Lightcliffe Skoda - Warrington

[BigJC]

Well, I've booked in the vrs for a cambelt and water pump on Friday at lightcliffe, booking in was pleasant enough, dropping Thursday night and looking forward to seeing what loan car I get.

I'll report back once I've got it back.... And try not to moan too much about the £449 it's going to cost!

At 150k and the last belt change at 60k, I don't want to leave it much longer.

[JMK2]

Mu experience was initially very good but the Yeti drvrloped an issue, which they could noy deal with on that day, which left us stranded at the end of 2012 wirg Vikki unable to go for dialysos.

 

The RAC managed to get the car going and we managed to get the car to Alex Lawrie in liverpool who were great. However when we replace the Yeti we ended up with a Seat altea XL, which has so fat done 16000 miles in 12 months without failing.

 

Another black mark for lighcliffe was when I booked the Yeti for a service, only to turn up to find the receptionist had not booked the car in. This happened just before the car let us down.No apology was forthcoming at that time.

 

Will be going back to Skoda shortly but will not be dealing with this dealer,

Edited 11 February, 2014 by JMK2

[BigJC]

Well, dropped the car off and got a roomster.... Questionable looks but it's some sort of Eco-diesel thing so it'll get me to work and back cheaply!

[BigJC]

Arrived to collect the car, only to find there had been an issue with the water pump and it would be a short while... In fairness the service manager was very apologetic, agreed to sort out some compensation and in the meantime, Sarah from sales talked me through the new yeti, the superb, the Citigo and the new Octavia vrs....

[aniimel]

went here to look at a VRS wasn't helpful and was more quite expensive. ended up going getting it at lookers skoda stockport

[andyvee]

I must say, after reading this thread and a couple of others, how peoples perception of dealerships and experiences vary.

 

My current car is from Simpsons in Colne. Looking at trading it in and gave Simpsons first bite - they offered me £13k for a car a purchased 9 months ago from them for £21k! They also were offering next to no discount.

 

Alex Lawrie offered me a very good discount via carwow, and £14k for the car without seeing it. Upon seeing it, they honoured their price then gave me the hard sell.

 

Lightcliffe beat the deal offered by Alex Lawrie and no hard sell.

 

And to top it all, Simpsons have taken a chunk out of my alloy wheel and I will have to get it repaired before trading in!!

 

So, it just goes to show how experiences of dealers can be influenced by the individual that you deal with, who may not be representative of the dealership as a whole.

[Rainmaker]

I must say, after reading this thread and a couple of others, how peoples perception of dealerships and experiences vary.

 

My current car is from Simpsons in Colne. Looking at trading it in and gave Simpsons first bite - they offered me £13k for a car a purchased 9 months ago from them for £21k! They also were offering next to no discount.

 

Alex Lawrie offered me a very good discount via carwow, and £14k for the car without seeing it. Upon seeing it, they honoured their price then gave me the hard sell.

 

Lightcliffe beat the deal offered by Alex Lawrie and no hard sell.

 

And to top it all, Simpsons have taken a chunk out of my alloy wheel and I will have to get it repaired before trading in!!

 

So, it just goes to show how experiences of dealers can be influenced by the individual that you deal with, who may not be representative of the dealership as a whole.

 

Absolutely. We've just ordered our second car from Lightcliffe (a new Octavia mk3 1.4 TSI SE estate), and Georgina is an absolute peach. We've been very well looked after, no pressure, and she's on the button with returning calls. I even got a courtesy voicemail to wish me a happy birthday last week haha. I can't fault her service and would highly recommend Lightcliffe to anyone.

 

Going back to Lightcliffe in Warrington was a breath of fresh air after being serially let down by the sales and service at Alex Lawrie Liverpool. The latter seem to have absolutely no interest in maintaining a conversation with you (if they bother to talk to you at all), don't ever return calls, and can't answer even basic technical questions about their product without referring to the brochure!

 

We're in Liverpool but still find it worthwhile to drive down the M62 for proper service. 

