Trans City Car Centre Ltd - Walthamstow..

[DGW]

Trans City Car Centre Ltd

65-71 Hoe Street

Walthamstow

London

E17 4SA

020 8520 6758

Services: New, Used, Repair

[DGW]

Originally posted by Ian - Fri Jan 30, 2004

Pros: Always friendly and polite, reasonable prices (for London)

Cons: Operate out of a very small site

Generally pretty good - although they initially supplied my car (Fabia Diesel) without some of the extras I ordered, they managed to put it right after a few attempts by supplying me with a good aftermarket alarm instead of factory fit central locking.

Two services carried out to specification, first (10000 / annual) around £120, second (20000 / annual) was quite a bit more (£250) as they replaced the front pads.

The car has been in twice for minor warranty issues both of which were dealt with quickly and effectively.

Only concern is with the side of the site - it is very small and they have a lot of cars in there very close together, and often also use the local side streets to store cars after they have been worked on. Having said that, my car has never come back with any scratches so they are probably pretty careful.

If I am still living in the same area when I change my car, I would probably buy another one from them, and certainly use them for servicing for the life of the warranty. They always seem to have a genuine interest in how I'm getting on with the car and they recognise me when I walk in which is good.

[DGW]

Originally posted by tomr - Fri Apr 30, 2004

Pros: Sharp deal when buying new and responded quickly

Cons: None really.

Very keen to do business when I was looking for a new Fabia 1.4Tdi. Quick to respond to my phone calls and offered a very sharp deal that involved me trading in a car unseen (I live in the Highlands of Scotland). Great deal which included free delivery of the Fabia & collection of my trade-in from my door. There was a slight hitch - I was due a full tank of diesel as part of the deal, which they fluffed a bit but they got it right in the end. Overall, pretty impressive. It was clear they wanted my business and I would use them again.

[DGW]

Originally posted by carefree - Mon Sep 20, 2004

Pros: Swift, no fuss and very accommodating

Cons: Tiny site, most cars kept off site

Very welcoming, offered tea/coffee/soft drinks the moment we arrived and BEFORE they knew I was a serious customer. All staff, from the cleaner/driver to the Sales Director very friendly and helpful, with nothing seeming to much trouble. On day of delivery the handover guy (thanks Reece) spent almost the whole afternoon with us making sure the car was to my satisfaction, meticulously showing me around it and pointing out it's features, to the point where you'd think I'd never seen a car before. NOT a criticism I might add, I think he is genuinly enthusiastic.

Overall, just perfect, will definately go back again

[lescargot]

I bought my car here and I was very happy with my buying experience here.

Very friendly and helpful.

Proper test drive, on my own.

As the previous posts have mentioned the site is very small and parking can be a challenge but if this is local to you in the london area you should be used to this anyway.

[eddie1]

extremely unimpressed myself by the level of service here, the cars may have been overhauled and brought into the 21st C but in my opinion some of the dealers are in need of the same overhauling.

[RobertP]

Had a test drive with trans city. very simple to arrange and i was just given the key to go out with it on my own. kept it for a couple of hours.

Went to preston motors in forest gate for an alternate quote. Got ingored in the showroom for 40 minutes and walked out.

A month later I made up my mind to buy. Having calmed down I went back to forest gate and got a best price from them. went back to Trans city and after a bit of haggling they came up with a better deal and 2 coffees

Awaiting delivery now. Will post if my opinion changes but so far Trans City seem worth the hassle with the crowded yard.

[hussein]

Was shopping around for the 40k Service on my Fabia TDI, and I got the following quotes:

- Le Car Centre: £250.00 + VAT

- Willis Motor Company: £249.50 + VAT

- Trans City: £176.00 + VAT

and that included a Courtesy Car, which the others did not. I checked and it does indeed include PD Oil, Oil Filter, Fuel Filter, Air Filter, Pollen Filter, Sump Bolt and Labour. Excellent.

[hussein]

Excellent.

And it was! I just got my car back. They were friendly, I had a new 1.2 Courtesy Car (really fun, much better cornering than my TDI), and they even gave my car a wash which was very nice of them. It was all done in a day.

Charged me £80 +VAT for front brake discs but otherwise it is just as quoted. I'm definately going back there if I need anything else, by far the best dealer in Greater London out of the 3 that I've been to.

[Guest]

No problems initially with car purchase back in 2005. Very good service during sale and at pick up.

Problem now after first service (carried out at JCB in Basildon )asked them to check out reverse park sensors going nuts intermittantly "sorry can't touch it, it's aftermarket"!

Have to go back to Trans City and be told there's nothing wrong. "Said it was intermittant!" Guy goes back out to look again and agrees they are not "damaged" as he first said, but corroded. I wanted to know why I had aftermarket system when they had been ordered with the car, one that was a piece of paper and not even built! No answer was the reply. Anyhoo, replacement sensors are on order and I'll be wanting the fitter to come to me as I'm buggered if I'm going over there again.

