Have to agree with Trigger. Even the worst service I have had at a Subaru dealer was ten times better than at any other make's main dealers. Land Rover are particularly bad and are supposed to be selling "premium" products with "premium" service?

 

I've only had experience of one dealer in the UK - Lancaster Pangbourne. No experience on the sales side ( - got mine from Gertjan's in Holland) but so far they've been brilliant on the services side, and I would seriously recommend them.

One of the worst places I came across was a Ford dealer in Reading. Having taken the car in for the third time complaining about a grinding noise in the transmission, I had a flaming row with the Services Manager in the middle of a packed reception area, and insisted that he came out with me in the car there and then, so I could demonstrate exactly why the problem couldn't be "tyre noise"!! Funnily enough, I always seemed to get preferential treatment after that!

[This message has been edited by PeteC (edited 23 February 2001).]

 

Best Dealer: Gertjan van der Velde in Zuid Beijerland, Netherlands. Top guy, extremely helpful, wonderfully Dutch. Saved me a small king's ransom.

Nick.

 

Jonathan,
Yes I did indeed buy a second hand P1 and it was your old one, lovely motor and seems to have been very well run in by yourself, thanks. How come you got rid?

Adam

 

Adams appear to be pricey, but are servicing my car now with a price match to Quenbys...Cool! my loan car for the day is one a New Impreza. I quite like it...from the inside and to drive!

Sales staff are always very helpful and friendly, particularly Simon Bucknall.

 

Days of Chelmsford have been good to us too, which is lucky cos they are our nearest dealer.....

My next nearest dealer is Welch of Shelford, my experience of them was when I previously thought of buying an Impreza in 1997, asked them if they could get a fleet demonstrator for me, they laughed, I contacted IM direct and managed to get one for a week.........Welch were staggered

PS - didn't buy one then cos they looked really bland then, six months delivery, and they wouldn't give me a discount.....never paid full price for a car in my life, including our two MY00's, and aren't going to start now....

 

I'ev had some truly awful experiences with some dealers:

BMW - Preston Hall, Cleveland (Used to be Cowies) - Bought 2 cars from them, couldn't be arsed to sort out minor niggles so gave me my money back. Twice! My car was damaged while on their premises and they accused be of trying it on! Wrote to the MD who sorted it! (Note: The MD is nearly always NOT the Dealer Principal. So, if you get the run around by the 'Top Man' (so he thinks!) get the Company Details (available via

 

Now strange things are afoot here....

I bought my scoob from SGT (Maidenhead) can't remember if I was wearing jeans or not,anyway they were excellent, even took me for a spin in a Lotus Elise while I was waiting fot the impreza to be preped !!

Also I get my car serviced at Quenby's )Baldock) and have never had a problem...

Maybe they just don't like the look of some people !!! Did you turn up in an import ?

 

OK by now, you must think I have shares in them, but I can't fault Robinson's of Rochdale.

No quibble prices and they are realistic people even though they have to deal with some loonies.

Have always rustled me up a courtesy car despite me always saying I wouldn't want one before I got there.

Yeah, maybe some dealer's are better than others, but they are a world away from the "mass" manufacturers in attitude and service.

 

Right,

Bell&Colvill - I've had good and bad with these guys. I would agree that some of the salesmen are 'snooty' fortunately some have also been sacked recently and fortunately I managed to pick the right ones to talk to on both occasions.. Except when I was looking at an Elise, then had to deal with the Lotus side. Service wise, not had any bad experiences, they've always seemed to have done there up most to accomodate my car for various things.. But if you ever need anything parts wise, speak to Jerry or Gary in the new shop, they are brilliant.

Mill Lane - excellent all rounders, price, service, knowledge, thuroughness (SP!), they spotted things that I didnt even ask them to look at, which has got to be a good sign... Plus they always come out tops on pricing.

Worst experiences, Vauxhall dealer in Guildford when looking at the VX220 just wasnt interested...

And WHITES OF CAMBERLEY, they are all complete ar$es in there, the sales side, the service side, and the managment side all utter cr@p... DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE MORONS, YOU WILL GET BURNT!