[Leonblue]

The experience of purchasing the car was fine, friendly, and perhaps more importantly - the price was competitive.

 

Everything since then has been painful as the car has been a complete pup. Lightcliffe have continually fobbed me off. Rather than go into detail, you may want to look at this long thread.

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/285844-suspension-steering-issue/.

 

Finally I had to resort to the Financial Ombudsman to get a result. The car has now finally been (mostly) refunded. 

 

Despite all the problems I gave Lightcliffe the chance to quote on a replacement new car, but they couldn't be bothered to return my call.

 

New Octavia VRS in race blue with options now on order from elsewhere - up yours Lightcliffe!! 

[leckman]

Lightcliffe not returning calls? how unusual(not).

[Smoggo]

Lightcliffe not returning calls? how unusual(not).

 

Don't remind us !                

[Leonblue]

The daft thing is they could've turned my opinion around and got themselves a good review off me as I was prepared to give them another go. I was also prepared to accept that my car had unusual issues that were difficult to detect / diagnose. But to just ignore me after all the hassle I've had is the final straw. I was always friendly and courteous when dealing with them so it's not as though they had any reason avoid dealing with me. The car was a pup, the dealer as a whole turned out to be no help whatsoever. That's not to say they haven't got some good individuals working there, they have, especially in sales but the overall experience including customer satisfaction is what matters and that's where they sadly lack! 

Edited 2 November, 2014 by Leonblue

[S1M0]

Funny when people dont tell the truth

[Leonblue]

Funny when people dont tell the truth

Would you like to clarify? Would you also like to tell us where exactly you work in Warrington?

[leckman]

Funny when people dont tell the truth

Quite a serious thing to say,dont leave us in suspense please tell us more!.

[nmuncaster]

Bought my Fabia 1.6 Monte Carlo last May. Pre owned.

Lightcliffe sold the car with three tyres that were 'egg shaped' due to them selling it with the tracking alignment out. Which I had rectified myself.

This issue was one reason it failed it's 1st MOT. However, upon failure Skoda did replace all four tyres (Pirelli P-Zero's) at their own expense. Which was good of them.

Ever since the purchase of the car the dashboard was flagging 'Oil Pressure' issues which I was told was a dashboard error. Which again they replaced at no cost to myself.

8 months in and my dashboard is now flagging Glow Plug error, Temperature Errors and Oil Pressure Errors on a regular basis.

I've booked it in for them to look at tomorrow but I am going to refuse to pay to have this issue, which is a 'known' issue, resolved.

I'll let you all know how I go on.

To review the experience up to now. Reasonable customer service, just a bit disappointed in the issues the cars had, a car that had been 'fully checked' and serviced before sale.

Niall

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nmuncaster]

Safe to say, today's experience is less than satisfactory.... Will be able to comment further on Monday...

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[Weiss]

I bought my greenline fabia and my wife's citigo from lightcliffe in 2012. The salesman we dealt with was very good but he left the business weeks after we picked up our cars which left us to deal with the useless boss and other salesmen.

 

I've taken both cars for services there since, mine every 6 months and hers every year, with varying degrees of hospitality. 

 

However since December last year things seem to have picked up a bit, the service folk have changed and are much more helpful along with much higher quality courtesy cars. 

 

We decided to change the wife's citigo last month (mini-me on the way) and dealt with Alan who was really helpful and kept my wife's hot chocolate filled the whole time we were there. Apart from the annoying salesman habit of going to the bosses office to discuss the deal it went well and we bought a new, old shape, fabia for a bargain price. Since then they have continued to be helpful and the wife picked up her car in a sensible amount of time with no issues. 

 

I've got to take mine in for a recall soon and I'm now confident there will be good service.

[WesBrooks]

Taken mine into service each time.

 

Generally not had many problems.

 

Not completely satisified with the recent service. Questioned lack of filters on service as it had none on the last either and thought it was odd. As it happens pollen filter was due, but diesel and engine air filter wasn't. To their credit they did change the pollen filter while I waited. As it happens both will be due before I'm half way to the next service.