[Ciderspace]

Picked up my new vRS from Trans City 30th Nov 07.

Deposit paid 22nd Sept 07. I was pleased with the deal I haggled for - though wish I had gone in with cash in hand for perhaps an even better deal. £500 paid.

Not alot happened after this point until handover but I would stress, no matter how clear things are on paper, that anyone buying new gets the dealer to confirm the order has been placed correctly - listing all optional extras - here's why...

Day of handover got off to a terrible start :( I spotted Light Assist was missing from the order sheet, so the first 45 mins was spent pacing up and down the showroom, trying not to lose it! I could have put money on this item missing! Options open to me were to reject the car and reorder, accept the car as is but discuss compensation, or cancel the order and look elsewhere.

Fortunately, the sales manager got involved and thought it wise to check whether it was possible to retro-fit the Light Assist. Another 1/2 hour passed but eventually, good news came - aslong as rain sensors was fitted, it was possible to retro-fit. Smiles all round

The handover was superb. Reece went through everything thoroughly - a very impressive job. The car was immaculately presented despite the rain. He explained everything to me in clear, concise detail and it made such a nice change from my previous new car experience..I will spare you the details.

As I got myself comfortable in the drivers seat, Reece disappeared briefly and returned with a lovely bouqet of flowers! A nice touch, although considering I'd just parted company with nearly £20k, I would have expected roses, dinner and champagne! Still, my girlfriend appreciated them - although she thought they were from me and was disappointed when I told her otherwise!

The car was booked in for the retro fit a few days later. When I went to collect, Reece came out and demo'd how this feature worked. I drove off, very happy.

Since then no problems to report. The car is behaving itself perfectly... From here on is where the real test starts - customer service, servicing, parts etc etc..

I'd recommend Trans City to any potential Skoda purchaser based on this experience - just ensure you check that order form!!

Hope this helps....

[leegt5]

I bought my old Octavia VRs there.... They said they didnt have the service book for it but said they would contact the previous owner to see if he had found it as the car was PX for a new Octavia VRs....

They said if he didnt have it they would contact the principle of the now closed Skoda Dealership in Southend where the car was originally bought from as he would have the dealerships records and supply a new service book with the dates and mileages of the services, as they were really good friends with him.

This didn't happen and after much moaning they gave me a new service book titled (COPY SERVICE RECORD and inside Dates and Milleages cannot be guaranteed as accurate) and they estimated the dates and mileages the car was serviced. This wasn't what was said to me before purchase otherwise I wouldn't have bought the car as at the time was top money for a Y-reg VRS.. !!

They seem happy to take your money but if your not a repeat customer or your not buying a new car...

And they keep sending me a fookin Xmas Card which If you read this TCC goes straight in the bin !!

Decided to sell the car after this as I was so p1ssed about the whole thing and went and bought a Seat Ibiza Cupra !!

[Jigger72]

I live literally spitting distance from TCC and after buying a used Skoda in December 2007 (not from them) I have used them three times and only really had one niggle (see below).

1. Bought my car with 48,000 miles on the clock so thought I may as well get the cambelt service done. After getting quotes from a few different places TCC gave the lowest at £345 (£65 per hr labour for 4 hour job and all parts). Booked it in and got a brand new Fabia MPI courtesy car for free (apart from petrol). Job done, friendly and efficient.

2. One day on the North Circular I had to boot the car to avoid a t**t racing up behind me from behind a blind bend, and the EML came on. ****, I thought , I've blown the turbo or something. Anyway, booked in to TCC to have a look at the problem and they confirmed it was just the Air Flap Positioning Motor, which explained all the weird scratching sounds from the glove box. Good quick service again and at £65 + VAT for plugging a cable into the car, so it should be :eek:. I suppose they need to charge a minimum hour's labour though? I've since learned my lesson and bought a diagnostic tool. TCC quoted £300 for fixing (Air Flap Positioning Motor (£80) + the temp motor (£72) + 2 hours labour (£130 + VAT)

3. After the diagnosis and research on here I decided to leave it as loads of people seemed to have the same problem with no side effects. But then I remembered the warranty from the dealer I bought car from All I needed to do was get TCC to contact the warranty company to get an authorisation number and problem solved. I get my car fixed, and TCC get the work.

A week passed so I phoned to see if TCC had contacted warranty bods. I was told they were waiting for the authorisation code. Another week passed. Phoned them again. Told they were still waiting for the code. I checked that TCC had definitely been in touch with warranty co and it was deffo warranty co holding things up? Yes it was.

Another week passed. I decided to phone warranty co to find out why it was taking so long. They had nothing on record to say that TCC had been in touch. "So they deffo haven't been in touch?" "No they haven't".

