TheCarBarns Reviews 83

I would support the overwhelming majority of these reviews and strongly advise to stay well away, I certainly wish we had, he caused a great deal of stress and inconvenience following the purchase of a Mercedes E class, we travelled from the south of England for an appointment to see the car, well presented and as others have said Tim appeared on the face of it to be pleasant and professional, all the usual sales pitch as you would expect, that said he undoubtably has zero conscience, the car brought on a warning light and message for add blue within just a few days of ownership, I can honestly say I attempted to reach Tim over 15 times, leaving messages and emails, he didn’t even have manners to reply, it was only when I phoned from a alternative phone that he picked up, during the period of no reply and being advised by Mercedes not to drive the car I phoned the last service agent in the book whereby I was informed by the owner that he was aware of the car and remembered it having addblue issues, he informed me he was told to reset the system but wouldn’t commit to who informed him, only by me informing Tim of my intention and right to reject within the first 30 days did anything begin to improve, eventually the car went into Mercedes and Tim paid over £2,300 to repair the car, this said the car is still in need of a stop start battery at the cost of over £500, he refused to pay despite it being a fundamental requirement of the car, he also promised on request due to the extremely poor experience to extend the warranty to 12 months free of charge, this has never materialised, he simply emailed me saying he would not commit to any further repair, despite it being his responsibility, the fact is in court he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, can I be bothered to travel over 150 miles to incure more inconvenience - No definitely not! so as many others he gets away with it, why are people like him allowed to exist in business, I hope some day he is treated the same way as he treats so many of the people that put trust in him, perhaps the penny will drop ….

sold my car to the Car Barns absolutely no problems paid the agreed carwow price no hassle at all,very good service

1 star Avoid like the plague. Seriously.
Bought a Range Rover Sport from Tim at The Car Barns. Nearly a month on and I still don’t have the logbook and when I chased it, I was told to “call the DVLA” myself. That’s his job as the seller, not mine.
The problems started on day one. Slow to respond from the very first call. The car was advertised with features it simply doesn’t have Meridian Signature Sound being one of them. Misleading listing, full stop. It also arrived without a charger (eventually sent after chasing), and within the first week it was already at an approved diagnostic centre returning the following confirmed faults:
∙ Near Field Sensing Module failure
∙ Inverter drive motor sensor fault
∙ HV Coolant Heater fault
∙ Driver Assistance Controller fault
∙ Wind noise
∙ Headlight condensation
∙ Previous owner’s InControl account still linked never cleared
These are not minor wear and tear issues. These are serious electrical and hybrid system faults on a premium vehicle. He must have known. You don’t sell a car like this without knowing.
I attempted to reject the vehicle. I was then informed that because the finance is unregulated business finance, rejection wasn’t straightforward something that was conveniently never made clear at point of sale. The warranty was eventually transferred, after chasing, and the car is now booked in with an approved JLR dealer to establish the full extent of the damage.
I bought this car as a gift for my fiancée. Nothing but stress from the moment the deposit cleared. That seems to be the pattern with Tim all smiles until the money lands, then good luck getting a response out of him. The finance broker has also gone quiet.
Every negative review on here is true. I wish I’d read them before buying. Do your due diligence I didn’t and I’m still dealing with the consequences.
Stay well clear of Tim Boler and The Car Barns.

UPDATE: since this review was posted:
Since leaving this honest review, the dealer contacted me via WhatsApp and threatened to leave a retaliatory negative review on my business in direct response to my legitimate review of his. He also made a written accusation that I had attempted to launder money in connection with this purchase.
These WhatsApp exchanges are documented and have been submitted as evidence to the finance broker as a formal complaint. They are also available to any relevant authority upon request.
Prospective customers should draw their own conclusions about a dealer whose response to a legitimate complaint is threats and defamatory accusations rather than resolution.

There once was a fellow named Will,
Who fancied a Golf—silver, smart, with a thrill,
From Car Barns he’d buy,
With CarPlay—oh my!—
“Fully working!” they said with a swill.

But the fuel cap is stubbornly stuck,
And the CarPlay? Well… purely bad luck.
He’s WhatsApped with care,
Sees blue ticks just stare—
Yet silence is all he’s been struck.

In summary, the advert said full service history and it doesn’t, the features they promised don’t work, the fuel cap is stuck shut and Tim has left my messages unread asking if someone could look at the small issues. They seem friendly, helpful and professional at first but I advise you to AVOID.

