Winchester Motor Company Ltd - Winchester..

[DGW]

Winchester Motor Company

43 St Cross Road

WINCHESTER

Hants

SO23 9PU

01962 866331

Services: New, Used, Repair

Edited 28 June, 2009 by DGW
Details checked

[DGW]

Originally posted by Stuart_J - Fri Sep 3, 2004

Needed a service in a hurry before the Cannonball & left booking late so they didnt have a loan car, they offered to collect & return the car. 28000 miles (variable service) & also gave the car an extra once over pre cannonball including a road test. Total cost £63.03 including VAT.To say Im impressed is an understatement. Previous work they have done on both our Octys has been excellent & they are also accomadating with the slightly non std Octy

[DGW]

Originally posted by supersimon2000 - Wed Aug 25, 2004

Pros: Very good cheerful service.

Cons: None

[DGW]

Originally posted by Stuart_J - Thu Sep 30, 2004

Just to heap more praise where praise is due. The day before the cannonball my MAF Sensor failed. Winchester didnt have one in stock & neither did any local Skoda dealers so they did a part number check & located one at a VW dealer in Basingstoke, about 20 miles away so once again, service beyond the call of duty !!

[DGW]

Originally posted by ScoobyChris - Thu Jan 20, 2005

Dropped my car into them this morning for it's 70k lube service. Service staff were friendly and efficient and sorted out a Fabia Ambiente (1.2 HTP!) loan car which was in excellent condition and came complete with a Best of the 80's CD.

Courtesy call at 2pm to say the car was all ready and when I turned up to collect it, it had also been cleaned inside and out! Only gripe I have is the car was parked in the car park with the key left in the ignition.

And the price? A mere 75 quid which was less than half the price quoted by other dealers in the area

[Stuart_J]

Just to add if more praise is due, We have now used them for 2 years servicing both our Octys during which time weve achieved a combined mileage of about 140,000 miles, The cars are a slightly tweaked 4x4 & the not so tweaked L&K Diesel.

Weve dealt with many garages in the past but I can honestly say they are streets ahead of anyone else

The service has always been to an incredibly high standard & weve never had a single reason to complain in any way about any of the workmanship. They will even spend ages sorting out silly little problems like rattles & to date have always cured them (if you read this Winch I know you hate those sort of things but at least you sort them!!)

They seem to charge a fair price for a job well done, they seem to realise unlike many dealers that its not just about making money but about service.

Another big plus is that they were a VW dealer up until a couple of years ago so have years of experience on the "New generation Skodas"

As you will gather I cant recomend them enough, they also do a good deal on new cars

Stuart

[Organist]

Well impressed with this dealer - FAR better than the one in Southampton.

[nedbloggs]

Bought my Octy VRS from these guys who were excellent (except that they didn't fill the tank as promised), but they did ring a couple of weeks after to see if everything was ok and I was happy (although I'm not sure what they would have done if I'd said no! ) Thumbs up from me so far (yet to have a service though)

[cheezemonkhai]

Not the cheapest, but usually very good at doing things right

Robin is particulalrly helpful in their service department.

[sidneyTDI]

I hope you've all got a minute...

I had the lock break on the driver's side door; the barrel still worked and it needed the couple of quid repair kit (thanks Briskoda for providing me with that info!). Whilst that was going to be done, I got a new alloy wheel cap and I also thought I'd get a faulty air vent replaced (see http://www.briskoda.net/forums/octavia/cost-replacing-dodgy-air-vent/63728/ ). I called, booked the car in for the parts and undertook the 70 miles round trip to them, left the car for an hour to come back and be told.... it needed the repair kit and a new air vent to replace the faulty one. Doh. Considering I had a couple of hundred miles driving to do that day (in unbelievably sh***y weather), I wasn't in the best of moods. Anyway, the work needed doing, so I booked the car in later that week, re-arranging everything to do so.

Turned up for the second appointment (another 70 mile trip, this time with a 1 year old in tow), got the barrel fixed and found out the wrong part had been ordered for the air vent. So, a third trip was made (yup, another 70 miles...) to get the vent done. Finally.

I was quoted approximately £110 for the work, which cost (in the two installments paid) £82 & £54(ish)... So the £110 quote didn't include VAT then. My fault for not checking it with them, but I then didn't ask for a quote minus VAT...

It's fair to say I'm fairly wound up by proceedings. Each person I spoke to was perfectly professional and courteous in their manner, but that doesn't let the dealer off the hook in the slightest. I can't honestly believe the whole process (for what was simple work) needed 10 days or so and 210 miles of driving to be completed. I can't say I was impressed with proceedings. I've only had the Octavia a couple of months and to be so jaundiced with a main dealer over such trivial work only inspires me to take the car to an independent to get the work done in the future.

[CHRIS ELLIS]

So far they have been utter rubbish they told me before christmas that a first service on a octy vrs would be £120 great i thought books it in plus i needed a courtesy car go down there to be told the service would cost wait for it £249 plus for the second time having a courtesy car with no bl**dy petrol in it oh plus they charge you £5 to have the car .All i can say is they are a bunch of money grabbing gits thats vw stealers for you:finger: .