 

I need to disagree with the comments re: Subaru dealers being a class above "normal" manufacturers. I had two Fiestas before my Scoob, and two dealers - TFL in Putney and Asta in Addlestone both provided excellent service. Both provided a free courtesy when required, and both valeted the car after a service. They might not have been enthusiasts (as if a Fiesta 1.3 LX could get you excited), but were right up there on customer satisfaction.

 

Worst dealer I've ever come across was TW Whites (Mazda) in Weybridge and Bookham. They sold me a car with an illegal exhaust and modified suspension. Firstly they never managed to set up the suspension properly so it drove like a complete pig, and they had produced a MOT certificate when there was no way the exhaust could possibly have passed. I needed to speak to the MD before it was resolved. They are terrible.

 

Trigger,

Funny you should mention TW Whites (Mazda) in Bookham because one of my Dad's friends sons is doing his apprentiship there. When he was 16 they let him move the cars around and surprise, surprise he managed to reverse one of them into something. Also he has told me about how they had a customers RX7 in so they decided to take it for a thrash down young street....

For non Subaru dealers I would also avoid :

Reevethorp Renault in Kingston : Denied all knowledge the car they sold me had been in a crash and lied about number of owners. Took it back for some minor repairs (leaking window, leaking sump) and they completely bodged them.

Citygate Fiat in Epsom : Where do I start We placed an order for a Punto and they forgot to order it for us. I got so annoyed I cancelled the order so they decided to take the deposit out of my account anyway (£3500). Went into the dealership and was told the salesman had the day off. I then saw him hiding round the back so pointed him out. He told me that I couldn't have the money back for a week (We were going to pick up a car the next day so needed the money) Phoned Fiat head office who didn't want to know, phoned the managing director and he told my girlfriend that if she kept moaning she wouldn't get the money back at all. We could also hear the salesmen laughing in the background. They also lied about a fiat coupe they had saying it was ex demo, I later found out it was returned because of a blown engine!!

So they lost £7000 on the Punto and £21000 on the coupe I was going to buy (Got the scoob instead )

 

Spudgun
I use Osborne(Colchester) apart from being given an ancient Rover as a "courtesy" car with no heater last week, they seem OK. What have they done to you?

 

Got mine from Fenny Compton - about to use Quenby for the 1yr service.... Anyone got any thoughts on this ?

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Dave P:
<B>best gatwick cars crawley...

worst lancaster sevenoaks..... over a year and still waiting for my replacement stereo[/quote]

I totally agree Lancaster @ Sevenoaks are totally Crap "What After sales" My car came back with more damage than it went in with. the manager needs to take a refresher course in customer support (a new concept to him)



[This message has been edited by SuperGlue (edited 25 February 2001).]

 

Worst :

Tiley Bristol. Treated me like dirt when I went there to buy a car. So I bought a WRX instead

Best :

Scoobysport - got the downpipe and centre from there. Very friendly, expert advice, enthusiasts.

DRJ Carmarthen, Wales - Get the major services there - friendly, very cheap, excellent advice, enthusiasts.

 

Best.. Lavender Hill Garage in Enfield and ( shock horror) Riviera Fiat in Colney hatch Lane. Excellent service.. wirtie to you when service is due and call to remind you, loan car ready and yours come back spotless and the sales team there are excellent.

Worst oh dear Rover.. I don't know where to start but I haver never found a Rover dealer that was any good. The worst one was in Watford and were crap with car suffering from 3 engine failures , 13 yes 13 new alternators and broke down about 20 times in a year... BUT

The worst dealer in the whole world was North City Autos in Stratford who I bought a Fiat Strada Abarth from. They car was totally thrashed between ordering it and taking it away and spent 3 months having the engine rebuilt before I got to drive it again . They screwed up various things and failed to do stuff they had promised. Fiat UK said there was no problem, after they did an investiagtion when I complained , which was odd as they never got my side of the story. So I wrote to Gianni Agnelli , the man who owned Fiat, in Italy, who took away their Fiat dealer status. My car was with them at the time for something else they'd cocked up on . They called to say it was finished but when I got there I found they'd liquidated and changed compnay names to Autostrada and were doing donuts with my car in the car park. They left the keys in the car and scarpered and when I got to the car theys punched a series of holes in the bodywork with a screwdriver.

Anyone beat that ??

