Gillmanmotors Reviews 

I made contact with bal as there was a car on his webpage i liked the look of for my wife , i also wanted to part exchange her old vehicle .

Bal made contact with me we discussed options and px prices and came up with a deal , they are in Kent and we live in Canvey Island and although not a million miles away i didn’t fancy going over the dartford bridge as i was going through some medical issues .

Bal offered to drive the car over to us let us look at it , my wife to test drive it and if we didn’t want to go ahead shake hands and he would take the car back to Kent .

Bal came over i hadn’t seen the car before and although after a couple of days you have a more detailed look , i found a couple of bits that i will have to get done ( this is down to me because i bought it blind and didn’t make Bal aware afterwards ) they are cosmetic thing so can get fixed easily . I have to say from the first contact to the last Bal made the process very easy and when i am in the market again i will check his webpage first to see what’s available.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting bal,the owner from what I gather,and I must say it was an absolute pleasure,this guy goes the extra mile,very honest,and sincere..I would highly recommend any car purchase from gillman motors.
Paul.

I had the misfortune to buy a car from here, and compounded that with buying a service plan that was supposed to sort out any problems that may come up over time, Bal (the trader) comes across as a decent guy trying to do his best by you, and for months I kept giving him the chance to do things right as he seemed so decent, but I can only think that was a farce now, if I could do it over I would have reported him to the police for selling a car that was not fit for it's purpose (read on as to why), as I nearly died it was so serious.

I wish I knew what I do now back when we bought it, because the car was illegal to drive from the second we set off to come home in the car, and one has to wonder just how the car past it’s MOT that was on the car when we bought it, but to be fair that was probably how he bought it, that said, as a trader it was down to him to make sure the car was legal to drive before selling it, not letting the buyer (me) drive off with such a serious defect which could have killed us, or he should have advertised as sold as seen, spare and repairs only, needing a trailer to take it away.

The biggest problem we had was buying it in the summer months, where you would hardly ever need your lights on, more so as I am retired disabled, so it’s rare for me to be out at such times, then the darker nights began, initially when dusk started to settle I had to wonder if the lights were working, it was kind of border line between yes and no, so I got out of the car and physically looked at each light, and they were both working, and being as how the lights were HID’s, they were exceptionally bright compared to normal bulbs at eye level.

Then I was out when it was pitch black, and it looked like they were great and clear, But, 10 minutes on we nearly died, because there was a lorry coming toward us, and I could literally not see the road at all, the lorry’s lights were so bright, they took the light away from my lights, meaning I was doing 40 miles an hour down a pitch black road with no lighting, having no idea where the road was going, that’s how bad they were.

So I got home and lifted the bonnet, only to see the headlight bulbs hanging out of the light enclosures, and they were showing more light under the bonnet inside the engine bay than they showed on the road, then the wife reminded me that he got the mechanic next door from him and had him messing were messing around under the bonnet with the lights before we left him, so he definitely knew they were dodgy.

Yet he said nothing, he did however mention there was knocking from the rear end, and a couple of more things, and I was happy to take it knowing these bits he mentioned, but then things started to change, to begin with when I rang him over the lights, he started saying well I mentioned the bits it needed, until I stated clearly that it was nothing to do with those bits, this was about the lights, and my nearly dying because of how dangerous they were.

So he told me to get the cover plan he sold us to sort it, so I made the booking, and they refused to touch it, saying they were not the stock lights, and they said it didn’t make any difference to them that I bought the car like this, and that I wouldn’t know what lights (specifically that is) it should have had, and told me to go back to who I got it from (Bal) and get them to rectify it.

I rang and told him what they had said, I also told him they had to be NEW, otherwise the same thing would happen again, to which he said he would do, some considerable time later, after I had to keep ringing he finally said he had got them, and I again asked if they were ‘NEW’ to which he said, Yes.