[tomasjedno]

Have to agree with you on Money Grabbing gits.

Today they charged me £163 for 40K "just" for inspection service being carried out and then separately charged me for parts such as oil, air filters and spark plugs on top of that. All came up to £220 NOT including VAT.

I thing this was well overpriced.

I will be avoiding them in future !!!

[linandal]

I took my 1998 Felicia in for an MoT and service after another local Skoda dealer failed the car on the 'Headlamp Adjusters'. Although it passed following a few adjustments I thought they were were a bit 'nit-picky'. One 'advise' was that the service schedule was missing, the last guy that serviced the car having 'lost' it!!!! My main criticism was that they seemed to know less about the Felicia than I did which did not give me a lot of confidence.

On the positive side at least the car runs better now and the air bag light is finally off so they must have tweaked up the ECU.

On the negative side they do not appear to be very interested in the older Skodas like the Felicia, wonder how I'd get on if I took a Favorit in?

Total cost for MoT and 10K service plus odds and ends was £230, prbably a bit steep bvut I feel that I had my money's worth.

[ScoobyChris]

Sounds like they've gone downhill since I last used them. Used to get a free courtesy car (with enough fuel to get me to work and back!) and the service prices were the cheapest for the "lube" service on the Fabia!

Chris

[Stimpy]

Had a problem with loss of battery power with a secondhand Fabia. They told me I needed a new alternator. Second opinion (non VW/Skoda) determined the problem to be oxidation of the wiring loom contacts - a good brush sorted it out.

Money grabbing gits indeed

[Wobs]

Changed the faulty cruise/stalk on my Octy under warranty without batting an eyelid. Quick & courteous.

[Wobs]

Had the second variable service on my Octy today. £289 incl. parts which was the same as JKM quoted. Offered a courtesy car which I didn't take them up on. They looked into what I thought was a noisy wheel bearing and put it down to an over inflated tyre and wear - they didn't try and sell me a bearing and the noise has gone.

Good advice on brake fluid and Haldex oil changes - said they could do them now but were not strictly needed for another 4,000 so no hard sell there.

All told a very agreeable experience.

[peanut18]

Just picked my Octavia vRS up from its 3rd variable service at 45k miles. Service included a brake fuild change and air-con service. Total price £335 incl VAT. More than happy with price and service received. Longlife oil was billed at £38 plus VAT for 5 litres which is pretty much what you would pay in Halfords for the same stuff - previous experience with BMW was twice the price.

Also had the front ARB replaced under warranty to cure the rubbery squeaking noise when going over spped bumps - cure hasn't worked, but I will mention it when it goes back in later in the month for the delaminating rear screen and a faulty rear speaker - again both agreed to be covered under warranty. So far very happy customer....................

[FatOldGit]

Been using them for about 2 years, and pretty happy with them - consistently good service, communications and reasonable pricing, but then I used to drive Audis...

[Karlos69]

I bought my Octy vRS from them in December 2008 - friendly sales staff and very helpful with no hard sell.

Not so impressed however, with their aftersales. I had a minor warranty issue with the driver's side wingmirror - the heating element was faulty.

I phoned and got it booked in, explaining that it was only that which would need doing and that I would wait. I was told to bring it down whenever. So I made the trip from Basingstoke to Winchester only to get there and be told that they would need the car for the whole day! I had no other transport and couldn't hang around Winchester all day whilst they carried out a 10 minute job. So I re-booked, but was told that I had to come at 08:00 if I wanted to wait, which meant another journey to Winchester the following week.

In fairness, they did then fix said wingmirror, but offered no apology for their lack of communication or flexibility in fitting me in.

Needless to say, I will not be going back,

[james26]

Bought new car from them in 2008. 1st rate. Helpful, got good deal, did some extra work for free and on the one other time went back was 1st rate! The sales people where polite and answered questions fairly.

Highly recommended .

James.

[james26]

A update from past posting:

My car went for it's 2ed service (brake fluid and air con do as well) with them a few weeks back - the price was fair - staff where friendly, place clean and they called when car was done. Did not try and sale you new windscreen wipers or charge for screen wash etc, the tricks that many dealers do! Talked over what they did on car when I got back which marks a change. They did offer to clean car (free) inside and out but I declined them on this offer.

A lot better than a Skoda dealer down the road which I took car to last year for it's 1st service - bought the car from them and if I can on the basis if this visit to service dep will be coming back to Winchester Motor Co!

James.

[charlie vrs]

Just bought my 2nd Octavia vRS through Winchester Motor co. This was a revelation when compared with the fisrt vRS purchase via Sparshatts in Fareham. It will be a bit of a treck for servicing, but I'll probably make the effort for this level of service.

[ChrisgVRS]

Great service, would use again! Enough said!

[Owens]

All I can say is if it was not for the good treatment from the service and spares department I would not have bought my Citigo from them. Shame the sales experience I had leaft a lot to be desired.