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If you’re looking to buy a used car online, cinch is a popular brand in the UK that you can use. The brand offers a lot of different vehicles that vary depending on the manufacturer and fuel type, and they also offer electric cars too.
With cinch, you can buy the cars outright, although their most significant selling point is that the business offers multiple finance plans to help customers pay for their cars in a more affordable way.
By spreading the cost over a period between 36- 60 months, it allows some potential drivers to get quality cars that were previously out of their price range.
cinch has gone from strength to strength in recent years and has quickly risen to be one of the best places for people in the UK to buy a car without any hassle.
If you’re curious about finding out more about cinch and how good their service is, here’s a detailed review to ensure that you’re in the know about the online car marketplace.
The review will explore the key features of cinch, what makes them good, what makes them bad, and also look at how past customers have reviewed the online car marketplace.
We also have plenty more reviews here on Car Adviser and general car buying guides that can be useful.
cinch is an online car marketplace based in the UK. The business was first started in 2019, meaning it’s one of the newest brands within the automotive industry. Despite its infancy, the brand has become a market leader in the country, offering thousands of different cars to customers across Mainland GB, The Isle of Wight and the Scottish Islands.
The company is part of the Constellation Automotive Group, which also includes notable brands such as WeBuyAnyCar.com. This partnership means that cinch will likely get their vehicles from those that are sold to WeBuyAnyCar, although they will also get their cars from other sources.
cinch offers high-end used cars that make them stand out and be unique. This means that they only sell cars that have been thoroughly checked and come with a 90 days warranty and a 14-day money-back guarantee. This helps customers to buy great cars they can trust to serve them well for a long time.
cinch’s biggest thing is that they offer simple and easy-to-use Car Finance. They offer two finance options, a Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) or a Hire Purchase (HP). These two options differ, helping customers get a finance option that suits their requirements.
cinch has multiple tools on its website to help make car finance easy to understand so that you know what you’re getting yourself in for. In fact, with all the tools, guidance and helpful videos, it’s clear that cinch is a business that’s on your side and wants to make things as straightforward for the customer as possible.
The entire mission statement of cinch is that they do all they can to make car buying – a once notoriously complicated process – simple and easy to do. They achieve this by making the car buying process online as straightforward as simply pressing a button.
On their website, you can browse through multiple different cars, seeing information such as the year the vehicle was registered, the mileage of the car, its fuel type, and its cost both outright and through a pay-monthly finance plan.
cinch goes even further than this, though, as once you have purchased your car, they’ll be able to arrange free home delivery to your property. This means you just have to sit back and wait for the vehicle to arrive. This may take up to a week, so there is always the option to collect the car from one of WeBuyAnyCar’s convenient branches instead.
Of course, buying a car online without getting to view the vehicle first to inspect it for damages or without being able to have a test drive can be a bit risky. However, cinch does a great job mitigating this risk by clearly marking up any imperfections onsite and offering a free 90-day warranty to ensure you’re protected.
One of the biggest things cinch does is that every car sold on their site has been through rigorous quality checks. cinch has high standards, so these checks are strict and comprehensive, looking at the safety and performance of the vehicle.
cinch checks things such as the engine – including an oil inspection, brakes, bodywork, wheels, tyres, windows and mirrors, lights, and the underbody. When checking these parts, the team looks to see if anything is broken or shows signs of wear.
In addition, their team inspects more minor details, such as the car’s steering, onboard systems, luggage compartments, heating and ventilation, and more. All of this is done to ensure that every car is quality.
That’s not all, though. When you get a car with cinch, you’re also getting a vehicle that comes with a lot of extra features. For example, all the cars available on the site come with a minimum 6-month MOT. This means that you won’t need to get your car reviewed for another half a year, giving you something less to worry about.
The online marketplace also offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. This gives customers ample time to experience the car first-hand to figure out if it’s right for them. If you’re not a fan of the vehicle, cinch will arrange to pick it up free of charge and quickly return any exchanged money back to you. A 14-day guarantee is long within the industry, making cinch an industry leader in this regard.