Now I said if he comes to get my car that he had sold to me, leaving me with that car so I can use it if needed (I am housebound without a car), to which he said he didn’t have one, further more he said I had to go there, and go off round the town for some hours while his mechanic did the job, which meant I was in great pain as I couldn’t support my back in chairs (I have a very rare muscle wasting disease) which he knew (I told him while chatting when I bought the car).

I have to be inclined so I get total support, as my body is not strong enough to support my back, which is why I wanted him to come and get the car, leave a replacement for temp use and he could take as long as he liked to do the lights properly, and I could stay in my house which I could have been supported and inclined to minimize pain, I can't do that in a porter cabin or a local coffee shop, but no, I either go there or go without.

When I got there I asked him one final time face to face are they NEW, again he said Yes they were New, so I left my car and after around 3 hours later, I still hadn’t heard anything, and shops were getting ready to close, so I went back and saw the mechanic working on my car, so I popped my head in to check how close it was to being done, but when I looked at the ‘new’ lights in, I noticed they were marked, and when I said to the mechanic that they shouldn’t be marked as they were New, to which he told me they were ‘NOT’ New, but second hand.

So I wasn’t happy about that, but it was too late to do anything but take them as they were, when I spoke to Bal about it he said he didn’t have the profit margin to get New lights, going on to say he was only just getting back what it cost him, so at the time I just thought he was in the same situation I was in, and figured I would just have to take it on the chin, but don’t I wish I hadn’t pushed on and got the authorities involved, because the car was not fit for it’s purpose, which had nothing to do with me, and he knew that by messing with the lights with the mechanic before we got in it and came home.

I was using a forum for these make of car, to find answers to my problems, turns out they were a fantastic bunch of guy’s, and they even came to my house to help, that’s how decent these guys are, now these lights are well known for being poor quality, but when they saw these lights they rated them as the worst they had ever seen, and these guys are hardcore fans, and know pretty much every single part of them between them all, so they looked for clues and found out some dodgy wiring, I say dodgy due to the fact they they took the power from 1 headlight, to power the other headlight, so they were effectively running on half power, which his mechanic MUST, have known given he was dealing with all that side of things.

By that time I had given up on any sign of help, and thinking back (you always see what you should have done this way), it suddenly occurred to me that he was just delaying me to the point it would be to late to do anything, as I was looking at some very nice cars he was selling, and the cheapest other car was about £6k, so he has plenty of money on the face of it, albeit tied up in his stock and probably home, today I looked and his lowest was £15k, so he can’t be that hard up, where I am in my 29th year of being retired disabled, and have nothing more than my disability money.

And what hurt the most was the wife bought me this car by cashing in her funeral plan, thinking it would last us some time at the least, yet I have now been housebound for over 1 year, because without a car I can’t get out, as my body can’t manage public transport so my car is now dead, over 1 year it has been sat by my door useless, turbo has gone, I had 1 shock done when it was working, but now it needs the other 3 legs done, and a new wiper system, as the wipers can be moved freely and independently without issue, and is only fit for scrap, as it was back when we bought it no doubt.

Now I admit these things are out of anyone's control, and can happen to any car, new or old, and I can’t hold him for these bits, it just sucks that this was the kiss of death, yet you have to wonder just what the MOT person\garage saw, and took notice of, because the headlights would never had passed when seen, but as it will cost more to repair than replace, we paid £2k for the car, and about £200 for warranty cover, which turned out to be a waste of space, as they charged us for doing various things over time, even though the plan covered them.

So between the cost of the plan, and all the various other stuff it needed it’s the best part of another £1k on top, totalling £3k for just over 2 years that it worked, so I would never recommend him to anyone, it’s fine when nothing goes wrong, but god help you when you get a car like mine from him, as he sold me an illegal car that nearly killed us, yet I am the one doing all the work pushing things forward all the time, and at my own expense, at no point did he recompense us for our costs, fuel especially given the distance, I was doing all the work for him, I will regret going there until the day I die, it was that underhand in what he did to us.