Recently I've been using Chandler's Ford Renault which (curiously) is in Chandler's Ford near Southampton for the odd little warranty thing that has needed doing on my Vee, and today they carried out the first 12000 mile service on it.
Based on my experience I can't recommend them highly enough. They're a smaller Renault Dealer (and in fact don't count as a main dealer and so can't supply new cars directly) but this means that, rather than the typical mega-dealer impersonal service that most suffer at the hands of, you get treated with respect by people who've a long history of working there and who take pride in treating customers properly. They always recognise me on sight, and acknowledge me by name. They call when they say they will. They explain things properly. They're up front about when things haven't worked out as expected. My direct experience with the RTEs is good too and they seem to not suffer from the quick turnover of ten-a-penny inexperienced mechanics that the bigger dealers suffer from. As long as you book a week or two ahead courtesy cars aren't a problem and there's none of this complicated form filling and £10 charge crap that the mega-dealer-chains like to try on.
When I was in there to book my car in for its service this little old lady dropped her car off for its service. She asked if it would be ready by some particular time, and the service manager said yes we'll make sure that it is. She then asked whether they could drop it back to where she lived (about 10 miles away) by then. You could see that this was going to cause them real problems given the timing and distance, but again the service manager said that he'd make sure that they'd sort that out too.
And there's more ... I've just negotiated a handsome preferential labour rate for v6clio.net members on presentation of a membership card
. I've got to finalize the details with them, and will provide them with some club information to publicize it properly. Exact details will follow, but after application of the discount my 12k service came to £130 (tho' I supplied the oil) thus saving me £20 and I'm very happy 
.
Oh and they even returned the third of a bottle of oil that they didn't need to use since I'd given them 6 litres
Based on my experience I can't recommend them highly enough. They're a smaller Renault Dealer (and in fact don't count as a main dealer and so can't supply new cars directly) but this means that, rather than the typical mega-dealer impersonal service that most suffer at the hands of, you get treated with respect by people who've a long history of working there and who take pride in treating customers properly. They always recognise me on sight, and acknowledge me by name. They call when they say they will. They explain things properly. They're up front about when things haven't worked out as expected. My direct experience with the RTEs is good too and they seem to not suffer from the quick turnover of ten-a-penny inexperienced mechanics that the bigger dealers suffer from. As long as you book a week or two ahead courtesy cars aren't a problem and there's none of this complicated form filling and £10 charge crap that the mega-dealer-chains like to try on.
When I was in there to book my car in for its service this little old lady dropped her car off for its service. She asked if it would be ready by some particular time, and the service manager said yes we'll make sure that it is. She then asked whether they could drop it back to where she lived (about 10 miles away) by then. You could see that this was going to cause them real problems given the timing and distance, but again the service manager said that he'd make sure that they'd sort that out too.
And there's more ... I've just negotiated a handsome preferential labour rate for v6clio.net members on presentation of a membership card
. I've got to finalize the details with them, and will provide them with some club information to publicize it properly. Exact details will follow, but after application of the discount my 12k service came to £130 (tho' I supplied the oil) thus saving me £20 and I'm very happy .Oh and they even returned the third of a bottle of oil that they didn't need to use since I'd given them 6 litres