All their cars come with a free 90-day warranty at the very least, meaning that if any issues arise on the vehicle, that’ll be covered by cinch’s warranty. This ensures that you’ll be getting a quality, well-working car.
Finally, when you get a car from cinch, they’ll also offer three days of insurance which can be useful to tide you over and allow you to drive your car instantly without any issues.
Agreeing to a finance plan with cinch is easy to follow, and you should be set within 24 hours. The first thing you need to do is select your ideal car.
Once you’ve found one, using its various tools to narrow down your choices, you’ll be able to get a quote that works for you. You can adjust the quote by altering how much you want as a deposit, and the cinch calculator will adjust your quote accordingly.
Once you have a quote, you’ll be able to apply. You’ll need to fill out details such as your past addresses and bank details to check your affordability. Once you’ve applied, cinch’s panel of lenders will decide if you can be offered car finance. This should take up to 24 hours.
Once you have an offer, you’ll need to confirm it by providing a digital ID check to ensure that you’re a real, reliable person.
You’ll have around five days to do this, and your car is reserved during this period, meaning no one else can buy it. Once you have completed these steps, you’ll have a finance plan sorted and be able to drive your new car.
cinch offers two different finance plans, and they work a bit differently:
A Personal Contract Purchase is where you can buy the car at the end of the finance plan, although most people will give the car back to cinch and simply get a new one at the end of it. The benefit of this plan is that the monthly payments are usually a lot lower, allowing you to upgrade to better, more current options.
A Hire Purchase is where you’re paying each month to own the car at the end eventually. Buying the car at the end of the agreement means you’ll be able to sell the car or make modifications to it at the end of the finance plan. The monthly payments are usually higher with this option.
Each finance plan can last between 36-60 months, and they will often have an average 11.4% APR.
Here at Car Adviser, we believe that one of the best ways to determine whether an online business is good or not is to look at past reviews completed by previous customers. Reviews are an excellent way to gain a deeper insight into what is being handled well at a company, and it also informs you about how satisfied past customers have been.
You should pay attention to review scores when evaluating a website to buy used cars on, as these reviews can help you learn if the website is trustworthy and if they live up to its branding and promises.
Some businesses have great reputations due to their marketing and brand image, but in reality, their performance could be lacking. Looking at reviews can help you obtain more accurate details of a business and build a true-to-life expectation of the service.
The prime review website online is Trustpilot. This site has thousands upon thousands of reviews, all written by verified reviewers. These reviews can score a company between 1 to 5 stars, and all these scores are aggregated to create a definitive final score for each business.
Trustpilot is the most reputable review website online because they have a lot of security features to minimise bot or spam reviews, meaning that most reviews are legitimate and can be trusted.
Here’s a more in-depth look at how cinch reviews on Trustpilot to see if they’re one of the best car marketplaces.
cinch has obtained a very respectable 4.4 score out of a possible 5. This is after over 31,000 reviews, a large volume of data indicating that this review score can be trusted and represents the general consensus of most past customers. With this score giving cinch an excellent rating on the reviews site, it means that it is one of the best places to get a car online.
Many other online car marketplaces have a similar review score, such as the more established Cazoo. However, a lot of the other brands have yet to be able to obtain as many reviews, meaning that cinch can be considered the more widely liked business.
Out of all the reviews, 84% of people gave cinch a full 5-star review, with a further 8% giving the business 4 stars. This means that around 92% of reviewers had an overwhelmingly positive experience with the company.
In contrast, only 4% of reviews gave a 1-star rating, meaning that complaints and issues are rare and not something most cinch users will experience.
Although most people have given cinch a great review and were happy with the service and the quality of the cars that they’ve received, there were a few complaints and issues found within the reviews.
