Serving N. Surrey

and adjacent areas

Customer Assistance

24 x 7 x 365

Enquiries

08:00 - 20:00, 7 days

01276 919 949

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Testimonial

John has been a customer since July 2017, and currently has two cars with us. He values the certainty of his fixed monthly service fee and the fact that we take care of everything for him.

When I had plenty of money cars were easy. A bit of a pain, but easy. You just went to a car supermarket, got a one year old car, got it serviced once a year for a few years, then got rid of it and repeated the cycle. You knew it would start every morning and get you to work or the kids to school, with very little chance of needing any expensive repairs. Once I made the change to becoming a stay at home dad, who also worked on his business ideas, money became a lot more of an issue as did owning a car. Keeping a car for a long time is a source of constant stress, with the underlying knowledge that they are a ticking time bomb that could need an expensive repair without notice.

I remember my Renault Scenic, which was a lovely car when it was one year old, but as I kept it longer and longer it became harder to live with with. Things slowly started failing that I’d try to live with rather than pay to repair. So the driver’s window would no longer open and I’d have to open the door at car park barriers to take the ticket. The parking sensors were history and the aircon didn’t work. The big fear was it needing a big repair and what would the next MOT show up. One MOT showed that the ABS warning light we had been ignoring had to be fixed and would cost 300 pounds. Then one day my wife was on the way to work at the hospital and the clutch failed, dumping her at the side of the road. Repairing it was going to cost the better end of 2000 pounds, which we couldn’t afford. That left us with one car and some really complicated logistics as we tried to get the kids to and from where they needed to be and my wife to work.

I'm also a scout leader, as is Cared-for Cars's founder. We were sitting around a camp fire one evening when he told me about his idea of leasing out good quality second hand cars - that for less than £220 a month he could make sure that you always had a good car that worked fully. If it failed he would bring you a spare while he took it away and repaired it. I think I all but bit his hand off at the idea. So myself and my wife became his first customers.

Never having leased a car before I was confused over exactly how it would work, but it turned out to be really simple. I insure the car, simply saying that I'm leasing it, and thats it. I don't service it, tax it, MOT it, replace the tyres, any of that stuff. Other than the monthly lease I only pay for the petrol.

I was surprised how happy the car made me. Really, I would sit in it and have a feeling of contentment and would catch myself smiling. The car looked great and as I sat in it everything worked. The only thing that told me that the car had a few years on it was the number plate and that the radio didn't have bluetooth. I fitted my own little bluetooth adapter to the radio so I could attach my phone, then it was perfect. Sat nav through google maps and my own tunes. [Editor's note: all our cars now have bluteooth phone and music connections by default]

I think the thing that really made me happy was the lack of stress. It just worked and I was never going to have to worry about it surprising me with expensive repairs. Just a fixed monthly cost.

In the first year of owning the car we did have a couple of issues. One of the features I loved on the car was the heated front windscreen. In the winter I hate coming out to the car in the morning and seeing frost on the windscreen, probably when we are already running late. Then having to scrape it clear and get the internal condensation clear as well. With a heated front windscreen that isn't an issue. Just start the car, press the button, wait 2 minutes. When it failed, in March, that was a bit of a pain. So I rang up Cared-for Cars, they brought a replacement car, took away the Focus, looked into the issue and ultimately replaced the windscreen. I was even happier when he told me what had been done. They had fitted a new windscreen before giving the car to me, so it shouldn't have failed. They contacted the original suppliers and got them to replace it for free. Why did that make me happy? Not only had they put in a lot of effort to make sure they supplied us with a great car, but that grief of getting the windscreen replaced and negotiating with the windscreen people, was not my grief, as it would have been for every car I previously owned.

Another issue we had after almost a year of me having the car was I noticed a rumbling when I went one way around corners. I had experienced a wheel bearing failing on a car before, so thought it might well be that. Something I would have previously lived with as I tried to avoid the few hundred pounds that would cost to repair. Not this time. I contacted Cared-for Cars, they swapped cars, then got in touch a few days later to say 'the mechanic says it is the wheel bearing, but it also needs an MOT and the mechanic says the CV joint needs replacing. Do you mind if we keep it for a few more days to get all that sorted?' That was no problem at all, and again a relief that a whole pile of car maintenance wasn't my problem. People who own a Mercedes don't get this level of service.

Where are we now? I still love my red Ford Focus and Cared-for Cars are about to supply us with another one, a silver estate this time. We are going for a second car as our other car that my wife drives to work, failed on the way to her shift at the hospital, just as the previous car we owned had. That car already had a range of issues and now its alternator had failed, which due to this model of car is really expensive to repair. We were quoted over £700. That is a few months of leasing a car from Cared-for Cars, so it wasn't a hard choice to make. Now we're looking forward to having two nice cars, that just work, that are a fixed monthly cost, that I can sit in feeling relaxed knowing Ian will take care of everything. [Editor's note: since writing this John told us what he wanted in his second car and we found, prepared, and are now leasing it to him.]

John H