Starlet_Sam
Moderator, Regional Area Reps Supervisor & Gay Car
First off, forget that I am a moderator. I am writing this on behalf of myself and only myself. I am not speaking on behalf of TGTT.com.
Some of you may have noticed that DNA Cars (a certain Mr. Jonathan Davis) are no longer traders on this site. Some of you may not have noticed. Personally, I have had the unfortunate experience of being the main basis for his removal.
Get a brew, it's a looooooooooooong story.
A lot will know that I sold my EP82 last year so I could buy a turbo'd MX5. I first contacted DNA Cars in late 2007 (!!!!!) to enquire about importing a car. I had a very exact spec that I wanted and a very clear picture in my mind of what I wanted. I paid him a deposit and off he went to find me something. Over the coming months Jonathan sent me some cars (not as many as I would have expected), none of which were to my liking and the ones I did like he couldn't find much in the way of detail for them. I passed on all of these because they felt like a bit of a gamble.
Anyway, in July I found a great bargain price K26 turbo kit (apparently £3k new!) for £399 so I told DNA Cars that if I got it I would just get an N/A car and turbo it myself. He had a car in stock that he said was his wife's (which he seems to be saying about a lot of cars he is selling!), and he invited me to view it. Myself and Dub-Se7en did so and to be honest it was a bit tatty. It seemed mechanically sound though and he offered to do a lot of work in order to secure the deal. Myself and Dub-Se7en drew up a list of things that we felt would make it a top notch base from which to start the project. This consisted of:
Full respray.
Front bumper for standard or repaired.
Front wing needs realigning.
Arches need sorting and over fenders put on.
Rocker cover gasket needs a change (oil down the exhaust side of the block).
Boot lid needs replacing or holes need welding up (filler will eventually sag and will be easy to see).
Rear window needs fixing.
Boot catch needs fixing.
Side skirts need taking off and cleaned up underneath.
Interior instrument cowling needs replacing.
With this he also agreed that if I bought and sent him the wide arches he would have them fitted.
I agreed to this and sent him more money to get him started on it.
Bare in mind that I agreed and paid at the start of August. Well there was delay after delay from Jonathan and on 9th November I finally picked the car up. All looked good and all seemed well. I got it home in the worst weather ever and covered it up at my parent's house. Over the coming weeks I was too busy to do any work on it, but come the Christmas holidays from work I went to fit the new clutch with Streetech. What we found was a long list of problems, the most severe being modifications that should have been there weren't and the "brand new" paint job was starting to flake around the rear arches.
The rest of the paint wasn't great either, dull areas around the rear of the car. By the way, the car was wet when I picked up, hence these areas weren't visible, but I had no reason to believe that the job hadn't been done to a high standard. After all, Jonathan had told me that this was the best paint job that the body shop had done in long time (I'd hate to see a shit job come out of there).
I rang Jonathan after we found the paint problems (they were found first) and he said he'd sort it. After I found the rest of the problems I promptly rejected the car and requested a full refund as the law entitles me to. The was refused.
Over the coming months I had to go out of my way to prove that the problems did entitle me to a refund, I even had to prove the exhaust was the one it came out of the factory with. Believe it or not when I told him it was a standard exhaust I was told that it was aftermarket, that may mean performance or standard replacement! So this guy could buy one from Kwik-Fit and sell it as aftermarket. Totally misleading. This was something that in court he said was a mistake and he was only going by what he was told on the auction sheets. This shows that this guy doesn't check his cars over once they land, that's even if he buys them in Japan and not from Southampton docks!
Yes, from that paragraph you found out that I had to take this guy to court to try to get my money back. I made this guy offers that would lose me money so it didn't have to go that far, but stupidly he thought he had a cast iron case. Fortunately, I had a decent assistant and I had an ever growing knowledge of consumer and contract law.
It was in August this year when we finally got to the hearing and it was a fantastic outing, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. We were sat with a very nice District Judge for all of 35 mins, which is a very short hearing considering both parties turned up. This shows how much of an open and shut case it truly was, the District Judge even said, and I quote “Mr. Davis, you don't seem to have much of a defence. In fact, you don't have a defence at all”. I kid you not, I would have let Jonathan keep the money and the car for a framed picture of his face when he heard that. A true Kodak moment.
I finally got my money a few weeks later and Jonathan came to collect the car, full of bullshit excuses as to why it got so far. I like to think my tone of voice told him I wasn't interested.
You may have thought that he would have learnt his lesson, but alas this is not so. I am having to take him back to court as he refuses to return the arches that he admits are my property. I won't go into that too much, as it's an ongoing case.
To conclude, it is my opinion (Yes Jonathan, my OPINION so nothing libellous here) that DNA Cars proprietor Jonathan Davis of Southampton is a chancer and if he can get away with it a cheat. He tries to bully people into submission, he tried it with me and others have come forward to me with their stories. He won't listen to any laws unless he thinks they are in his favour and he doesn't learn from his mistakes.