I listed my range rover on Motorway and The car barns was the highest bidder and I was happy with the price. Unfortunately that's where my experience deteriorated, I never heard from the car barns, it was around christmas so I was expecting that. But come the new year I still hadn't heard from them so I called them, Tim answered and I informed him who I was and that he had agreed to buy our vehicle. He arranged a collection day with me for the 6th January in the morning. I took a day off work as im self employed to wait for collection to take place. By 15.00 hours there was no sign of Tim so I called and he informed me 2 staff members where off but his wife had an appointment local to my address on the 7th January so he would be with me by 11am, again I took a day off and by 12.00 no sign of Tim so I called him and he didn't answer so 20 minutes later I called him off my wife's mobile phone and he answered, when I told him it was me he said I will call you back in 5 minutes with and ETA. 2 hours passed and nothing so I called him again and no answer now from either of our numbers. This man has cost me money as I havent been able to earn due to taking 2 days off due to his false promises of him collecting the car he had agreed to purchase via The Motorway site. From my brief experience of Tim and the car barns I would advise anyone thinking of having any kind of dealings with him or the company to be extremely careful. Everything he arranged with us has been a load of rubbish.

Wish I'd of read the reviews of this dealership before I purchased a car from them - all the negative reviews are all 100% true... Purchased a car which had a small issue with its reversing camera which I was assured would be fixed by a local garage, as it was only a small issue - I went ahead with the purchase. Of course, that's the last I ever heard from them, they didn't arrange any repairs for the camera despite multiple emails, phone calls and texts which were all ignored (just like everyone else mentions in their reviews). Luckily it's only a small fix, but should anything serious of gone wrong with the car and there was a much bigger issue - they won't be there to fix it, there's no aftercare, they'll ignore you too, not worth risking it! Avoid this dealer, they're just crooks with a nice smile.

I bought a car from here and it has a fault which occurred within 3 week of buying it. When I tried to contact tim he blatantly ignored me and I have had to go through the finance company to rectify the issue

Purchased a Jaguar Ftype August 2025, with a warranty that was supposed to last 6 months.. A fault occurred within 4 weeks of having the car, when I called Tim he was very apologetic and promised to resolve it. But he did nothing about it. I asked for the warranty details and I asked for the schedule, I event offered to sort the issue myself under warranty. But no warranty details were ever given. To this day Tim has not supplied any details on the warranty and avoids my calls and ignores my messages. Please do not buy from this company they are very dishonest and I am seeking legal advise.

5 stars out of 5.

From the initial response from Tim to the handover of the Range Rover Evoque from Charlie we were very impressed and happy with The CarBarns. No hassle or issues at all.

Please note I don't understand these negative reviews on this Trustpilot portal at all.

Gavin

At first you think Tim is a really nice, honest and straight guy - as things progress you realise its all a front and behind the smile is a dealer not sticking to what he says or promises

Don't leave having paid for your car and expect the promises made of warranty being sent on and the 1 year MOT being accurate to actually happen. expect then to be ghosted for weeks on end and when you do finally get in touch with Tim again - probably on holiday and keen to tell you and make you feel your disrupting his break - you'll only be given more false promises and the promise of being ghosted again

The car we bought had faulty brakes, a bulging tyre and damage underneath, it had possibly been in an accident. We were unaware of that on leaving the Barns. It would NOT have passed MOT, it was potentially dangerous. We paid for repairs. No repayment or apology from Tim. So now taking court action against company with photographic and written evidence.
Please be very aware and avoid buying from this company. Cars are well priced but need to come with a health warning!!

I bought a car from Tim at Car Barns at the back end of 2023, after ignoring my gut feeling and after reading bad reviews, I thought it would not happen to me, well it did! The staff were keen to answer calls and enquiries about the car prior to the sale, everything seemed great. After a couple of days of having the car it started popping out of 2nd gear, I reported this as an issue to a colleague of Tim's (who I can only assume that has left because of the complete shower it is working for him), I mean I don't have proof of that but I can only imagine! Tim said he would sort this and pay for it in full (I have messages as proof). Trying to contact Tim was a total nightmare, he would not answer my calls, he would then message me to say he would get in contact with me but he did not. I had to ring constantly, time after time to which I assume he was getting rather annoyed, but if he answered in the first place then I would not have needed to do this. I even spoke with his wife who assured me that this problem would be fixed. Tim said he would extend my 3 month warranty to 6 months (what is the point in this if you are not even going to fix the problem?!). Tim is a pathological liar, he told me he was going to drive to where I live which is approx 4 hours drive with a gearbox to drop off at my local garage for them to fit it, I agreed to this thinking he is trying to make up for no contact etc but guess what he never turned up! In the end I gave up, even after sending a letter to start court proceedings, I just could not deal with the stress that this caused. Needless to say I have had no further contact from this man to try and sort my still broken car. DO NOT BUY FROM TIM BOWLER THE CAR IS NOT WORTH IT!!!! Check out his wonderful reviews on Trustpilot!

