Hi everybody, I believe hendon way motors in London have quite an involvement in motorsports in the south and appear at Goodwood every year, has anybody here ever bought a car off them ? cheers Anto
When I was looking to buy my 308, eight years ago, the first car I went to look at was at Hendon Way Motors. The car, a 308GTB QV was in pretty poor shape and was up for £33,000.It had a fair bit of rust and had signs of water staining/damage round the interior rear window lip/shelf. The registration was GTB 14V (GTBi 4V). It was silver with I think a black interior. Got a follow up call a few days later offering the car (patched up & resprayed in my choice of colour) for £28,000! Even as a novice buyer I happily walked away & bought my car elsewhere. I recall seeing their stand at the Goodwood Festival of Speed some years ago, I don't know about the Revival meeting. They have a habit of entering 275GTB's in various events. They have advertised in Classic & Sportscar Magazine for years but I have never heard of anyone who has bought a car from them! They have a large warehouse at the back of the showroom which houses maybe 40 cars (a lot of Porkers) They featured in a 30 minute 'Metroland' documentary many years ago - which I still have on tape. A guy (prominent FOC Member) was looking to trade up from a Ferrari 400 to a Testarossa and test drove a car they had for sale but didn't buy it.
Thanks Andy, This is the reason why such forums are invaluable, if anybody else has thoughts/experiences on this dealer please pm me. All the best Anthony
I once repossessed a Porsche 928 S4 from their showroom (it was an SOR car), it's funny hearing someone use foul language in a plummy voice!
They featured in a 30 minute 'Metroland' documentary many years ago - which I still have on tape. A guy (prominent FOC Member) was looking to trade up from a Ferrari 400 to a Testarossa and test drove a car they had for sale but didn't buy it. ^^interesting, is it any good?? If I send a dvd to you can you copy it?? Stephen.
Stephen, I'll see what I can do - never tried to do that but I'll give it a go. In the meantime pm me your name & address - if I can't sort out a copy I'll simply send the tape to you... Regards Andy
Thats weird, I flew over from ireland to test drive a Porsche 928S4 there about 12 years ago and when I arrived the guy was very unhelpful, no possibility of looking at the car, even though I could see it in the rear of the premises, his reason was that the salesman was out and was not made aware of my time of arrival, he too had a plummy voice, terribly ignorant and unhelpful. Steve
Same here, I turned up (quite scruffy) and they were reluctant to let me into the showroom, even though I parked my Gallardo outside. The staff were openly rude and snotty. On the basis there are lots of cars out there, I'd give them a wide berth.
My dad bought a 512TR off them three years ago. Owner of Hendon Way Motors conned my dad with a false/non existant insurance policy. After threatening him physically over the course of 2 years we only got half the money owed back to us.
Well Guys, Went to look at 360, very nice, bbs alloys. rear challenge grill looked the 'Mutz Nutz', on closer inspection the paint on the front bumper was very shabby, paint run on wheel arch, drivers door had been painted (badly) overspray everywhere, massive paint blemish on engine bay hood. I asked twice for a test drive didn't get one! , salesman who i spoke to on phone was not there, so i hung around to speak with another guy who was busy with a pre appointed test drive, an hour passed. When i finally got to see the paperwork for the car, the price i was quoted on the phone £62,950.00 went upto £69,950.00 !!!! I politely commented that he had wasted a full day of my life travelling from Manchester to London, as an extra £7K was out of the question. Turns out that the car has been sold, and they have had £3500 of work done at DK tuning, now the guy who wanted the car cannot get finance and they have spent £3500 that they perhaps might not have had to, looks to me that the price increase was to cover up this 'balls up' of a decision to get the work done. I bought a £12 grand volvo estate recently from stratsone (for work you know) which was a great no hassle experience , lovely friendly salesman who did a great job I would go back there tomorrow. after spending 5 years selling cars in my twenties for a ford main agent, I can honestly say that i do not think i have been treated more poorly anywhere than i was at Hendon Way Motors. As for giving them over £60 grand ! I would prefer to go to a ferrrai main agent and have the confidence in knowing that i am dealing with people who are professional at their job, and will be there in years to come. Overall impression.......fancy showroom, s**t staff, s**t car, s**t customer attitude i hope the 360 is still there this time next year!
