I am gobsmacked :eek: I noticed yesterday that our local POSH Saab dealership has now changed to Skoda! Ballamys of Shoreham which was one of the first dealerships in England to sell Saabs has changed it's brand. When you look at there website they still say that they "have now been selling Saabs in Sussex now for over 40 years".

It will be interesting to find out how much they charge for servicing, as my Saab owning mates never took their cars there because they were too expensive.

Oh well gonna go in as they have a nice selection on the new Octavias in. I may ask a few questions to see if they have done their homework!!

Cheers for now

I will add Ballamys of Shoreham to our Skoda Dealers section once Skoda UK get around to posting the dealer's details on their site. :(

Update: Now added.

As Maffwilson posted on Friday, Ballamys have been taken over by Saltdean Garage group of Brighton and will take over from Clarions as the Skoda dealers in the Worthing area.They will keep the Ballamys name as it is well known locally.

They will continue to service Saabs as well as Skodas; whether there will be a labour rate differential remains to be seen.

Chris

GREAT!!! NOT!!!!!

I finally find a dealer (Clarion Cars) who warrant all the positive feedback Skoda dealers get, only to be replaced by the dealer that caused me so much grief that I moved to Clarion, It's a funny little world aint it!

There is also a new skoda dealer (i think) in surrey , Crawley Down, near East Grinstead on the A264 and im getting my 10,000 mile oil change done there next week, 96 squid, bout a tenner more the Tonbridge i think but only round the corner.

Nice, no more trips to trhat skoda garage on the mountainous roads in Tonbridge!!!

Nice' date=' no more trips to trhat skoda garage on the mountainous roads in Tonbridge!!! [/quote']

Is that QAS? Also owned by Saltdean Garage....

My vRS is booked in for its 40,000 service next friday so will report after!

My vRS is booked in for its 40,000 service next friday so will report after!

Just to annoy Ballamys for me, when you take it in please make a point of mentioning that you expect them to take care of the interior as you've heard of a case where they didn't.

I had to return TWICE to get them to clear up the grease marks left on the seats by the mechanic when they (finally) replaced my duff CD autochanger in the Fabia, and still ended up cleaning it out myself to get it done properly and to remove the foul white spirit type smell left by whatever cleaning stuff they used.

I wrote to the MD of the group about this shoddy service but no reply (yet, been over two weeks since delivering the letter).

Totally MHO but I don't like the service department or their attitude so won't be getting any more business out of me.

Forgot to mention, Frosts down the road from Ballamys in Shoreham have just opened a Saab franchise section among the Vauxhalls.

Just to annoy Ballamys for me' date=' when you take it in please make a point of mentioning that you expect them to take care of the interior as you've heard of a case where they didn't.

I had to return TWICE to get them to clear up the grease marks left on the seats by the mechanic when they (finally) replaced my duff CD autochanger in the Fabia, and still ended up cleaning it out myself to get it done properly and to remove the foul white spirit type smell left by whatever cleaning stuff they used.

I wrote to the MD of the group about this shoddy service but no reply (yet, been over two weeks since delivering the letter).

Totally MHO but I don't like the service department or their attitude so won't be getting any more business out of me.[/quote']

:eek: :eek:

TROUBLE IS...

there are several dealers in my area but they all have had bad reports which makes it hard to know where to get the work done.Ballamy's did say the car would be washed and vacuumed - but didn't say they would grease the carpet

I really hope I can give a good report as the area badly needs a reliable dealer

watch this space

marc

The only contact I have had with Ballamys was to enquire whether my anti roll bar squeek was going to be covered by my now ended warranty (problem started whilst under warranty). They couldn't answer me there and then, but told me they would find out and ring me back later that day, a week later after not hearing from them I popped in, only to be told that they had passed the query onto there sister garage (Saltdean) and that they were dealing with it. I feel that the guys at Ballamys look down their noses of having to now deal with Skodas rather than Saab and that ontop of having had training from Saltdean gives me a bad feeling in my water.

Now you may not be aware of my loveless relationship with Saltdean (see my dealership review) but I didn't expect a very good result. I was promised a prompt reply it has now been 5 weeks and I still have not heard a dickie bird. I haven't been chasing them up because since the rainy weather set in the ARB has been silent. I spoke to Clarion cars in Worthing but as they are no longer a main Skoda dealer they couldn't help. I was pleased to find out that clarion cars will still service Skodas as they still have their great service team, and I will be going to them as per usual. I refuse to use Saltdean Group as they are the exception to the good Skoda dealerships. I still can't believe that Skoda UK (VAG Group) took away Clarion Cars Dealership because of the location of the site, so yet again customer care/opinions appears nowhere near the top of Skoda UK priority list.

Its not easy - there are three dealers + Clarion within a fair distance of home:

Station - rudgewick have had poor comments and the owner made it quite clear he did not want to service cars they did not supply.I could talk to skoda but my logicis that if they dont want to do the work they are unlikely to do it well

Clarion have done good work so far but to be brutal the last time I was not as keen on the results,they too left gease on the carpets and I complained that (in my opinion) the loan car was not road worthy - they were not interested in this complaint.In addition, as they are now not dealers there seems to be a slight concern over warranty here.I know that legally the warranty still applies but skoda say

Having a service completed at a non-franchised retailer will not in itself invalidate the warranty. However, should any difficulty arise that is deemed to be as a direct result of incorrect/incomplete servicing, any remedial work required would not be covered under your new vehicle warranty.

As mine is a company car I am wary of a loophole that could risk a claim being rejected

Crawley Down and Ballamys have both had adverse comments against them here and ballamys are slightly easier for me to get to and finally,I phoned both,got no reply from crawley down , Ballamys answered questions ok including the one about loan cars! and this was enough to make the choice.

(and they valet the cars which clarion didn't - Yes I know that has to be paid for but its a company car!)

I hope its the right choice and will report .I do a lot of miles so have to have a good dealer for servicing so if they **** up that then you and they will hear about it!

I really hope to give a good report next week!

marc

Forgot to mention, Frosts down the road from Ballamys in Shoreham have just opened a Saab franchise section among the Vauxhalls.

Saabs and vauxhalls have the same parent company now dont they ?

I feel that the guys at Ballamys look down their noses of having to now deal with Skodas rather than Saab and that ontop of having had training from Saltdean gives me a bad feeling in my water.

Agree here about the snooty approach! Now I've never had any trouble with Saltdean other than traffic in Peacehaven is painful to be in after dropping the car off in the morning and they're always busy so you have to wait a while for them to schedule you in (which you mention in your review).

Good luck with Ballamys, look forward to seeing what you think, and yes Saabs are GM (General Motors) just like Vauxhall.

Agree here about the snooty approach! Now I've never had any trouble with Saltdean other than traffic in Peacehaven is painful to be in after dropping the car off in the morning and they're always busy so you have to wait a while for them to schedule you in (which you mention in your review).

Good luck with Ballamys' date=' look forward to seeing what you think, and yes Saabs are GM (General Motors) just like Vauxhall.[/quote']

heheh the old sales manager was most upset when I described his precious new Saab as " a rebadged vectra"

He was even more upset when i was proved right

Then the trouble started ....

it broke down several times ...once in Italy and had to be recovered

then broke down a few more times

then had a "engine failure"

while the dealer was finishing the replacement engine ....it was stolen

the next sales meeting was a rowdy meeting with much takin the p155

Well I can now report the outcome...

Picked the car up this after noon.

It was finished on time, loan car ok , bill was as expected , as far as i'm aware all work was done ok , and it was cleaned inside and out

I cannot find anything to complain about (which is unusual for me!! )