as hopefully they will maybe think twice about doing it again.

MOT only has to be safe on the day of test so proving otherwise after the event is difficult but not impossible given the correct representation and persistance.

jame5 , yes thats pretty much exactly it , things i was thinking were niggles , i was telling myself , no , your being extra extra fussy , ocd, car is perfectly fine, FSH , brand new ot , all good to go !! lol

some things do just happen , windscreen chip/crack/smash , crash car on way home, blow engine / turbo etc up , i think accelerator cable snapping was just bad luck , wear and tear , but has bothered me as this was a garage ad not a dodgy seller i thought , private or trade . I have had other cars that i got ridiculously cheap , thinking they were maybe a badger but cheap fun , for how long they would last and ended up with some great cars that i covered 20k in, with no trouble , then one day , bang , off to scrapyard , so when you think your buying half decent things it is a bummer,what happened with your car ? the one in pic ? it looks lovely now .

apologies if we arent meanto to name and shame on here , i thought it was acceptable to do this , to help / stop other members ending up in same situations . xxx
thats a shame ,

A number of those points sound like a clear MOT fail or advisory at very least. Let me guess, he did not give you any advisory with the new MOT

Sorry my wording wasnt correct there , I meant generally most are happy with the services provided by fccuk's traders and we don't hear much about others.

Your right in posting, a lot of forums especially scooby.net love naming and shaming

old mot is missing advisories page , old mot was until sept 2012 , so for another £100 he insisted on putting new full mot on car July 2012 , so this new one until july 2013 is new style with advisories attached , but all it states from his findings are that one tyre is close to being on limit , which is odd , no other advisories at all , not headlight being out , HIDs being blinding as one is upside down , wipers dont clear windscreen , passnger door traps all passengers !!! my lovely yellow coop of doom !!! hahaha

i did wonder how hard VOSA and that can come down on garage, prob like most things , i wont get major justice , but old owner said he will help with anything i need, have advert from last year with all faults clearly stated , owner is happy to confirm garage were fully aware , I think he may re consider telling me to clear off , now he knows I have last owner on my side, if i have to dep on VOSA I would pursue through small claims court . thanks guys, will let you know how i get on

katie xx

mark_s , love your plate on your car, I had red coop , with a20v sd x

Shantimar get your coupe to a proper specialist and just have it looked over, have all the problems sorted. shouldnt take long (depending how big stuff is of course) and it will be back better than ever before

you can see old mot advisories by going to this page and entering the appropriate details that you will have:

http://motinfo.direct.gov.uk/internet/jsp/ECHID-Internet-History-Request.jsp

I find it really helpful, i use it before looking at a car, if the history has been poor then i wont even entertain it as it is a reflection of how the car was treated unless it had to be repaired for the mot. Hope it helps.

I think she bought it from James Twist, not RM Motorsport going by the title of the thread.

Yes I know,
I can only access forum on my iPhone ATM and it's playing havoc with punctuation.
I was suggesting RM as an alternative due to the location of the member.

James Twist garage has been around for years, yet I've never heard a good word about them.

VOSA are quite strict on MOT testers, so someones neck will be on the line for passing the Coupe with the mentioned faults.

Sorry to read that you're having problems though Katie and hope you'll keep the Coupe and get them sorted

I read such a stories daily in our local auto forums, many new owners complain when bought cars like this.
Consider myself very lucky to buy 11 Alfa 156's, one Smart and finally my Coupe auctioning on eBay, just from description and pic's posted by the seller. All cars were better than described and i drove all of them 2200km back to BG without issues......
I knew that sooner or later such a thing can happen and i don't want to push my luck anymore.

Yes you have. i said they did a good job on mine about 8 years ago Clutch, Timing belts, new mainfiold..... but that was a long time ago and Paul himself (Wigan Paul) did a lot all of the work then. Nowadays I believe that's not the case. They told Pebbles his car was and needed a new engine when it didn't and I believe they told MABR a load of rubbish about his too! Sorry to hear your tail of woe Katie but having it checked at another specialis might be the best bet.

thanks guys,yeah a lot of james twist horror stories around : ( I Cant understand why they wouldnt just as a garage that got the car for peanuts just do the repairs,wouldnt have cost them a lot ,then sell it on .i appreciate people who say car can do with x,y and z ,hence price kinda thing. A bit of work is fine if u get it at right price.
Yeah its great when someone is so fussy and critical that they over describe/ photograph things and are ott ,and u expect quite a work in progress ,and are pleasantly surprised to find its actually a good car .coop seems to have been looked after by other owners before twist had it .i hope to get full diagnosis and get fixed and keep it ,love my coop of doom .haha. katie xx

Katie, I hope you sort something out (it doesn't sound like too many faults. Maybe even DIY with the forum for advice?).

As JBT said above, the MOT is an on the day, on condition test of the car. Unfortunately, IMO, the faults you describe would be hard to prove were failures at the time of test. Hopefully you get some kind of goodwill gesture from the garage.

BTW, have VOSA advised you on what you can or should do in the interim? The reason I ask is that I assume you're using the car still. If VOSA deem your car un road worthy where do you stand? My thoughts are that your car shouldn't be on the road if there are doubts on road worthiness and your insurance may not be valid because of that. I'm not saying this is what will happen, just what my concerns would be in your place.

May be worth a call to VOSA to get advice.

Hope you get it sorted as it's not a nice way to start Coupé ownership.

Katie there's a Fiat/Alfa specialist in Dundee who I've always used for getting work done to my Coupe.

CP Garage Services at Baluniefield Industrial Estate (near the wind turbines).

They've always been very helpful and happy to talk about the car if you want to know more.

Agreed, I came up here once on my way to get things checked over while visiing a friend in Ninewells and they couldn't have been more helpful, took the 16vt out for a 30-min drive, blowing off a hose which they then redid back in the garage and wouldn't accept payment. I left something in the tea tin

Mind you the downer was giving it laldie on the motorway on the way back past Perth and got done for speeding

Very good recommendation. I bought my donor coop from a lad who works there by the name of Lindsay? (hope i've spelled that correctly).
Quite a knowledgeable chap who's personal cars include the prettiest Alfa 145 i've seen to date and a Fiat 600 restoration project.

Dirty boy.........

sorry to say but thats utter *** , no matter what size the wheels are if the power steeirng works then there will be no turning issues. Ive got 17's on my bravo,not a problem with steering on that its nice and light. Only the once it was heavy is when i had a flat tyre

I saw that 'thing' just after he bought it and he still had good intentions of restoring it back to its former glory. Could've used it as a donor for my green coupe!!
I think he was hoping to have the 600 ready for the Italian Car Day at Craigtoun but dunno if he made it.

I've never left anything in the biscuit tin - they're all fat enough without any outside help

Actually you're right, the helpful guy was blessed with a generous girth of gut