Wessex Garages Review

I recently purchased a used X Trail with finance through a 3rd party. I received exceptional attention by various members on the sales and finance teams from the initial visit, to test drive and finally collection. I was not disappointed in any way through the whole process and on collection the car was covered in a black drape before being revealed. It had been prepared to a very high standard.
I look forward to the first service in 5 months time and have no reason to believe the experience will be any less satisfactory.
Thank you in particular to Martyn for his dedication and attention to detail.
I am happy to rate my experience highly and recommend the dealership based on the professional service I received
Thank you.

Had an execellent service. David was very helpful and made my mums day with her new car.

Decent enough service price was good, don t do collection on Sunday so don t expect to drive a car away on a Sunday if you pop in and buy that day ! They filled the tank with fuel after some bartering so pretty pleased all in all.

Always a good experience, my next car will come from Wessex

Bought a car from this garage on May 18th 2018 with the deal being that a few scratches on side panel were painted and sorted before we collect. Go to collect the car on this date and the work hasn t been done. Now almost three months later and still waiting for this work to be completed despite constant emails back and forth and promises being made. Also handed the car over to me with no fuel in and having to get back to Bath, I know it s not part of the deal but out of courtesy and customer care I expected more of them. Would never buy a car from this garage again.

Very helpful team, didn't feel pressured to buy and they gave me a lot of useful advice around my options. Would definitely recommend

I ve just got my car at Wessex garage , and I must say if your thinking of getting a car from there go to a great salesman name Nick , not like a lot of people and other garages he actually does what he says , and gets back to you when he says he will , makes such a difference when you get good sales and after care , thankyou Nick , great car to . Best lu Rose

I booked my car in for a major service despite stating they have stamped my servicing book they had not! My fault for believing that they would be on the money and not checking. Makes me wander what else they have paid lips service to? I am sure they will apologies and offer to stamp my serving book if I bring it in... I feel this approach isn t good enough; my time is valuable and it s your mistake to fix Wessex.

Had two lease cars from Wessex Garages so far and both have been delivered to us on time and in good working order. Phone calls to organise delivery we re courteous and friendly. Would definitely use again.

really good experience at wessex cribbs causeway... offered me a brilliant deal. first class service, would highly recommend. Josh was our sales guy who was really friendly, helpful and not at all pushy. best car purchase I have ever made. Love the juke and have nothing but good things to say about the service

All as it should be ,quick ,professional and polite ,happy days

Excellent service well above what was expected. Will definitely recommend this company and will get my next car from
them.

great service from Taylor and Stuart at Wessex garages Mazda I m loving my little fiat 500 I have just picked up.
Thank you so much.

Walked into showroom not one member of staff said hello!

DEALT WITH JAMES W, VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE AND THOROUGH.

WOULD RECCOMMEND

What a truly wonderful experience, after some searching for the right vehicle I ventured down to Wessex after Great feed back from friend! I must say the staff offered superb friendly service, with out being over familiar. The salesman (mentioning no names) dealt with me in the most professional manner with out the usual hyperbole. I received the best new car experience to date and I never buy simply on price but on this occasion... Wow what a deal I had! Thanks to all
At Wessex!!!

Great experience provided by a professional company and their competent salesman David Facey backed up by his Business Manager, Warren Hay. Delighted with our used car that was immaculately prepared for viewing! Excellent communication throughout making the trip of 125 miles to part exchange well worth it! They deserve success in a very competitive market place, we wish them well

Very helpful staff, James in particular was very accommodating and understanding given my lack of car knowledge. Very satisfied customer!

Great service from Nick really helped me choose the right car and very friendly and easy to deal with

Amazing experience at Mazda Bristol was passing through killing time. Ended buying a car.
Thank you taylor

Went looking for a car, spent a good couple of hours looking and test driving. However when I said I wouldn't be making a decision until the day after the practically through us out saying they would email us the details. Needless to say we didn't receive an email.