 

They also informed me that my tread was down to 2mm on the front and 3mm on the rear. Service report read 2.0, 2.0 for the front and 3.0  and 3.0 for the rear. I declined the offer to order in new tyres as in my experience they are more costly than Kwik Fit. Also I intened to wear them closer to the limits.

 

When I got home I looked through their service report in more detail I could see my emergency tire inflation kit expires later this year. I don't have one. Spare tyre wasn't checked for tread, no report issued on battery health as it had been on the previous service. The tyres were 2.7-3.0mm on the front and 3.5mm on the rear. Yes worth a warning, but not really time for a change immediately which they were pushing for.

 

While tyres wet performance do degrade below 3mm I'd be interested to see how my premium tyres (Continental Sport Contact 5 XL, currently laster just over 30k miles) stack up just above the legal limit against the cheapest I could have fitted as they are new - or at least after the release agent is worn off.

Edited 13 July, 2015 by WesBrooks

[WesBrooks]

As an addition to my last message it appears that the previous health reports for the tyres in the last few services were given to 1mm resolution too. The measurements appear to be rounded down to the nearest integer. For example a measurement of 2.9mm appears to be recorded as 2.0mm.

 

The decimal place on the report is misleading, but their practice appears consistant. Normal presentation of a numeric value with one decimal place implies that the presented value is +/-0.05mm, rather than in the range of -0.0/+1.0mm.

 

It's worth being aware of how the measurements appear to be taken and definately worth investing in a decent tyre tread depth gauge and learning how to use it properly. As if you replace your tyres when you see 3.0mm or below the tyres could actually be 3.9mm, which would account for 18% of your tyre life of 8 to 3mm.

Edited 14 July, 2015 by WesBrooks

[WesBrooks]

Update, I've checked the service docs and the filters are fine until the next service. I have however just destroyed a locking wheel nut trying to do a front to back swap after they where massively over-torqued. Will visit them tonight for them to resolve.

 

I weight over 90kg so standing on the tyre wrench was putting in 220N/m which wasn't budging the nuts. My wizzy gun wouldn't touch them. they should only be 120N/m.

[WesBrooks]

A visit and a couple of phone calls has resulted in them offering to replace the nuts at their cost.

 

Did need a little of encouragement to do the right thing but got there in the end. When the car has an unbroken service record with a single garage for over 90,000 miles something like over torqued or siezed wheel bolts should be sorted without quibble.

[RobH60]

I recently bought my Yeti Outdoor from Lightcliffe and it was a most pleasant experience, no hassle or pressure and offered a decent trade in. The salesman was very helpful and rang me several times before and after the sale.

If anyone is looking to change before Christmas it may be worth going to have a chat with them, as they have a sales push on and are trying to shift 10 more cars before the end of December.

 

Rob

[redscout]

This is the garage that performed the Stage 2 repair on my motor. Those familiar with my posts will appreciate that I am less than happy with my experience. I now have misfires that the car didn't have before it went in. I received assurance that they would resolve the issue and left it with them a month whilst they consulted technical etc. to no avail. My whole experience, including with Skoda UK customer services has been atrocious and I very much doubt I'll ever buy another Skoda...and probably not anything VAG.

[Leonblue]

These guys keep texting me with offers for new cars, sending letters about so called VIP events and keep continually phoning despite me asking them numerous times to remove me from their mailing list!

 

Lightcliffe Warrington - You sold me a dud car, I will not buy from you again!

Edited 11 July, 2016 by Leonblue

[FabiaNigel]

My first Skoda experience.

Just came back from China and needed a car.

Did a lot of research online whilst in China and decided a Fabia was the best choice for me.

Called into Lightcliffe on spec and was very professionally treated. I had been thinking of buying a used one for about £7,000 but in the end I went for a new Fabia SEL Auto estate.

Car will be delivered in early October and I'm very much looking forward to it!

Salesman Jon was highly professional and not pushy at all.

I'll post updates later as I do think these forums are useful.