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MSB Skoda - Darlington


DGW

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I've used MSB on a couple of occasions now. Having read some of the comments on here, I was not expecting much.

I'm pleased to report that I have been very pleasantly surprised. On both occasions the staff have all been very friendly and helpful. Whilst looking at car I spoke to the owner who was very willing to help and offered lots of helpful advice without pushing for a sale.

Fingers crossed the good service continues when I change my car!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just had my 1st service done as I said I would in a previous post.

I rang up at very short notice as I was heading back up to Newcastle for the weekend.

Malcolm (the owner) answered the phone, he bent over backwards & fitted me in for first thing on the monday as I requested...

Got there, service was sorted in around 2 hours & the lads rang me to as soon as it was done to stop me being bored wandering around Darlington town centre.

Picked the car up, got a in depth verbal all clear off the sevice desk & the overall cost was a lot cheaper than any other Dealer I rang. Some of the Manchester/Cheshire dealers were over a £100 more. (I was also given a copy of the mechanics service checklist).

All I can say is "thanks" to MSB & especially Malcolm.

I'll definitely use them again & it's a 240 mile round trip for me.

Nuff said....

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  • 3 months later...

I would like to thank Colin and Tom for all the help they have give me while my car was in the garage, not forgetting Malcolm the boss! and would recomend MSB to anyone, not only for service but for friendlyness of all the staff, once again a big thank you lads.J.P.

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  • 4 weeks later...

they serviced my car today, staff are very helpful and even dropped me and the wife of in town to do some xmas shopping while it was getting serviced. they phoned me when it was ready and picked us both up again.

good job.

service cost me £160, not to bad

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  • 6 months later...

Got my Octavia 2.0TDi serviced (variable), cambelt change and MOT for £500. Cheaper than a local independent. Advised I needed new disks and pads (which I knew about before going to the garage as its still on the original pads at 53K and I could see the disks were not in the best condition) but didnt try the hard sell.

Overall recommended.

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I went to have a look at a vRS tdi in blue. The staff were pleasent and friendly, tho I think they priced the car too high. It was an 08 at 15k and no room for negotiation. I started with the fact that there are cars for 13 and a half, but was told that they had too much money in it.

I'm off to Ipswich tomorrow at Villiers dealership to get my 58 plate vRs tdi in racing blue. I'd rather have a day out and a few miles, to get a better deal, which I have done. I doubt I'll be servicing it here either, just warranty work, which hopefully won't be needed!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just took my Fabia vRS in for a service and a few other odds and ends.

:thumbup: Good points:

  • Guy on service desk was friendly and polite.
  • No problem getting courtesy car
  • Quoted £192 for 20,000 mile service and brake fluid change, but only got charged £170.

:thumbdown: Bad Points:

  • Almost no fuel in courtesy car.
  • Knocking noise from front suspension/steering can't be found and presumably won't be until the car is out of warranty and they can charge me for it.
  • Windscreen washers still aren't working properly. Their response was that I've put in too strong a mix and it's clogged the jets, but they didn't bother fixing the problem even though they refilled the reservoir (with presumably the correct mix) during the service.
  • Car wasn't cleaned - guess I'll just have to do it myself...

Will I use them again? Only until my warranty runs out!

UPDATE 14/12/2009

Took in my car 2 weeks ago to get the leaking rear doors fixed. Also ordered new washer jets to fix the low pressure problem (see above). Took my car back in last week because both rear doors were still leaking. Also replacing the washer jets hadn't fixed the washer problem and in investigating further I managed to snap off connector where the main washer feed comes in just below the scuttle panel. The rear doors appear to be fixed now, although the weather has been better recently so they haven't had a real test. I mentioned when I took the car in that I had had the windscreen replaced in the summer and now they had someone to blame they were in their element. Apparently I was missing three clips from the scuttle panel, one of the washer jets had been snapped off inside it's housing and the other one was missing completely. It's strange how they hadn't spotted all this when the car went in for the service in the summer with exactly the same symptoms (particularly as both washer jets were there when I left the car!).

UPDATE 19/01/2010

Door leaks still not fixed. Returning again in the near future...

The other thing to be aware of is that the service and parts department doesn't open on Saturday despite both their website and the door to the dealership boldly proclaiming that it is.

Edited by 'Little' John
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Bought a 54 plate Octavia vRS with 20,000 miles on it three weeks ago. Price seemed reasonable, doing a deal was easy, with not too much messing about. Part of the deal was to get cambelt changed if it needed it. Salesman wasn't sure, but did my own research after picking car up. Found it needed doing.

At this point I was expecting a boat load of hassle, despite the cambelt request being on the order form. To my surprise though, there were no problems, car was booked in, courtesy car arranged and job done.

Staff are friendly and helpful.