Fantastic service from Danny B. Will be back again in the future. Really happy with the deal.

Very good customer service. James W was very helpful from the very start to when I picked up my new car yesterday which I absolutely love. Thank you very much.

Having found the car I was interested in online I dealt with Dan Bond in the dealership. He could not have been more helpful and was a pleasure to do business with. He understood the deal I was after and we reached it with little fuss. Aside from a hiccup over insurance (largely the fault of my insurer), handover was smooth and trouble free.
I've had some poor experiences with another Wessex dealership & I was very uncertain about using them again, but Dan and the team in Bristol went a long way towards redeeming the Wessex reputation. If the after sales service lives up to sales then I will be more than happy.

What a great experience I've had of buying a used vehicle from Pennywell Road Bristol! From the start of my search to driving away today, James Winward kept me updated with the progress, whilst the team got my used vehicle to a showroom condition ready for collection.
5 stars for a very pleasant experience . Would definitely recommend and visit again for future purchases.

I've had a very poor experience with Wessex Garages and suggest anyone considering doing business with them reads the following factual account first...
As my Nissan Qashqai is still within the Warranty period I took it to Nissan Wessex on the 19th of August 2016 as it had, and still has, a hesitation problem. During the check-in, the Works Manager joined me on a road test and acknowledged the presence of the hesitation fault. After Wessex had carried out their checks I was advised that it would not be possible to repair the car that day as there were a number of fault codes showing which were thought to be caused by the battery not being fully charged, although nothing had occurred to reduce the battery charge.
As arranged, I returned the car on the afternoon of 1st of September to allow Wessex to charge the battery in order that they could carry out a repair the following day. I then had to make an 11 mile journey by taxi and train to get home.

I telephoned Wessex at 14.00 approx. the next day to find out when I could collect the car. I was told that it wouldn t be ready until 15.00 as the battery was being charged because it didn t have a full charge and this was all that was wrong with the vehicle. This response made me believe that it wasn t charged overnight as agreed and my taxi and train journey was unnecessary. As again, nothing had occurred to reduce the battery charge so I requested that the battery be replaced under warranty. Wessex initially refused this request but later did so, perhaps this was because I involved Nissan UK with the dispute? I then made my 11 mile train and taxi journey to Wessex and collected the car. On the return journey it soon became apparent that the hesitation fault was still just the same.
At this point I decided to give Wessex one more try and wrote to them outlining their disappointing performance so far. They responded by asking me to leave the car for an unspecified period and offered me a loan car. I accepted and took my car in at 12.00 midday on Tuesday the 6th of September. Before anyone had looked at the car, the Works Manager said there was no point in leaving the car if there was no fault code showing. This indicates to me that they are unable to repair a car without a fault code, this was not a good start to a last chance. He then looked at the vehicle and stated, with surprise in his voice, that there was a fault code showing, so the car was left as arranged.
I didn t hear from Wessex for 3.5 days, so at 16.00 on Friday I called them and was told that the vehicle was ready for collection but the fault was still present as there was NO FAULT CODE showing! This was not what I was told 3.5 days earlier and why they hadn t had the decency to call me? When I went to collect the car I was greatly dismayed to find that it had suffered bodywork damage on the offside front! So to this point, Wessex had had the car on 3 separate occasions, the 3rd one being for 3.5 days, the fault was still not corrected and the car bodywork had been damaged!
I then had to take the car in again for a bodywork repair which is completely unsatisfactory. The colour of the bumper no longer matches the rest of the vehicle and there was overspray on the windscreen, the bonnet, the front bumper and all four doors. The overspray on the windscreen caused reduced visibility during my journey home.
This is a factual account of my one and only experience of Wessex Garages at Pennywell Road, Bristol and I posted this Review, my first ever on any subject, because I want others to be aware of it.

