Southfields Garage Ltd

Great service and efficient MOT from the team at Southfields Garage. Paul was brilliant, gave me a call to explain what needed doing and clearly was out to ensure I didn't pay more than I needed - very rare in my experience.

They're always friendly and the added novelty of Maggie the garage black Labrador and means I'll definitely be back next year.

This garage took my car to do some electrics & when I got it back I had no rear windscreen wiper & the boot kept popping open. Thinking it was just a glitch, I returned my car for them to sort out & fix my heater blower & airbag light at the same time. I have today got my car back after 25 DAYS IN THE GARAGE! They haven't returned at least 8 of my calls & have been promising my car back for the last 2 weeks. When I've been to the garage over this time my car has been in pieces every time with no-one working on it (the mechanic was busy walking his dog for over an hour one occasion & left to deal with family problems on another). Upon collecting my car they tried to charge me £500 for fixing the rear wiper which they broke in the first place and had an almighty row before agreeing not to charge and I have still been slapped with a bill of £1500 to get my car back. They have done nothing to recompense me for being without a car for almost a month. AVOID THIS GARAGE AT ALL COSTS!!!!!

Awful, can't complain that they done the MOT but one i had to call back to find out if the car was ready apparently they left a voicemail and there certainly isn't one on my phone.
The people i work for use this garage all the time i walked in and asked do i pay now or can you invoice my boss.
The response from the male behind the desk in a very sarcastic tone would you go to sainsburys and walk out without paying.

Understand that both tone, lack of manners or respect for a customer is so rude.
He didn't stop there he kept answearing me back, i stated im the customer and his attitude was i don't care.

Well luckily for me it's not my car and choice of garage so i don't ever have to worry about returning.
As a young female he was very intimating obviously the kind of persona he likes to give out.
Maybe a little more information should be given out at start, no information was given what so ever.
I would recommend staying away from this gargage.

I’d start by saying they have completed a great job with the clutch and allowed me to bring the car in on the same day which others didn’t have space. I found the staff to be very friendly no problems.

However on returning home I had noticed I was charged £90 for a 501 car bulb (which I had in my glove compartment anyway) and retail at around £2- I thought this was a bit cheeky.

Also told cam shaft belt needed replacing as was *dangerous* but I had had this replaced 6 months earlier.

Overall not the worst garage but was a little shocked about the lightbulb, but not enough to go back and complain.

Reported to the police and the local ombudsmen. Absolutely appalling. No quote. No authorisation to do the work. Just a call to say the work was done and cost significantly more than the industry standard for my vehicle. The owner refused to show me the itemised invoice before confiscating the car with blockade. Highly defensive, physically abusive, shutting my body between the car door and the car. All recorded on voice recording.

The Garage now appears to have closed down. Noticed their sign was not displayed in Kimber Road. Phone number been unobtainable for a couple of weeks. No reply to email. What a great shame as they were very good.

To the point, I won't be using the garage again. Firstly, credit is due; work done to the car appears to be done well after getting work done one month ago and experiencing no issue. Mechanics are good/ competent. My experience was poor communication regarding cost Breakdown. When your mechanic doesn't include VAT in a quote until the bill comes, this is deceptive. If your mechanic doesn't clearly define the TOTAL cost when explicitly asked the TOTAL cost, to be surprised when you receive the bill you feel ripped off. When the mechanic then offers the customer a resolution on the provision, you use them again to drum up more business that is an insult—unfortunately, a bad experience in total.

UPDATE: Following this review Paul, the owner, called me to discuss what I've written. To his credit, he was friendly and polite.

He said they were a straightforward, family business and all the work was needed, which I'm sure is true.

However, we agreed that it is best, in all cases, to confirm costs up front. As said in the review, this didn't happen on this occasion.

Perhaps this should be a two-way thing, and garages should take more care to confirm costs first as well?

Have edited the review slightly and changed the scoring.

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I must reiterate other comments on the cost of this garage.

See copy of the attached invoice for a service on a six-year old Fiat 500.

The work seems to have been competently executed, but £98/hour for labour is steep, on it's own, but then they put VAT on top, taking it to £117/hour.

Obviously, costs for parts are padded as well - so that engine oil, that retails for ~£5/litre (inc VAT) is sold for £12.60 (inc VAT). You get the idea.

Foolishly, I did not get a firm quote, or even an estimate, for the service when booking it in, as they were recommended by another garage I have used for many years, so caveat emptor etc. I am sure other customers are not so silly.

They recommended further work and quoted approximate £400 to change the cambelt - a much more involved job that carrying out a service.

I would recommend shopping around for a better quote (for example - Halfords around the corner quotes are much more reasonable - see screenshot).