Review of Bristol Street Motors - Barnsley SEAT
I've taken the plunge and ordered a new car. Something I had always said I'd never do, but with repairs to older cars eating into my car availability time and the option to specify exactly what I want as well as knowing I'm the first owner, I decided to go new.I decided a while back the car I'd like would be the Leon 2.0TDI 184BHP. It has the right balance between fuel economy, performance and price for me.
That's enough of the reasoning for a new car/choice of car, that I'll document elsewhere. This page is intended to document my experience of buying a SEAT Leon from Bristol Street Motors in Barnsley where I ordered the car.
After sourcing a number of quotes online for the specification I fancied, I took those to the Barnsley branch of the Bristol Street Motors chain. After a bit of negotiation we came to an agreement on price.
While the price wasn't as keen as perhaps I might have got if I ordered through one of the online brokers, I do have a bricks and mortar place to complain to if need be. That's reassuring.
The salesman was friendly and happy to answer questions about the car and it's spec. Of course they offered a couple of expensive addons (eg gap insurance and an accessory pack) that I could get for a fraction of the price elsewhere, they didn't push them too hard when I asked them to remove the extras from the package.
Car was ordered at the Barnsley SEAT branch of Bristol Street Motors on 23rd June....
- 23rd June 2014 - ordered my SEAT at Bristol Street Motors
- 30th June - contacted @Vertu_CustCare (parent company) to enquire about when I might get dates, that got passed through to the salesman I dealt with who called to answer (not my intention, but I'm not complaining!)
- 4th July 2014 - Spoke to "my" salesman about adding to my Leons spec. He promised to get back to on email (as requested) when he had answers. This he did, within 20 minutes of my call!
- 5th July 2014 - after returning an updated order form to the Barnsley SEAT late last night on email, I get an email today to say all is well and the updated order is with the manufacturer. Dealer still saying he'd expect to see car towards the back end of September
- 7th August 14 - according to forums, SEAT uk customer support should get me an update on my order (ie build status, shipping state etc) so tried that. They need order ref to do that, so I contact Bristol Street Motors for update. Within 2 hours they phone back to say the Leon is on a ship on the way from Spain. Would have been nice to be told that without asking, but not I guess it's not that important in the scheme of things
- 22nd August 2014 - no further update from Bristol Street Motors as yet, so called SEAT customer support who eventually tracked down the ship my Leon is on, meaning I could track it through the Marine Traffic website
- 25th August 2014 - ship docked at Tyne
- 27th August 2014 -phone call from Bristol Street Motors in Barnsley to say they'd expect to have my Seat Leon ready for collection towards the end of next week
- 4th Sept - collected my shiny new SEAT Leon. Salesman took time to go through where various controls are and quick intro to the control system
Would I recommend Bristol Street Motors (Barnsley SEAT)?
In short, yes. At least as far as car sales go. They have been friendly and professional throughout with my dealing with them during the sales process for a new car.
I can't comment on their after sales support too much, but my dealings have been ordering, updates to order, making sure everything is ok on delivery of my new Leon and all have been pleasant experiences.