For those in the Brighton/Worthing area, some news on dealers:

Clarion Cars in Worthing are giving up in September.

Saltdean Garage have opened a new Skoda dealership in Shoreham-by-Sea, located at Ballamys Saab on the High Street (just passed the Norfolk Bridge) to cover the Worthing area.

I'm going to give them a try shortly re my busted CD changer, so will post on the forum.

clarion told me last time I had the car serviced, its a shame as they had given perfect service when i went there and it goes in again friday for its 30K :eek: miles ( since christmas)

I heard that they were giving up due to demands made by skoda regarding what they had to do with buildings/position etc - although their current position was not perfect it seemed useable

The only other thought is that thinking about other dealerships in my (horsham) area there is at least one that should be got rid of before clarion!!

mentioning no names but but at least clarion are helpful,efficient and friendly - one local dealer is none of these

saying all that I have no dealings with saltdean at all and have heard nothing so time will tell - obviously my rather unkind comments were NOT directed at them

also from what I remember from when I had a Saab ( quick,fun but sooooo expensive for spares) the parking at the ballamys is far far worse than it was at Clarion so I do hope they have sorted out decent parking arrangements!!

I have just bought a Skoda Fabia 1.4 its going to Clarion next week to check EPC light - are they nice there?! I live in Hove and have been put off going to Saltdean because of review on here!! When they shut down end of Sept I believe, I will have to go to Horsham. any advice about local dealers in Sussex would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi tracey

I hope this is not a set up by a dealer or customers services as i notice your profile tells me you have a superb and the thread said fabia :confused:

but never mind as I'll say nothing thats not factual!

I have dealt with Clarion and have never had any problems at all with either their sales or service so would be happy to reccomend them if they were staying on the network.I understand they will still be servicing skodas but will not be able to do warranty work after the changes.

which days yours going in?

As far as local dealers go,My local and nearest dealer is at Rudgewick,horsham BUT as the owner there told me that

" I am not interested in doing service or warranty work on cars we do not supply" i dont think I would be welcome!- even less after this post!!

when I ordered my car, my head office got a price quoted.I said I would prefer to buy the car locally and asked both dealers to match the price(not an auction! a matched price secured the order!) the salesman swore and then said he would ring me back.....

Clarion did the deal!

I noticed there is another dealer the other side side of crawley (crawley down but know nothing about them)

marc

As far as local dealers go' date='My local and nearest dealer is at Rudgewick,horsham BUT as the owner there told me that

" I am not interested in doing service or warranty work on cars we do not supply" i dont think I would be welcome!- even less after this post!![/quote']Report this dealer's comments to SkodaAuto UK who may well take a different view to those of the dealer.

I think I already have ...in this thread!!

I can report that on one visit to sort out the CD autochanger (now officially dead so new one on order) and 10k service on the Fabia vRS, Ballamys have plenty of parking around the back of both the showroom (on the Adur river side of the High Street where it's all being redeveloped) and the service bay (opposite side).

Price was a bit dear - 113 quid - compared to the 80 or so I've seen for a 10k on here, but then this was invoiced by the Saltdean Garage at Peacehaven so not a 'Saab' price.

Helpful enough, seem to know about the car now (sorted out the fixed/variable servicing query for me without any hassle), so should be OK as a dealer IMHO. BTW the Peacehaven garage is OK as well in my book, but always very busy, no parking and traffic a nightmare in the morning. :thumbdwn:

Dear Scrutineer

I am not customer services or spy or whatever ha ha!

I have just come backk from Clarion cars who have replaced my power steering sensor unit, nothing to do with EPC light (Im getting confused - Im a woman remember!) it was a worn out sensor! nice one having only had the car two weeks! anyway warranty covered it so onwards and upwards! I suppose I should take the car to new Saltdean one in Shoreham when it opens (well hopefully i wont need to go back to dealer anway) they might have nice customer service people there. Anyway the chaps at Clarion were very helpful and I am pleased it is all sorted. Please tell me nothing else will go wrong with the Fabia, its a lovey car!

I think the power steering sensor unit failing is a known problem, Tracey, and you aren't the first - or indeed the last - Fabia owner to be totally baffled as to what fault has triggered the EPC light.

Dear Scrutineer

I am not customer services or spy or whatever ha ha!I have just come backk from Clarion cars who have replaced my power steering sensor unit' date=' nothing to do with EPC light (Im getting confused - Im a woman remember!) it was a worn out sensor! nice one having only had the car two weeks! anyway warranty covered it so onwards and upwards! I suppose I should take the car to new Saltdean one in Shoreham when it opens (well hopefully i wont need to go back to dealer anway) they might have nice customer service people there. Anyway the chaps at Clarion were very helpful and I am pleased it is all sorted. Please tell me nothing else will go wrong with the Fabia, its a lovey car![/quote']

hehehe just me being paranoid!!

as far as problems go, my vRS goes in for its 30,000 service friday I got it new at Christmas. This time it will have its first warranty work done,the centre rear belt is locking when its not meant to and the plastic release on the rear seat has broken.

I'm very impressed with my first skoda, I have been doing high mileages for many years in many years and most other cars have had bits falling off at the first service even on allegedly "reliable" cars like golf & Nissan Primera!

As far as ongoing work goes dont forget there is a dealer at Crawley Down

Marc

I can report that on one visit to sort out the CD autochanger (now officially dead so new one on order) and 10k service on the Fabia vRS' date=' Ballamys have plenty of parking around the back of both the showroom (on the Adur river side of the High Street where it's all being redeveloped) and the service bay (opposite side).