I would recommend them. As with all things, be clear on what you want and there shouldn't be many problems.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Updated after car purchase.You find out how good a dealer is when you need help with a fault. Well, I can say that MSB are............fantastic. Usual secondand warranty didn't cover the fault but they fixed the car for me. Four days labour and a big strip down job for free.I'd recommend them without reservation. I don't normally service my car at main dealers, but I will this time to repay them for their excellent service.

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  • 2 months later...

I've been looking at getting a Yeti for the last few weeks and been getting prices from the internet (Broadspeed, DtD and Carquake).

I spoke with Steve Eland at MSB who stated that they would try to match the internet prices.

I went down yesterday and spoke with the manager, Malcolm, who after lots of pushing buttons on his calculator got to about £100 of the internet deals, this was good enough for me so I placed the order for a Yeti 4x4 SE 140 with them. My Fabia VRS will be going in part ex, but as the V5 is away at Swansea with an address change, they said for me to bring my car down in a couple of weeks when the V5 returns.

I think thats its worth paying the extra £100 or so more than the internet to get service like this.

All I have to do now is wait for 10 weeks or so .

Oh and I did try the dealer that I had bought the Fabia from and he was £1325 more expensive than MSB !!

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  • 1 month later...

Had my vRS into M.S.B Darlington few days back to get the headlight washers looked at (not popping up from the bumper) anyway to keep it short the car was in approx 15 mins when the guy came over to me to tell me my car was ready & headlight washers now working fine (blown fuse) :giggle:

10/10 for M.S.B , definatley use them again , to be honest tho i have been in a few times when looking to buy my last 2 x vRS,s and was,nt that impressed with them but from now i would def give them a chance when i decide to change my car :thumbup::thumbup:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Collected our Yeti (Scarlet) on Thursday as arranged with MSB Skoda. We had a coffee and chat with the manager and salesman whilst they put mats and boot mat in the car as part of a deal they were doing, then ran through the hand over procedure.

The garage has kept us up to date with Scarlets progress since we ordered her in February, letting us know the build week, then confirming that she was built and signed off and at the docks at Emden waiting to sail to the Tyne.

I couldn't fault the service that we have had from MSB and would recommend that you give them a try in you live in the North East :thumbup:

PS No I'm not on commission from them :D

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  • 8 months later...

All the guys at MSB (Sales) have been spot on with us when we decided on the new vRS.

Malcolm the owner gave us his time to sort the deal and was a pleasure to deal with (As where all his sales staff) - Sales staff worked late so we could get the finance paperwork sorted (Even though the salesman who "got the sale" was on holiday)

Got the right deal for us and the service team have been very good and resonably priced on the old vRS

So all in all thumbs up to them

Chris

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  • 4 weeks later...

I bought my current Octavia Scout from MSB in August 08 and found them pretty helpful and good at getting close to internet pricing (Steve Eland). Malcolm Black took a personal interest as well, which is good. People in parts/service department have always been courteous and professional, although not always able to answer queries (eg about whether you can have the Columbus satnav on and the radio off, as opposed to muted - they were supposed to be finding out for me and I'm still waiting for an answer 2.5 years later!).

When I decided to buy a Yeti, I decided to use MSB again partly to support local business, partly because they had been OK with the Octy purchase and partly because, for various reasons at the time (and I wanted to get an order in to coincide with lower VAT, when my road tax would expire, etc., etc.) I did not have much opportunity to shop around. I was hoping for Steve Eland again but he wasn't around and I got another Steve - less customer-friendly manner, more aggressive in bargaining, but just about OK overall. When, after a few weeks, I went back in to amend the order (colour/trim change, adding electric driver's seat and variable boot floor - he was a bit sharp to start with (eg 'he'd have to check to see if I could amend the order': he must have known as well as I did that it was not a problem at that early stage). More importantly, I have never received an updated invoice to show the extras I added or the changes I made to the order (so it is only on trust that I will receive the car I think I'm getting), which I think would be only normal - as opposed to good - customer service (added to which on my original invoice, 'metallic' is incorrectly spelled, not too impressive for a car salesman!).

My other bugbear is that I have never had a single call updating me about the progress of the car. I was originally given build week 48; when I checked myself nearer that time, I was told that build week had gone but I would be informed as soon as there was more information. As I was taking my wife's car in for service at a neighbouring garage a few weeks ago, I thought I'd call in to MSB for a progress check and Steve told me, 'Oh, it's down for build week 3.' (it was now build week 1!). This had clearly been known to the dealer for at least a week, if not more, but no-one had let me know. Last week, after hearing nothing again from MSB (despite more assurances to keep me in the picture) I contacted Customer Services at Skoda UK who confirmed that my car had been built the week before last (incidentally, they had given me my order number on a previous occasion - I never had one from MSB) and that MSB would keep me informed about the car's progress to the UK. Have they? You guess!

I cannot fault Malcolm Black personally - when I was last in, he offered to hold over the registration of my Yeti until 1 March and to lend me a car for a couple of days between taking in my Octy and picking up the Yeti. That's good service, and his evident desire to know his customers and to give them personal help is excellent.