Oh and what is it with being underdressed and car dealers acting like idiots . When are they going to realise that you don't go shopping wearing a suit and just because you might look a bit scruffy it is no indicator of if you can afford the car or not.

Oh and Bell & Colvill don't return phone calls even when you have £30K cash to give them.


AllanB

 

I cant stay quiet long so here is my effort

Bought my car from Simpsons in Highworth, Swindon - top sales, top P/X, great. The 1000 mile service was carried out by them (great service centre) sadly, they missed fundamentals on that service that Mill Lane, Basingstoke picked up on the 7500 miler, which was a shame. Worst for sales has to be Sparshatts - that, by the way, is the WORST of ANY garage/salesperson I have EVER dealt with - the young lads 'on the front line' were great, polite, reasonable - the Sales Manager (in March 2000 - he cant still be there now) was a complete ********* fill in the blanks Cannot comment on their Service department which may well be fine.

So, to recap:-

Best Sales Team - Simpsons, Swindon

Best Service - Mill Lane, Basingstoke

Worst Sales Team - Spar****ts, Botley

Pete

 

nigelm

do yourself a favour, try days of chelmsford, theyre much better!

what has osbornes done to me? well, i shall explain. but i shall try to be fair in my description, and its up to you if you think theyre t@ssers or not. by the way, if osbornes read this, up yours matey, i didn't think you could read!

1. £800 quote for a ss backbox!!!
2. princess' car was bought from them. the car, as stated by an independant witness, has an 'unusual amount of rust for its age'. we're not mechanics and foolishly trusted a main dealer.i didnt get on my hands and knees to check, we thought we were buying from the best.
3. the clutch and battery lasted TWO months! this wasnt coz of bad driving or neglect on our part.
4. princess had a full leather/alcantara retrim by carisma in colchester( fantastic work by the way..highly recommended). she picked the car up to take it to osbornes to have her P1 alloys fitted. she didnt smoke in the car or put anything on the passenger seat. it was spotless. its a 5 minute journey to osbornes from carisma. she handed the car over, and had to go back a while later after fitting of the wheels. on her return there was some kind of permanent mark/burn on the passenger seat. THEY DENIED ALL KNOWLEDGE!!!! did the fairies do it???
4. i enquired just before xmas about buying a new impreza from them ( god knows why, they were the nearest i suppose)
i had an s4 i was dying to get rid of. they offered me £20000! ( even low valuations at that time were around 24k). the salesman just didnt want to know.this was on the saturday. so i rang days of chelmsford and spoke to the excellent richard butler. they were interested and offered me 24k. however i sold it on the sunday to nigel grogan in chelmsford( a top notch dealership!) for 24.5k.
so both osbornes and days rang on the monday to see if i was interested.
osbornes offered me a 3 month old red mica( my favourite colour)ex demo for 21k. the a$$hole salesman said he'd throw in aircon coz he was feeling generous'!! although he expected me to pay full asking price.
well, i was desperate to have one, and at the time i was under the impression they were like rocking horse **** to get hold of so i got my teaboy to run down with £100 cash deposit.
5 minutes later, days rang. brand new, untouched red mica, 20k with aircon. he wasnt pushy, and to be honest came across as being genuine. so i said ok.i rang osbornes, and told them i'm going with days.the salesman wasnt best pleased, and in a tantrum told me if i bought a car from days i could forget about getting my car serviced with osborne!!
so i said ok! i asked for my £100 deposit back. they'd had it only half an hour. the salesman said no. i said why not. he then went into one about how you lose your deposit when u cancel. i said 'what, after half an hour!?'
so he told me to write and request my money back. so i did. no reply. wrote again by email, and said if you dont return my money i will contact your md. no reply. so i wrote to paul osborne, and reluctantly told him what went on. a few days after sending the letter, i had a phone call to my shop, telling me to pick up the money.
my tea boy went down to pick it up, and after trying to avoid giving him the money, was told by their manager to give him the money and get rid of him. at which point my teaboy wished them a merry xmas and left.
at no point did osbornes apologies.
they tried to screw a hundred quid out of me, and in the end have lost mine and princess' business. i have spent over 5k on dealer upgrades in the space of a few months at days, with more to come.
the moral of the story to any dealerships reading this, is that treat your customers well and theyll spend big bucks over the years with you. treat them badly, and you can kiss my ***!