Organised a trip having placed a deposit with the promise of being collected from the train station.
Car did not have a towbar as described in sales blurb. Discount negotiated.
Car developed fault within five days. In limp mode and fault isn't covered by warranty.
Cost to rectify is £900
Contacted Tim and nothing. No after sales care what so ever - hasn't responded to emails
Avoid.

Discussed vehicle and the price was increased on listing every other hour. Tim
agreed to match initial sale price and then sent photos of damage to vehicle which was not advertised. Still agreed to go ahead book appointment to view the car. Next day listing was marked ‘sold’ and no response. Bunch of cowboys. Do not trust with any vehicle purchases. Avoid at all costs.

Just completed the sale of my car with Tim through Motorway. Everything went smoothly even though we only gave Tim 2 days of availability for collection ,he kindly agreed to collect on Saturday morning! Recommended!

SCAM WARNING, BE AWARE OF THIS DEALER. Tim is an absolute disgrace and a dishonour to the car community, whilst promising a car viewing, he had decided to sell the car when this had already been arranged. Which was clearly stated, Tim was well aware of this too before deciding to ghost me. This also means that I was unable to get my deposit back of a few thousand pounds, I am disgusted by his service. From over 45 years of experience with cars, never have I felt so disrespected. THIS IS A WARNING TO OTHER CUSTOMERS, DO NOT BUY FROM HIM.

i Not recommended this at all, 2 weeks that I want to try contacting them they don't respond me I call them send them messages on WhatsApp, they just don't care. I least just tell that declined or confirm

Absolutely shocking and dishonest, Tim Boler ows money to us ..5 weeks in and still getting ( we will sort it ) avoid the company like the plague...
Why the need to rip honest people off ???

DO NOT BUY ANY CAR FROM THIS DEALER! my experience was a nightmare, they sold me a dodgy/ faulty Mercedes E250 back in June/ July 2024. The Car developed problems with 2-3 months of driving. The coolant kept drying up. I was always spending money on coolant. Once my bonnet was steaming on A406, temperature went up to nearly 120 on the gauge. Had to stop on the roadside with my kids in the car. Another time in slow traffic it started bringing up smoke/ steam, very scary experience.!!!

This dealer refused to take back the car. I rejected it as it was still within 6 months. I had given them the opportunity to fix the car twice. The car kept leaking coolant. It was a nightmare.

In the end i contacted the finance company who were AMAZING-- (Startline Finance).

Dealer refused to engage, refused to take the car back, even when i changed my mind giving them the opportunity to fix the problem after 2 failed attempts. I was willing to let them try a 3rd time. But what did they do? They were asking for compensation payment from the finance , relying on the legal grounds that i has caused 'further on damage' by continuing to drive the car after the independent vehicle inspection mechanic had asked me not to. Two lovely independent mechanics from Scotia inspected the car and told them the problem was from a hose, and they had done something wrong when they tried fixing the car. - I need a car, I have kids, how am i meant to get around? Inspection or not! i got the car to drive around. Common sense prevailed in the end. I stopped driving.

Still, this dealer remained adamant, refusing accountability nor taking responsibility that they had advertised a faulty car for sale to the public. Which in itself is a crime, misrepresentation/ deception- Faulty goods.

Fast forward,as advised by Scotia, i no longer drove the car from November 2024 till February 12th 2025 when the car was finally collected by the finance.

The finance compensated me, the dealer still refused to engage. They are a very dishonest company. DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM AT ALL.

The company is 100% crooked. I paid a lot of money for a car, which developed a fault. Despite numerous attempts to contact Tim, I have had zero response. Seriously, keep your distance and send this rogue trader to the scrapheap.

Update 17-Mar-25: I have provided evidence to Trustpilot to verify that I am genuine. The comments below are another attempt to deceive honest, hard working people. Buyers beware.