I do have an issue though with how well trained his sales team is - or how much notice they all take of advice, feedback etc. I don't think it should be me doing all the work to find out what is happening with the progress of an item costing me aroung £25k: as the customer, the sales team should be falling over themselves to keep me in the picture.

All in all, then - I would like to keep supporting MSB if only because the owner is clearly trying hard to establish and maintain an excellent small(ish) business. I may think twice next time, however, if I can't rely on a salesman doing something as simple as picking up a telephone from time to time.

Foot note: having now read about all the other Skoda dealers in the NE, I suspect MSB is among the - if not the - best! But I do wish custmer contact (and accurate paperwork) had been better handled in my most recent experience.

Further footnote: this morning (ie the first working day after making this posting) I have just received a phone call from an admin person at MSB telling me that Malcolm Black had asked her to phone me to say that my SM is en route from the factory to Emden! Now a cynic might connect these events; on the other hand, it's further evidence of the owner taking an interest (although my gut feeling is that it should be the salesperson making these calls). Still, a positive rather than a negative - let's see what the handover is like now!

Edited by hmibennett
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  • 1 month later...

Further update after collecting my Yeti yesterday. Handover very smooth and all as promised - smart new Octavia demonstrator provided, on MSB's insurance, for the four days betwen handing in my Octavia Scout and collecting the Yeti. Yeti ready at the promised time; handover fairly easy as few essential differences between Octavia and Yeti, but salesman did make sure I knew where all major controls were. Malcolm Black himself again much in evidence, offering coffee and emphasising that I should contact him directly if any problems with the new car. Have only driven the Yeti home as yet and then played with a few controls while static on the drive, but all seems well - it was certainly clean (protective tabs left on satnav screen and wheel centres)and all documentation present and correct.

All in all, then, I would say MSB are pretty good. Malcolm Black told me that he had read my previous post, accepts it as honest and well-intended, and that he has taken my criticisms on board. You can't ask for more than that. So, all being well, they'll see me as a customer again.

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  • 2 months later...

MSB was very helpful with warranty on my Yeti. Iain seems to have a lot of knowledge about the Yeti and was able to rectify the wormed badge problem quickly and even washed the car.

They sorted out my dash pod rattle and its now much tighter. Well Done!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Went to MSB to sort out some paint warranty issues, photoes take and sent to Skoda warranty promptly and got back to me quickly. Although they don't deal with bodyshop issues, they were helpful to send my information off to a Skoda approved body shop! Thanks!

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Went to MSB to sort out some paint warranty issues, photoes take and sent to Skoda warranty promptly and got back to me quickly. Although they don't deal with bodyshop issues, they were helpful to send my information off to a Skoda approved body shop! Thanks!

I expect they will send to the bodyshop at Yarm that took 3 attempts to fit the foils on Scarlet!!!

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  • 1 month later...

full marks to this garage

i brought a vrs mk2 from ashford as im working in lydd for another year and half but i am from darlo just off north road the garage down south was shocking and big blue went in the garage a couple of times for the same fault but never been fixed anyway just had some leave so thought id take big blue to this garage and see what happened

AND OH MY GOD

with in 20 min the car had been in for a check up and she was reported that it was still playing up

ten min later they had order a new radio / satnav a new wiring in this time they where on the phone to the southern garage fighting who was paying and sorting it all out .

also fixed a fault with my alarm and order a new sensor for something else and was on the ramps for the knocking nosie but it never did it while he was testing her sods law lol

the whole time i was spoken to with respect they never knew anything about big blue but where very helpfull the whole time and when cyaffns (southern garage ) tryed to play hard ball they did to

its nice to know this garage is on side and very helpfull

10/10 whoop whoop lol

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Scarlet has been in for her first service today (22 months 18700 miles).

Had front and rear badges and handbrake lever cable replaced under warranty. Rear discs were checked re scoring, cleaned and brakes cleaned. They even fitted some new headlight bulbs that I had provided.

We were dropped off in the local town whilst the work was done, then picked up later and taken back to the garage to collect Scarlet nicely washed .

The service from MSB was excellent and good value, well worth the 55 mile drive to the garage. :thumbup:

To cap it all they were cheaper than any other local Skoda dealer! :D

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  • 4 weeks later...

More plus points for MSB. My Yeti (see previous posts) was in for its first annual service today - almost 13,000 miles on the clock, largely due to two trips to the south of France and back. The car has been trouble-free, and the service confirmed that no work was necessary beyond the usual oil change, etc. Because of inaccurate information from Skoda UK during the ordering process, I was given £250 towards servicing costs, and this was agreed without any problem at MSB's service desk. I know that's how it should be, but I was prepared to have to argue for it!

The service was completed by the time agreed, despite the garage being short-staffed because of illness.

All in all, a good experience.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Big Blue had MOT this week and passed with no worrys or advisories so proud ha .

but had another great service at Msb the staff are great another great service with no hassels or problems 10/10 again

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