David H

Good value but could do better

I purchased a 14month old Skoda from Madeley Heath Motors. I’ll start with the positives… I found the purchasing experience extremely easy. The salesman was non pushy (was given the keys to look around by myself). The car was competitively priced (when compared nationwide) and all aspects of purchase ran smoothly. The car had some bodywork damage, which was known about, and to be rectified before collection. The quality of the repair, although for most acceptable, is not perfect. A friend helped me load my daughter into the car 4 weeks after the purchase and asked what had happened to the door (he does work in the trade though!). Also Madeley had replaced the original dealer number plates with their own but with no care to making sure they were level, centred or fixed appropriately. It’s clear the fitter had simply done it as quickly as possible, with no care or thought by simply screwing through the metal tailgate, ignoring the factory bosses and so leaving it to corrode and rust. Sadly this is a common occurrence for a lot of garages with quick PDI turnarounds but it does give you a feeling for the quality of their work (I won’t be relying on the service that was apparently performed!). They also agreed to include half a tank of fuel with the car which turned out to be less than a quarter! I am fortunate to have contacts in the trade and I factored having to redo the bodywork repair when considering the price (Madeley wouldn’t sell me the car with the damage not repaired). Overall, I’m happy with the purchase but it was not a 5 star experience!