Apparently they stopped being an Alfa Dealership 8 months ago. I booked my car in for an MOT and service two months ago. They waited until 4:45 pm the day before the service to phone me to tell me they're not able to give me an authorised dealer stamp. This has left me a matter of days to arrange an MOT. Terrible service. No stars if that were possible.

Fantastic experience, very apprehensive as not done for 13 years,
Clayton did every thing promised and the car is great
Wish I had changed earlier

Consistently never called or rang back with updates. Car was booked in three times for a warranty job totalling nearly 2 weeks of the car being in the garage for the same job. Very frustrating experience with this main dealer

Don t even think that the people there will be helpful. Absolute waste of time...

I tried to order a touch up paint stick from Wessex Mazda in Bristol. I was told it would be with them the following day, I turned up to collect it and they had not received it but hadn t bothered to ring me to tell me that so a wasted journey. They said they would reorder and phone me. After a week no phone call so I phoned. Still no paint stick. They said the wrong colour had been delivered, blamed the manufacturer and that they would reorder it and phone me. Again no phone call to update me after waiting days. I phoned them and they said they would reorder again and phone me. Again no phone call.

I was going to be visiting my in laws in Exeter so I rang the Mazda dealer there a couple of days before we were due to visit. On the way in to Exeter I popped in they had the paint stick ready for collection. Not a very difficult transaction so why can t Wessex Mazda in Bristol be as helpful!!!

Bought a Juke from here and the Sales guy Dan Bond couldn't be more helpful, helped to entertain my son with a pot of sweets and letting him play in the cars too...always a winner in my sons eyes! All the other staff we dealt with were very friendly too! Only negative...buy a decent coffee machine!!

The service staff are not very enthusiastic, borderline rude. Prices quoted from the service department through online system don't include labour charges - not very transparent and led to higher cost than expected when collecting car, will avoid.

Went here a year ago the way we were treated we went elsewhere
Used them today a different dealership fantastic service from the guy on the service desk walked my wife back to the car on collection promt call to say the car was ready and a first class wash
5 stars without hesitation

Great service and a friendly atmosphere. Thanks to Dominic for spending time with me and I will be buying my next Mazda from him.

Walking by wishing i had money to buy one of the vehicle's

Went looking for a new car, staff very helpful and informative.

A very pleasant, swift and friendly experience buying our new Nissan Qashqai. It was the first new car I've purchased and the staff at Wessex Garages were very helpful indeed.

We had a few technical issues having booked a test drive online through their website only to turn up and find out nobody was expecting us, but the guys in the showroom were quick to resolve the issue and I had a pleasant test drive and a good chat. I booked in for a second test drive so my family could accompany me and we were allowed to fit our 2 year old son's car seat in to the car and take it out as a family without the dealer present. This was something I thought was very considerate and allowed us to test the car without the watchful eyes of the dealer breathing down your neck. It gave us a better clue as to what it would be like to drive the car realistically.

Having decided that was the car for us, and negotiated on price, I paid a holding deposit to get the ball rolling and things happened really swiftly from there. We went back to the showroom a couple of times to sign the relevant paperwork and they kept in close contact via phone and email. All in all a really smooth process and less than 2 weeks later we were back to pick up our brand new car.

We had a thorough run through of every detail of the car and were presented our keys in a short revealing ceremony and we were off. Since taking ownership we've had very few problems with the car. It is a pleasure to drive and suits our small family needs perfectly.

All in all a very nice experience buying our new car, and Wessex Garages will certainly be my first port of call when we need to replace the car in the future.

Thank you to David. My son bought his 1st car and he is now very please. Definitely coming back when its time for my car.

Sent me off in my brand new car with an empty petrol tank and forgot to put sim card in for satnav !

Great service from James (Perry), everything dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Great car, good service, don't like giving many discounts

Really friendly dealership, we dealt with Taylor who we couldn't fault. Would definitely recommend.

Very professional and yet still friendly car dealership. More than happy to spend the time explaining deals and taking test drives.
Very impressed.

