Bristol Street Motors in Stafford - Avoid!

[My Name is URL]

Just a quick note to hopefully help some of you guys out....

I have previously been messed about by Bristol Street in Stafford trying to buy a car, but thats not the reason for the post.

GF needed to get her 1 year old Fiesta serviced the other day so rang Bristol Street to get a quote. Was told £160 for the service and if she wanted a courtesy car then £10 to cover insurance on it.

A long while back I noticed an advert for Tempest Ford in Lichfield and seemed to remember they were cheap so we rang them.

Service there = £98 all in and including a courtesy car.

Even with the petrol and time, still a good saving by taking it there, and the service was top notch too....

So my advice is don't use Bristol Street Motors in Stafford unless you have money to burn.

 

[db]

thanks for the heads-up.. i got my new focus from bristol street this year, and was very happy with the service i received.. presumably that was because they were on their best behaviour though, as i was buying a branny..

i will be sure to do some shopping around at other ford dealers before approaching them.. although my first service isn't due until may, so hopefully i will remember!

 

[Goldilox]

I bought my second-hand fiesta from them and had a wheel bearing done on the used-cars-by-Ford warranty and was very happy with that. However when I took it in for it's annual service & MOT they told me that it was due a major service when it had had one last time round (I should have checked the history, but it was in the glove box, and I'd already handed over the keys) and it cost me more than £300 for what was actually a straightforward, only failed on a duff headlight type affair. I dread to think what it might have been if there'd been a major problem (my camper failed on seized brakes, a faulty clutch & unsound body work over the years).

 

[ToriRat]

We got our lovely Blue car from them about 5 years ago (tax free for the win) Just last monght one of our fancy pants headlights stopped working, we were told that to replace the relay (the big wot was broke) it would be 390 fine english pounds...
Unsurprisingly hubbyrat who is a engineer sourced replacement parts and fixed the damn thing himself total cost £56
I dont think its just Bristol Street but all car chain garages who take the piss to be honest

 

[My Name is URL]

Loving your female car talk ToriRat

To be fair, I thought the guys at Tempest Ford in Lichfield were very reasonable.

So whats so "fancy pants" about your headlights? Girlfriend has sports and Tech pack on her Fiesta (auto lights, auto wipers, auto power fold mirrors etc) and I dread to think of the cost when it all breaks.... will have to sell it before warranty runs out.

@ dirtybobby, we too were looking to buy a brand spanker from them but asked them to match an internet deal. They wouldn't but got close enough for us to say "oh well its not much more and we'll support a local garage". We shook hands on the deal and ran off to get our deposit (which had to be there before the end of the day). When we got back they said "sorry, changed our mind you can't have it at that price".

So we brought the one off the net and it came good as new from Bristol Street in Brum..... will defo buy online again.

 

[db]

well, this is instilling me with loads of confidence for the next time i have to go to them for something lol..

 

[ToriRat]

full tech pack with xenon lights hence the cost and i say blue car not cos i know what it is but Its the only one Ive seen driving around Stafford and sumone might recognize me and ram me

 

[My Name is URL]

sumone might recognize me and ram me

Steady there cowgirl, I hardly know you

 

[db]

sumone might recognize me and ram me

Steady there cowgirl, I hardly know you

giggity!

 

[ToriRat]

LOL oooh Behave

 

[tijuanalady]

We bought a Mondeo estate off them in 2005, it was 3 years old. In 2007 to get it through the MOT we ended up paying nearly a thousand pounds. Brakes and tyres mainly. We know we were ripped off big time! Sold it not long afterwards!

On the plus side i can recommend Cumbo in Stoke if you are into Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge.

 

[ODB_69]

On the plus side i can recommend Cumbo in Stoke if you are into Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge.

Oh cheers for that...wondered where I could take the PT.



Titan in Stoke is good too and dirt cheap compared to most places..they used to do my Peugeot (RIP)

 

[henryscat]

Yep, agree entirely. In fact, the full stop could just go after "Stafford"...

They are a complete bunch of imbeciles in my book, having had the mis-fortune to take my motor there on a number of occasions (but fortunately as it was a fleet motor, I wasn't paying). I've had everything from leads not put back properly, which nearly caused me to conk out on the A38, to wrong windscreen wipers put on. Last time I went there the car failed its MOT (first one) with a broken suspension spring and handbrake not adjusted properly. Three weeks before the MOT, the car had had a major service at, er, Bristol Street. There was also an advisory on two tyres being at the legal limit (1.6mm), which at the major service they'd recorded as being 4mm - I'd hardly driven anywhere in the intervening period, so they can't even measure tread depths properly. I wouldn't have thought any car should fail its MOT that soon after a major service. Being charitable, the spring could have gone in the intervening three weeks, but the handbrake should have been done on the service, and it wasn't. They then promised the spring would be ordered and done the next day. Following day gets to about 4:30, and hadn't heard anything, so phoned them and got "we can't get the part until next week". Asked why they hadn't bothered to phone, and told "no-one asked me to". Which was helpful. Asked for a courtesy car, first answer was no, and only got one after I ranted at them down the phone. Complete and utter shambles. So I won't be going back there again either.

So my advice is don't use Bristol Street Motors in Stafford unless you have money to burn.

 

[shoes]

For all the reasons listed above and more avoid the idiots at Soverign like the plague too, they did some insurance work on my girlfriends brand new car and 'forgot' to tighten up the bolt which mounts the top of the shock absorber to the mounting bracket you see in the engine bay. A minor detail, I know, but she travels from here to London and back very regularly. We were lucky it didn't come loose at 70+ mph!

Edit: If you have the time invest £30 in a Haynes manual and do the work youself, at least then you know its done properly.

 

[Markerat]

As stated by my good lady wife one of the xenon hid did indeed go south for the winter and getting a new ballast and igniter was looking like the thick end of 200 sheets to fix. I used some common sense and worked out where the main earth and switched feed was for the headlight and put in a normal box standard halogen instead.

Used some quality 7 amp scotch locks to connect a standard h7 connector. If your thinking of getting xenon as they are brighter and safer than halogen be warned that they are a bit on the pricey side to fix.

My only fear was that the MOT man would say you cant mix halogen and xenon but it passed first time of asking. Whether this was his mistake for not noticing or it is allowed i'm not sure.