OK, back to TCC to ask why they kept telling me it was warranty co's fault when they hadn't even been in touch? Girl on the desk got a bit shirty but I said she'd bascially been lying to me for 3 weeks. Asked to speak to service manager but of course he wasn't available.

Eventually went in on the Saturday and spoke to Colin, the service manager. By the following Wednesday they'd got the code and my car was fixed. Got the cheque from the warranty co. about a week later.

Don't know what happened in between, or why they didn't seem keen to do the work, or whether they just forgot about it, or what? So that's my niggle.

Apart from that they've been fine and seem to know their Skodas as I've had a few chats about stuff with them.

Hope this helps

[JonD808]

Will never go there again as I value my life & that of my family.

Had the anti-roll bar replaced as part of the service (they called & told me it needed doing & 2001 Fabia so not uncommon apparently). A week later it had come totally loose on one side - the roll bar on the left side was not connected to the car at all. Very nice RAC man that fixed the car up said that the only way this would have come loose is if it was not tightened up properly in the first place.

When confronted got all the expected bulls**t about how "no-one can say for certain how it happened. We're sure it wasn't our fault" but no explanation about how it could happen if it wasn't TCC. Anyway got £100 compo from them & will use other local garages from now on.

[MartinL]

I bought a 2008 Skoda Octavia Estate from TCC earlier this year. The sales staff we're very helpful and knowledgeable and the flowers for the wife were a nice touch.

I have experienced a few minor issues though with aftersales:

1. At approximately 14,000 miles the service interval light came on which was odd as the first service had been done at 10,000 miles by TCC. When I took the car into them about this and minor bodywork repairs. I was told it was because the service interval indicator had not been reset on the last service. They then asked where it had been serviced, when I informed them it was done by TCC they offered to reset it. It was only when I prompted them before leaving that they mentioned all their mechanics were at lunch and could I bring the car back. It would of been more professional if this was mentioned without needing prompting.

2. They didn't mention when purchasing the car that I needed to phone RAC to get the cover that is included with warranty swapped to my name. I also found when speaking to RAC Skoda helpdesk that the car wasn't registered correctly with them.

3. They also didn't mention that I should call the security ID company to get the details transferred. When I did call them I found the car had never been registered.

4. A friend also bought a similar car from them and found the wing mirror was cracked and needed replacing and the optional protective polish hadn't been done correctly. It needed repeated chasing to get these issues resolved.

To be fair these are relatively minor issues and sadly seem common place at many dealerships. As with most service industry requests nowdays, you have to repeatedly chase and escalate to get any real customer service.

I have yet to have a service done at TCC but it cannot be any worse than my previous experience with a VW dealer that was bordering on fraud (repeatedly charging for services that weren't done) and dangerous (brake pad and shoe wear checks not carried out) shows there is a lot worse out there.

Overall TCC seems a good dealership but the customer experience is reduced by some relatively minor easily resolved issues.

[frozboz]

We visited TCC at the beginning of March to test drive a yeti. I'd called ahead to see if they had a demonstrator but didn't make any special arrangements.

As others have noted, it's a small site but we drove in ok. The sales men were busy with other customers when we arrived, but we were promptly acknowledged and started eyeing up the show room yeti. The service manager talked with us and agreed a test drive when we asked. No hassle, no paper work, they only only wanted our car keys in case they needed to move our vehicle around the lot to get things in and out. I told them where we intended to go and that was that - off we went.

We had a chat will one of the sales men when we got back and then got passed over to 'the closer' to talk numbers, p/x etc, all very civilised. We were offered coffee. We did a deal. They seem very friendly and like to live the 'family firm' values. They talked about how their servicing works - pick up and drop off (provided I'm not too far away) will save me having to get over to Walthamstow.

A good sales experience - I didn't feel excessively pressured, he moved a bit on the price (I'm not a hardened haggler, so I don't know how good the deal was), talked about GAP insurance but didn't hard sell it, made a reasonable p/x offer on our current vehicle.

So at this point I was feeling very positive.

Unfortunately things have gone hill a bit since :( , but to be fair this isn't entirely TCC fault but, to me, they are the face of Skoda right now, so snafus with the SUK ordering system that left my vehicle on hold for over a month (details) and now being caught up in the whole panoramic sunroof mess (details) leaving me in doubt when the car will actually turn up are making me doubt that Skoda really are the manufacturer of 100% happy drivers!

Not having got the vehicle I can not talk about the hand over, after sales or servicing aspects of this dealership - I'll post something when I have info.

[frozboz]

Finally got my Yeti after a prolonged wait since the begining of March.

Dealer didn't proactively contact me to let me know that deliver was imminent. I called them asking for an update on expected delivery only to be told that it was expected in the next couple of days. It would have been nice if they'd called me.