From start to finish the sales guy, Nick Whincup was outstanding. Answered everything we asked, was honest about what options there were, was never pushy or forceful and felt like he had plenty of time for us. At no point did we feel rushed or hassled into anything. Once we had chosen the car we wanted (a Qashqai), the paperwork was sorted and all information was there, or we could be told what we needed to know. On pickup the handover was pretty good, the car was presented perfectly inside the showroom, and Nick even fitted the new floor mats for us. Would definitely recommend, and would use both Wessex (and Nick) again in the future. My dad has had four cars from there in the past as well and never had any major issues. Well done to all at Pennywell Rd from the Maker family.

We were travelling up from South Devon on a sunday to see a Mazda Cx3 at a different dealer in Weston. As we were ahead of time and i had seen details of another CX3 at Wessex Garage, checked to see if it was available, it was , so made detour to Bristol - so glad we did, the car was in great condition, very low miles and less than year old, Clayton explained everything in very friendly, relaxed fashion, no hard sell. Offered a reasonable part-ex on our current car, but advised to try selling it privately in the week we had before coming back - we did that and happy days we sold it to first person to view.
Went back up on train the following Saturday, Clayton picked us up from station, again a very relaxed experience at the showroom , same with Warren who was sorting out the paperwork. My wife ( who will be driving the new car ) is absolutely chuffed with it, and also passes on her thanks for the great service we received. I have a couple of very minor things i need to chase up on, but overall i would highly recommend this dealership.

I just picked up a Nissan Juke from Dan in bristol Nissan- he was brilliant he made my experience of purchasing a new car brilliant. He made us feel comfortable from the first moment we arrived, and was so helpful throughout, couldn't be happier.

Had a great experience throughout our visit to Wessex garages. Dan was fantastic and made the purchase of our mothers car simple and stress free. I will see you in a few years.

We did have a few hiccups with the car selected but all credit to Wessex with excellent communication and resolution skills.

I can thoroughly recommend this garage, buying my used car here was a trouble free experience. David Facey and Warren Hay were most helpful, efficient and courteous throughout the process and the car was presented in immaculate condition. Thank you Wessex.

I was having problems connecting my phone to the Bluetooth in my car, so went in to your Pennywell road dealership to see if someone could help me David in sales managed to sort it within minutes. Best wishes.

I only live by wessex Garages i pass by everyday and i see the staff at the Garage always keeping the cars clean and the garages are really tidy and staff are really polite

Thank you so much i am over the moon with the purchase of my new mazda. Very professional company, Highly recommended.

I received great service from Clayton when buying my car. There was a small issue with one of the switches, and he was a great help in resolving it. Would recommend them.

I was very pleased with my experience at wessex garages. I dealt with Billy who was incredibly helpful and had a very good knowledge of the cars. He understood my requirements and delivered a great level of salesmanship to highlight the key areas of the product to match. Nothing was too much trouble for him and delivered everything he said he would. I can safely say I have walked away with a great car and a feeling that I have made the right choice. Thanks again Billy.

Fraser

Great experience from your sales department.
Thanks

So happy with my new car!! From first visit to collecting my car the service was great and everyone was so helpful and friendly.. Especially Josh, thank you :)

I had a very pleasant experience when purchasing my latest car. I was looked after by Dominic who was polite and helpful in helping me choose the right car. I ll look forward to my next purchase.

Great customer service and friendly staff, it made the process of buying our car much easier.

I recently bought a car Wessex garage Pennywell road and was looked after by Billy . I must how satisfied I was with the service I got from him . He was friendly , knowledgeable and very easy to talk to , I was very impressed .He is a very good asset to the company and I would definitely recommend anyone looking for another car used or new to call into this garage .Thank you

Nice cars little low on staff for help and assistance

First up, I didn't want to buy a new car, that was not my goal and I still wish I could have fixed the old one.