 

When I was looking to purchase, Osbournes said they would ring me back with a PX quote, that was six months ago, I'm still waiting !
Purchased from Day's, after being taken on a very interesting drive by Richard Butler (thoroughly nice bloke), the enthusiasm shown by him for scooby's almost matched my own
Allan

 

Hi All

New to this list but can I recommend
Walldonway at Maidstone Kent. I bought my '96
four door from Coxheath 4X4 nr Maidstone - one owner fsh (Cheam Motors). I was worried that the 60,000 mile service was not done properly so had a word with Walldonway and they said bring it in and we will check it out. They did this all for 26UK pounds and to my relief all was ok. Well done by them.
Regards
Pete Reeve
Ps I came away with a set of 16" gold wheels
& tyres at a very reasonable price.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Boost II:

I have to agree with the statement about Quenby. The sales staff are very knowledgeable and gave me a decent test drive before parting with my hardearned cash. When I picked up my new car in Jan 2000, I gave it a once over before leaving the premises and there were several items that I was not happy with standard of cleanliness, marks on the wheels, and a number of damaged fins on the intercooler. I was told to take it to the service deprtment who would put the matters right. What a difference in attitude there, first of all I was told that the paint marks(green) on the alloys were there to line up for putting the tyres on correctly and when I challenged the guy about the damaged fins his sarcastic reply was what do you want me to do about it, fit a new intercooler?. Took the car in for the other niggles to be put right but the guy made it clear he felt I was being unreasonable on insisting a better standard of PDI on a brand new car. With regard to the intercooler they said they would put a note on the file and if I had any problems they'd refer back to my initial complaint.
Also I don't know about any other Subaru garages but VW and Audi garages always washed my car when in for a service, another thing Quenby seem to be against carrying out.

Having owned an Audi previously I can say that the aftersales service of Meridian Cars was excellent and the standard of service departments knowledge was comforting. However the sales side are poor in my experience. I requested a test drive in an S3 before buying my scoob but heard nothing. I am also considering buying a TT coupe and again requested a test drive but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Vindis at Bedford offered a test drive within a week of me requesting a TT demo and let me have the car for an hour. They will get my business when and if I decide to buy a TT.

 

My experiences

A F Nobles
Sales guy took my VW Passat gave me over the book value understood what I wanted ( a scooby ) and that I wanted it now!! Didn't treat me like a no one on Sunday at 3pm when I walked in wearing jeans and teeshirt - they where the last dealership I visited that day.
Service - Colin and his team really care for your car and nothing is impossible. Even better every year they run a track day for their customers!!

My other experiences

Two vans put in to major garage for service both blow cylinder head gaskets within 400 miles when we question the dealer they claim its a coincidence and charge us £1000 for the pleasure.

Put a brand new van into large dealership because we can't put fuel into it [fuel filler was faulty]. Get it back next day saying they can't find fault. I question them and it turns out that they don't have permission to put fuel into customers vehicles so couldn't find the fault!!

Put a Fiat car into a large dealer for a service and it gets a parking ticket - will they pay it? no because it happened after they finished the service!!

Order two VW Passats from a large dealership waited two months for delivery only to get the wrong colours and spec!!

Take delivery of a Renault Espace from a large southern dealer on transporter. Car was dirty and had no plates or documents. It took three days to sort out with the best story coming from the receptionist "the car was marked for export, Scotland is a long way away" mmmmmmm.

Suzuki 1.0l van - £217 for a minor service!!

Lastly Mill Lane fixed my car whilst I was in London kept my locking wheel nut key by accident - before I even realised I had a phone call from Nobles saying that they had the key and I could collect it from them (or could they deliver it to me!)

So JD power survey to me are very correct..

 

Simpsons of Swindon - very helpful Sales (Rob Simpson) bought a Catalunya (No.52) there last year , unfortunately did`nt get to service it as I wrote it off after 5 days but Rob Simpson was very helpful and wrote to my insurance company to help up the payout.(took two months to settle)
I have a My99 due for its 30k service even though its way under that and was quoted £520 at Ace in Acton by a little old bald man!!! f**k me, so rang around and have lots of different prices now , what do you think is reasonable for this service as I know it is a pretty major one??? G Man,