Hand over date was agreed. Comprehensive talk through the paper work and key vehicle features. I'd ordered a spare wheel rather than depend on the inflation kit but the wheel wasn't available at delivery time. As the wheel can not be supplied on the spec I ordered the Dealer has to offer this as an after market item. I guess they didn't want to order it in until they had the car only to find that SUK didn't have stock.

Nice bunch of flowers and they did say sorry for the hassle I'd been through to get the vehicle (panoramic sun roof supply issues).

I would recommend this dealership.

[ColinD]

Our accountant has had a very rude phone call from this garage about the above comments.

As such I've removed the one they claim to be defamatory.

See update below

[danny6189]

My last post got deleted because it was very harsh and written in a moment of anger. I sincerely apologise to anyone I offended at Trans city. It's only that when you think about it you realise that they have bent over backwards to help me out. They gave me courtesy cars countless times and was always willing to get the car looked at and got everything done under warranty quite quickly. I'm glad I popped there today to get some parts and that gave me a chance to have a chat with warren. After all you sold me the car I always wanted and its not the garages fault that it keeps going wrong. As I said above I apologise for what I said and I know it was out of order it was just heat of the moment. I will be going back there for servicing and parts in the future as I have done today.

[frozboz]

Second purchase from Transcity completed today. Bit of a problem the delivery of the car I had ordered as it suffered damage during delivery (http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/272562-good-news-and-bad-news/) but Warren worked with SUK to get a sensible solution that we were happy with.

We've have the previous car serviced by Transcity and their collection / delivery service was efficient.

Reece very pleasant and efficient on the hand over

[Prykey]

Received excellent service from Warren and Reece on my recent purchase and also from the parts department.

 

Really pleased.

Edited 7 November, 2013 by Prykey

[VRS87NEWBIE]

not directly with me but my neighbour (known him since i moved next door to him) has been using them for pretty much the length of time Ive known him, I went there on Saturday to pick up a top bottle of oil for top ups on my Vrs and were very attentive/friendly. (also service department over the phone at an earlier date) 

 

will definately be using them for my 1st major service next year.

[Looie]

I've used them a couple of times now for work on the VRS and they have done a great job - the tube station is only a few minutes walk away and I can go of to work after dropping the car off, and pick it up afterwards to go home, so far that plan has worked well and I'm very happy with the work they did.

 

The staff that I have met all seem to know there job and I have no problem with using them again.

[mo1965]

Visited Trans City after disappointing service from City Gate, Colindale (see separate post under City Gate)

Looking to purchase the Octavia vRS and was pleasantly surprised to see not one but two vRS's in the showroom, a combi and a hatch. I was interested in the TSI hatch.

Had a good look around the cars and whilst doing so a salesman introduced himself and left me alone to carry on. Having finished looking around, I obviously had lots of question and then sat down with the salesman who was really helpful in answering my questions. I also managed to get a written PCP quote without any fuss. 

I then phoned the salesman a couple of days later to arrange a test drive. They only had a combi available for a test drive which was fine. Arrived for the test drive and simply given the key and an apology for the fact that the car was not as clean as they would normally have it, but this did not bother me. I was expecting the salesman to accompany me on the test drive which is what they originally advised me but I was let to take it out by myself. Drove the card for about an hour which was an experience in itself! 

Got back to the showroom in one piece and then introduced to a colleague to answer any question I may have. Sat down with the other salesman who was able to answer questions I had and he was really helpful in advising about the PCP and infact under his advice I was able to reduce my deposit by a grand and also reduce the monthly premium! He soon established whether if we could agree on a deal today, will I commit to a purchase and I said I will. I had spent many hours on this forum researching discounts, pricing etc. and the information from other forum members were invaluable in my opinion. Forearmed is forewarned I say. I set out what I was expecting in terms of a discount, including what I would like for my current vehicle as part-ex. The salesman then went off to speak to the original salesman who first dealt with me and they both returned to say that they will meet my offer for a 5% discount and offered £100 less than what I was asking for my part-ex. All in all I was very satisfied with their offer and paid my deposit. 

 

The long wait to for the car begins and I will be interested to see how the communication is with Trans City until I take delivery of the vRS and also the post delivery service.

[VRS87NEWBIE]

be late but just wanted to say my neighbour recommended these guys as he's been buying from Trans City since I was a kid (known him for 24 years) and I had couple causes of concern as it was my first Tsi powered Vag car. Extremely friendly, kept me updated and first time technician that didn't mug me off (im no mechanic but take an active interest in cars) as I generally know what I'm talking about, when I try to explain things. Technician was Ace and found common ground when talking. 

 

In the end the one of the things I was worried about was just my normal paranoia and the other resulted in a new temp sensor as the fan was kicking in straight away on cold starts. To sum it up I haven't even bought the car from these guys but no fuss done the job under warranty and done a health check as well, will be going back to these in march for my 1st major service.

 

Thanks

 

Bhavin