So they tried and failed to fix my old mazda3, I knew it had problems but they said it was just a new battery that was needed. A mile later I decided that it was slightly more than the 240 quid battery they just sold me, as I sat at a junction in the middle of Bristol for an hour.

Wife and I had weighed the options, scoured the finance podcasts, we knew where we were with money and what we could afford.

A (good) replacement second hand vehicle would be 7 grand, with naff all for the old one, a new 14 and half grand car cones down to 11 grand with the scrappage scheme, so it comes down to what we could afford per month and what we were happy value wise in 3 or 4 years.

We sat down with Gary who was just ace, second day at Mazda but had been on the industry for a lifetime, already knew his stuff, we discussed everything at length, including how much I'd get off for the inconvenience of breaking down on the middle of the city immediately after being 'fixed'.

Words were had with Sam, also ace, boss man. Finance was looked at.

I didn't want to buy a car, but I didn't want the stress of wondering if the old one would break down every day for the next 20 months, before the diesel ban comes in.

The 2 guys were very open and honest, and genuinely wanted the best deal I could get for our budget. Eventually they found a new 2019 model, top of the range sport, for less per month with extra coverage than the lower spec 2020 model, couldn't choose the colour but the car will be worth the maximum amount in 42 month regardless of what happens to it, and it's all bells and whistles.

This ended and was a good experience considering where my head was at.

Nice garage no BS I went with my dad as a second set of eyes on a used suzuki vitara. All problems sorted a top sales guy. No pushing to buy anything just a simple sale.
Nice to find a place that is like that.

My car was brought to Wessex Garages after having fault with the starter motor. Not only they overcharged me for parts my car didn't need, they managed to pull my handle off the car scratching the door and tried to blame it on the towing company. When finally admitted it was them they agreed to get it painted but the company they used left a massive scratch on my leather interior. On top of that I just found out that that I need to replace a whole headlight unit because they broke it when fitting a few lightbulb months earlier! YOU CAN'T TRUST A GARAGE THAT CAN'T EVEN FIT A LIGHTBULB WITHOUT PERMANENTLY DAMAGING YOUR CAR!

Big garage with a good selection of used Nissans. Friendly staff. Pleased with the car I purchased.

We found the staff extremely helpful and obliging and very professional. A real asset to the management and if they maintain this level of service the future for the company and Nissan is bright!

Initial service was good, however shortly after I collected my car I found that the spare tyre was punctured and the wrong profile for the hub. I contacted them and initially they agreed to pay 50% of the cost for a replacement. However after sending them the invoice, it has been over 12 weeks and they refuse to pay up despite numerous times saying they would. Not very good service.

Very poor service and repairs. They do not yet seem to know how to work on Mazda cars. They are all polite and easy to talk to but just do not understand how to repair Mazda cars. Go somewhere else!!!!!!!!!

They stock a wide range of good used cars as well as own new onesi

You had to wait a little bit til someone helped with your query, but otherwise they were friendly and willing to help.

We are very happy with our new Mazda 3. Clayton was very helpful and made the whole process enjoyable and stress free. We would highly recommend Wessex Garages.

Good service, personal touch with interest taken by the manager Mat too which went down. fast and efficient process and good price

What a great experience at Pennywell rd branch, we are 100% happy, thanks very much to Clayton & Warren for their friendly and professional help

My only only negative comment regards waiting in line to be seen at the service desk prior to collect my vehicle. I estimate it took a minimum of around 15 minutes to be seen! Maybe there were problems with the paperwork but the two staff were getting up and down from their seats all the time I observed them. The system seemed cumbersome and didn't seem to flow smoothly. Nevertheless, my server was polite and helpful. Importantly, I appreciate the garage location in Easton rather than Cribbs Causeway.

Visited this garage today with the intention of purchasing a vehicle. Despite very unhelpful management staff, our sales representative BRADLEY SAUNDERS went out of his way to help us from the start, from greeting us in the car park, discussing all of our options, taking us for a test drive, providing us with refreshments and genuinely taking time to make sure all of our requirements were thoroughly investigated.