Anthony - Thanks for the feedback, I am sorry to hear that you wasted your day. In some respects it is very similar to my first experience when trying to buy a car. There are lots of good independents out there in addition to the main agents & plenty of good cars. I hope you continue your search - it really is well worth it, in the end.
"As for giving them over £60 grand ! I would prefer to go to a ferrrai main agent and have the confidence in knowing that i am dealing with people who are professional at their job, and will be there in years to come." I wouldnt go to a main dealer then!
Agreed. Looking at the service history of my testarossa, half the main dealers shown in the service book are no longer selling ferrari i.e. Fox in Torquay, Nigel Mansell in Dorset,Cissbury in Sussex.
Hi Andy, that was my silver GTB QV. They "tried" to sell it for me SOR to return me £20k with the owner Anthony saying that "if he didn't sell it within 4 weeks, he wasn't a very good salesman". 6 to 8 weeks later he offers me a paltry £19k and by then I'd bought the replacement so had to do the deal. I was gutted when I found out they sprayed the car red as it was almost unique and very beautiful in silver. (Granted it needed tidying up but it was never supposed to be a concours winner and had a decent mileage on it). I saw that ITV doc and was creasing up in hysterics, particularly with the apprentice salesman proclaiming what a sales genius Anthony was! I don't know what their main business is, but it CANNOT be selling cars...
Hi David, Thanks very much for posting that information up - it is really interesting to hear the story behind that car. With good QV's at that time selling in the low 30's the only reason HWM didn't sell your car was that they were being greedy. I apologise if my description was a bit harsh. I can still clearly picture the car as it was the first one I went to look at & yes, it did look good in silver. Did you let them have the plate (GTB1 4V) or did you retain that?
I kept the plate and tried to sell it separately. I thought it was the perfect plate for a GTB qv, but they are rare and no one bought it so it went onto my first Skyline GTR and I just put the screw into the bottom left corner of the "B" to make it (sort of) read GTRi 4V! Ended up giving it away with that car when I sold it 2 years later. I still have a photo of the Ferrari and it still looks great...
I guess your photo is a good old fasioned print - so not something you could post up here. Do you recall the serial number and is the car listed on the 308 GTB register? http://www.r-design.net/308/main.htm - just curious to see if it is listed as Red or Silver...
Strange that. I bought my second car a Lotus Esprit Turbo off those sleazebags. The exhaust fell off on the way home and I ended up taking them to court and won. That Anthony guy is one weird chap, the FOC used to call it the Ferrari graveyard. I saw an interview with him in Classic and Sportscar which made me laugh out loud. I don't know anyone who has bought a car off them either. Very strange set up
Hey Simon! I can't believe they've managed to stay in business this long when nobody seems to have bought a car off them and feedback on those who've dealt with them has been almost universally bad... Sorry to hear about your Murci in Evo. Any news yet? Email me about this Bruntingthorpe lark, as I was there recently in the Z06 and think I could provide some real entertainment there! (Hit 169mph on the SHORT circuit...)
When I was buying my first ferrari I went to Hendon Motors as they were relatively near to where I live and had two or three 328's in stock. The first time I turned up there was no one there even though I had made an appointment to look at the cars the second time I turned up I spent five minutes looking round in the big shed out the back before deciding the qualilty and price of the cars were slightly out of line with each other. I also witnessed one of the "mechanics" drop a battery on the front wing of I think it was a 365 boxer leaving a nice dent in it. This was back in 1999 - I find it hard to believe they are still in business.