Price was a bit dear - 113 quid - compared to the 80 or so I've seen for a 10k on here, but then this was invoiced by the Saltdean Garage at Peacehaven so not a 'Saab' price.

Helpful enough, seem to know about the car now (sorted out the fixed/variable servicing query for me without any hassle), so should be OK as a dealer IMHO. BTW the Peacehaven garage is OK as well in my book, but always very busy, no parking and traffic a nightmare in the morning. :thumbdwn:[/quote']

Matt,

I believe this to be the new pricing for a 10k/12 months service that uses the VW special oil required for all PDI engines at

Report this dealer's comments to SkodaAuto UK who may well take a different view to those of the dealer.

PMSL, Denis... good one. Like they care? Dealerships are self-concerned businesses, franchises, hence Skoda UK cannot make any dealer work on any cars they haven't sold.

PMSL, Denis... good one. Like they care? Dealerships are self-concerned businesses, franchises, hence Skoda UK cannot make any dealer work on any cars they haven't sold.

Hence use of the word can in Skoda's FAQ here:

Can any Skoda retailer carry out servicing?

All franchised retailers can fulfil your warranty and servicing requirements. To find your local retailer please select the retailer locator tab from the home page of this site.

Nice one, Niki...:(

Anyone can talk a good service Denis, but you forget that things are very different in reality; I took call after call from disgruntled owners who'd bought the car at X, wanted work done at Y under warranty, only to be told 'You never bought it here, go back to X.' What could we do at Skoda? Not a lot other than ask politely 'Please help this customer'... the reply was usually 'We're fully booked, get them back to X.'

Been there, done that... ;-)

Clarion cars are continuing to be a SKODA specialist now. which in sight of complaints i have already had to hear regarding saltdean and ballamys just as well!

Wont be long before warranty work will be able to be undertaken by the company that sell the car! by the way clarion can still sell new skodas and are intending to.

Clarion cars are continuing to be a SKODA specialist now. which in sight of complaints i have already had to hear regarding saltdean and ballamys just as well!

Wont be long before warranty work will be able to be undertaken by the company that sell the car! by the way clarion can still sell new skodas and are intending to.

Hi skudman,

These complaints- have they been mentioned on here? , I recall One thread about Ballamys but thats all.If there are other valid complaints it would be very useful to us local briskodians to know whats going on.

I personally have used Ballamy's once for the last service and had no cause for complain at all.

I was aware of Clarion still servicing but TBH after the last loan car they provided ,I would probably have been looking elsewhere any way!I do not consider a tatty old Citroen Zx that IMHO was not road legal!!! to be suitable replacement for a 6 month old Vrs even for a day.

In addition,the warranty aspect is a concern -

1 I have only had one small claim but to have the car serviced then go elsewhere for warranty work and more time off the road is not worth the hassle

2. servicing there is a potential problem,if another garage services the car then the engine lets go, the warranty is worded that if Skoda are not satisfied the servicing is done to their standards the warranty may by void(not exact wording) so with a vRS still in warranty i dont think my company would appreciate that risk

unless of course you can enlighten us all about "complaints I have already had"

Its a shame, i'm based in Horsham and ALL the local dealers have had some sort of complaint against them in here ...with my nearest being the worst so its hard to know where to go

marc

Clarion cars are continuing to be a SKODA specialist now. which in sight of complaints i have already had to hear regarding saltdean and ballamys just as well!

Wont be long before warranty work will be able to be undertaken by the company that sell the car! by the way clarion can still sell new skodas and are intending to.

I'm Tom from Clarion Cars

Firstly a big thank you to the Briskoda community for the honest comments and feedback, it's nice to know our efforts are appreicated!

Just to confirm our current status,

As Skudman says, we are a Skoda Specialist and have 24 years experience in the green badge field, all our staff remain the same as when we were a main dealer, so you are gauranteed our infamous level of service. We can undertake any work that we used to be able to do, except WARRANTY WORK, which Skoda will not let us do without the franchise.

We are still selling new,used and pre-reg/demo Skodas often at prices much lower than main dealers as we have no franchise overheads to cover (

Welcome to Briskoda, Tom. It would be nice to be able to give positive feedback to all the dealers/garages members use but unfortunately that is not the reality. In your case it's good to know that you are aware of how well Clarion Cars is regarded by our members. Keep up the good work!

I'm Tom from Clarion Cars

Firstly a big thank you to the Briskoda community for the honest comments and feedback, it's nice to know our efforts are appreicated!

Just to confirm our current status,

As Skudman says, we are a Skoda Specialist and have 24 years experience in the green badge field, all our staff remain the same as when we were a main dealer, so you are gauranteed our infamous level of service. We can undertake any work that we used to be able to do, except WARRANTY WORK, which Skoda will not let us do without the franchise.

We are still selling new,used and pre-reg/demo Skodas often at prices much lower than main dealers as we have no franchise overheads to cover (

I'm Tom from Clarion Cars

And some of you may interested to know that we have just replaced our courtesy car fleet with around 10 or so 53 plate Skoda and Daihatsu cars!

Tom Ogden

Clarion Cars

Hi Tom

Its nice to see replies to comments made in here

I guess your quoted comment refers to me and its good news to hear the cars have been replaced - although a courtesy car is a minor detail if your only going a few miles up the road , when your doing my sort of mileage its not good going round in that old zx calling on customers etc.So i'm pleased my only complaint has been rectified.

I'm sure you'l be pleased to know that after 50,000 miles i'm still pleased with the vRS you sold me and its still trouble free (and quick) and of course as there's only one service before warranty expires I may well be back later in the year....with my mileage that'll be about july

marc