This kind of service provided by Bradley is sadly rare these days and management should recognise his outstanding manner towards customers and learn from it.

Thank you Bradley,

The Jones family

Rey good experience with Clayton in sales, nothing to much trouble, explained everything very well,
Now have a much better understanding of things that the last place I went

Thanks to James Winward for going the extra mile in helping me upgrade my car.

Very happy with my brand new car at a very good price. I would definitely recommend Wessex Garages and James to friends and family!

Excellent service from Wessex Mazda ,as both my wife and I are waiting for Hip and Elbow surgery ,her car was collected taken for servicing and returned later that day ,
Very pleased a job well done ,
Many Thanks .

Incredibly rude service manager, very poor service. Avoid if you can.

Booked a service (+clean) and MOT. Called me to highlight issues with tyres and a windscreen washer being split. Said there was no point doing the Mot with the issues. Thought I would just sort myself as their quote was too high. When I went to fix the issues I could not find any fault with the washer or tyres. Went elsewhere for MOT and pasted 1st time with no minors. Also their cleaning service is terrible.

Came down from Manchester to look at a car and received excellent service from Taylor. Car was practically spotless ready for my visit. He even arranged to have the car driven from Bristol to Manchester in a matter of days so I could have my car as soon as possible! Cannot fault the service and would definitely travel 2.5 hours to buy a car from there again!

Was not impressed with my interaction with this dealership. The vehicle was booked in for diagnostics and then a service, I was advised that I would receive a call post diagnostics advising me of what options were available - this call never took place. I finally picked up the car the following day and was given a run down on what had taken place, at this stage I wasn't too happy with the service but they did appear to have been thorough and gave full explanations of what had been carried out.

Two weeks later my vehicle displayed the same fault once more, the fault immobilised the vehicle, I booked an appointment with the dealership and they advised the next free space wasn't for 5 days but to bring it in as soon as I could just in case they could find space in between tasks to look the vehicle over and order parts if required.

I checked the owners manual and found there was manual override procedure that would allow me to move the vehicle - prior to just 'having a go' I thought best to phone the experts and ask if they could give guidance. I called and the person who answered the phone consulted the mechanics who advised "That car doesn't have a manual override" when I then pointed out that the owners manual advised there was one the mechanics then advised "Just follow the instructions in the manual and you'll be fine". I was also advised at this time there wasn't much point in bringing my car down any sooner than the appointment as there are seldom cancellations or any time to look over vehicles in advance.

The lack of consistent advice about when to bring the vehicle in was not a major thing for me, however a mechanic feeling confident to state that a feature was not present on a vehicle when it was made me really question if I should take the vehicle in.

I was really disappointed and left unsure how to proceed.

Great experience from start to finish. Taylor was encredibly professional and helpful. I will be buying my next car at Wessex

Went as had a recall notice on my father car. Ever since I have been receiving unwanted texts and emails about New/Used cars.

I was not impressed with the customer area as I was waiting for the work to be carried out in about an hour.
No comfy seating, help your self to beverages in a paper cup, only channel on TV was Nissan adverts but no sound. No work up date and it took almost twice as long - 1hr 45 minutes.

My main car is a Toyota and when I go there comfy seating, offered beverages in china cups, tv on BBC 1 at low volume, update on how my work progressing - a world apart.

Very expensive for poor service. Nightmare to get my car in for repairs (less than 3 years old) and difficult to get hold of a courtesy car. The car I requested a week in advance was not available, so was given the only car left. An automatic, with 9 miles left of fuel and no one to show where anything was. They just gave me the keys and told me to be on my way. They shouldn't ask me what car I wish to have if they can't uphold requests. No refund for the fuel I topped up. Very expensive. Do not buy a car here outright, as soon as they have your money they stop caring! Perhaps they treat you better if you are on a payment plan, who knows!