Of these complaints and low-ranking reviews, it’s clear that some problems repeat themselves, meaning that these are things that new customers may need to look out for.
Out of the 4% of poor reviews, one common issue was that some cars were delivered with clear and obvious faults. For example, one reviewer stated that an engine warning light was on and that returning the car and repairing it was a bit of an issue. cinch pledge that all their vehicles are checked before they’re sold, but some cars may still slip through the cracks.
Another common complaint that can be found is that the customer service can be a bit lacking. Many of those who complain state that it takes a long time to get any assistance and that it’s hard to arrange inspections or servicing through cinch itself. That said, usually, there aren’t many problems, and most people are happy with the experience they had with cinch.
There’s a lot to like about cinch, and when looking through the positive reviews, it’s clear to see that past users and customers have praised many aspects of the business. In fact, even in some of the more critical reviews, people still like to point out a few things that cinch do well.
One of the most overwhelming pieces of praise for cinch is that many people found the process of choosing a car and buying it online was super easy. The website layout was well-liked, and many people were super happy with the various tools you can use to make finding a car easier.
For example, many people loved the ‘find my perfect car’ function, as it allowed them to look for cars that matched their specific requirements.
Another thing many people point out in the positive reviews is that cinch provides many details about the car you’re buying. Many people have appreciated this transparency as it has meant that it was easier to find a car that was in good condition.
Another common praise is that many past users of cinch enjoyed the 14-day trial period. This allowed these users to really get a good understanding of the car and helped them figure out if it was right for them.
Not only was this an excellent, long period, but people who didn’t fancy the car after that time also spoke about how easy it was to return it and get it replaced with another option.
When buying a vehicle from an online marketplace, you need to weigh the various pros and cons to help you ensure that the brand and the cars they offer are right for you.
Thankfully, it should be clear by now that cinch is an online marketplace with many benefits and positives that make it one of the best places to buy a car online. That said, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of when considering this marketplace.
Pros
Cons
cinch is a platform that allows users to purchase cars, either outright or through financing. At this time, cinch does not provide a platform for selling cars. However, they do offer the option of part-exchanging a car when purchasing a new one from cinch.
If you are looking to sell your car, one option is to visit a partner within the Constellation Automotive Group and try selling it on WeBuyAnyCar.com.
It is worth noting that while Cinch does not currently offer a service to purchase cars, they have stated that they may explore this possibility in the future.
Yes, all cinch cars will come with at least six months of road tax remaining, and some vehicles can have more than this too.
This means that you'll be able to use the car for an extended time before paying for these services and checks. Make sure you tax the car under your name when you purchase it.
As well as tax, cinch cars will also come with a warranty and short-term insurance to make it easier for new owners to enjoy their cars quickly.
Due to the quality checks, each car goes through, the countless assurances and guarantees, and the reputation the business has gotten, it's clear that cinch is one of the safest places to buy a car online.
cinch provides many details about the car they sell online and is transparent about the condition of the vehicle you're interested in.
They offer a money-back guarantee if there's anything wrong with your car, too, meaning there is little to no risk when getting a vehicle from cinch.
cinch likely is one of the best places to buy a car online, thanks to all the measures they put in place for their customers. So, if you're looking for a used car, be sure to consider cinch.
cinch offers a wide array of different cars, meaning you can get any type you want. This means that cinch is equally as suitable for those looking for a family-friendly estate car as those looking for a fun and sporty coupe.
cinch offers cars fueled by both petrol and diesel, and you can also get fully electric and hybrid vehicles from the service, which is excellent for those looking to reduce their carbon footprint.
All the cars sold on cinch are previously owned, however, they all come with a 90 days warranty. This means that these cars are in good condition and are likely to last you a long time.
cinch also carefully reviews the cars before they are sold, meaning that you're unlikely to get any vehicles that have been written off or have experienced a great deal of damage.
cinch only wants quality and reliable cars and only uses vehicles registered in the UK, meaning they do not sell cars exported from a different country.