I am reluctant to use any of the big dealer chains as I have never had more than adequate service at best from any of them.
I know what you mean. The Honda main dealer I use for my CRV is fine, if somewhat anodyne, but our recent experience with the local Fiat dealer in Gloucester left us really rather bemused at their attempts at 'service'.
Mrs Hamwich wanted a Fiat 500, so off we toddled to the local dealer, a combined Kia/Nissan/Fiat outfit. They didn't have a TwinAir model in stock, so we took a normal 1.2 model out for a test drive. It was fine, so we decided to order a new TwinAir on the strength of it.
The response from the chap at the dealership was "Sorry, I can't take your order, you'll have to wait until a salesman can see you"
"How long will that be?"
"Two hours or so"
"Blow that for a game of soldiers, get him to call me"
Two days go past before the salesman rings.
"Sorry, there aren't any Twin Airs in the colour and spec you want. Have something else or wait until the end of September"
Me: "But there's one available in Cardiff, in exactly the right spec. Can't you get that for us?"
Dealer: "No, they're a different company. We don't do that sort of thing"
So I rang the dealer in Cardiff, explained that it would be a pain for us to get down there, could he do something?
"Sorry mate, I want it gone this weekend and I can't arrange delivery in time. If you get to me I'll knock another 200 quid off for you." This meant we would now be paying 10250 for a car that the Gloucester Fiat dealer had listed at 14600, so naturally I bit his arm off and we went down to collect it. Only downside was that it was a used car, pre-registered on March 31st, and it had 9 miles on the clock, hardly a problem.
So they're not all bad...