I would never ever use him again, and if he had a part I desperately needed I would scrap my car before I bought it off him. If you have a deposit with him, GET IT BACK!
Some of you may have noticed that DNA Cars (a certain Mr. Jonathan Davis) are no longer traders on this site. Some of you may not have noticed. Personally, I have had the unfortunate experience of being the main basis for his removal.
Get a brew, it's a looooooooooooong story.
A lot will know that I sold my EP82 last year so I could buy a turbo'd MX5. I first contacted DNA Cars in late 2007 (!!!!!) to enquire about importing a car. I had a very exact spec that I wanted and a very clear picture in my mind of what I wanted. I paid him a deposit and off he went to find me something. Over the coming months Jonathan sent me some cars (not as many as I would have expected), none of which were to my liking and the ones I did like he couldn't find much in the way of detail for them. I passed on all of these because they felt like a bit of a gamble.
Anyway, in July I found a great bargain price K26 turbo kit (apparently £3k new!) for £399 so I told DNA Cars that if I got it I would just get an N/A car and turbo it myself. He had a car in stock that he said was his wife's (which he seems to be saying about a lot of cars he is selling!), and he invited me to view it. Myself and Dub-Se7en did so and to be honest it was a bit tatty. It seemed mechanically sound though and he offered to do a lot of work in order to secure the deal. Myself and Dub-Se7en drew up a list of things that we felt would make it a top notch base from which to start the project. This consisted of:
Full respray.
Front bumper for standard or repaired.
Front wing needs realigning.
Arches need sorting and over fenders put on.
Rocker cover gasket needs a change (oil down the exhaust side of the block).
Boot lid needs replacing or holes need welding up (filler will eventually sag and will be easy to see).
Rear window needs fixing.
Boot catch needs fixing.
Side skirts need taking off and cleaned up underneath.
Interior instrument cowling needs replacing.
With this he also agreed that if I bought and sent him the wide arches he would have them fitted.
I agreed to this and sent him more money to get him started on it.
Bare in mind that I agreed and paid at the start of August. Well there was delay after delay from Jonathan and on 9th November I finally picked the car up. All looked good and all seemed well. I got it home in the worst weather ever and covered it up at my parent's house. Over the coming weeks I was too busy to do any work on it, but come the Christmas holidays from work I went to fit the new clutch with Streetech. What we found was a long list of problems, the most severe being modifications that should have been there weren't and the "brand new" paint job was starting to flake around the rear arches.
The rest of the paint wasn't great either, dull areas around the rear of the car. By the way, the car was wet when I picked up, hence these areas weren't visible, but I had no reason to believe that the job hadn't been done to a high standard. After all, Jonathan had told me that this was the best paint job that the body shop had done in long time (I'd hate to see a shit job come out of there).
I rang Jonathan after we found the paint problems (they were found first) and he said he'd sort it. After I found the rest of the problems I promptly rejected the car and requested a full refund as the law entitles me to. The was refused.
Over the coming months I had to go out of my way to prove that the problems did entitle me to a refund, I even had to prove the exhaust was the one it came out of the factory with. Believe it or not when I told him it was a standard exhaust I was told that it was aftermarket, that may mean performance or standard replacement! So this guy could buy one from Kwik-Fit and sell it as aftermarket. Totally misleading. This was something that in court he said was a mistake and he was only going by what he was told on the auction sheets. This shows that this guy doesn't check his cars over once they land, that's even if he buys them in Japan and not from Southampton docks!
Yes, from that paragraph you found out that I had to take this guy to court to try to get my money back. I made this guy offers that would lose me money so it didn't have to go that far, but stupidly he thought he had a cast iron case. Fortunately, I had a decent assistant and I had an ever growing knowledge of consumer and contract law.
It was in August this year when we finally got to the hearing and it was a fantastic outing, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. We were sat with a very nice District Judge for all of 35 mins, which is a very short hearing considering both parties turned up. This shows how much of an open and shut case it truly was, the District Judge even said, and I quote “Mr. Davis, you don't seem to have much of a defence. In fact, you don't have a defence at all”. I kid you not, I would have let Jonathan keep the money and the car for a framed picture of his face when he heard that. A true Kodak moment.
I finally got my money a few weeks later and Jonathan came to collect the car, full of bullshit excuses as to why it got so far. I like to think my tone of voice told him I wasn't interested.
You may have thought that he would have learnt his lesson, but alas this is not so. I am having to take him back to court as he refuses to return the arches that he admits are my property. I won't go into that too much, as it's an ongoing case.
To conclude, it is my opinion (Yes Jonathan, my OPINION so nothing libellous here) that DNA Cars proprietor Jonathan Davis of Southampton is a chancer and if he can get away with it a cheat. He tries to bully people into submission, he tried it with me and others have come forward to me with their stories. He won't listen to any laws unless he thinks they are in his favour and he doesn't learn from his mistakes.
I would never ever use him again, and if he had a part I desperately needed I would scrap my car before I bought it off him. If you have a deposit with him, GET IT BACK!
