Stonebridge Motorco Avis 

This is a 100% accurate log of my current dealings with Stonebridge Motors, i have nothing to hide and nothing to gain from lying, unlike them.

Firstly don’t believe all of the good reviews, when you collect the car they ask you to scan a code and leave a review, those reviews can only be based on the sale process alone, not on how they deal with you after that. I haven't seen one single good review for aftersales.

They will blind a lot of people with the mood lighting booth and covered car, box of flowers and sweet talk, but the truth is they are the most difficult evasive people i have ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

I bought a Porsche from them, just shy of 21 grand and on the face of it a nice car, but it dropped all of its coolant and used a litre of oil after 200 miles of driving over 3 weeks and my god trying to get it repaired under their “3 Month Warranty” is like pulling teeth. They are not interested at all.

It took 7 days of numerous one way phone calls to it getting collected and taken back to their work shop. It has then to date (12/07) been there for a further 19 days and counting, no phone calls or emails from them with an update, and no fix, nothing, not a thing.

They initially told me when i called them that the coolant pipe that is required to repair is on back order from the “main dealer”. I have asked on numerous occasions is it “main dealer” you have ordered it from and the reply has always been yes we would only use main dealer parts as we don’t want an inferior part fitted that could cause us further problems, remember that. Anyway i rang Newcastle Porsche myself after a week and asked about the availability of the pipe, and to my surprise there was one sitting there on the shelf, a revised part number for an improved version, but the correct pipe never the less.

I rang them and told them, there is one on the shelf 5.6 miles away from you at the same main dealer you say you have ordered it from, i confirmed more than once with Porsche as the correct pipe, so go get it and fix my car, it could be back on the road today. I even asked Porsche to put it to one side for them. I then received the most bizarre and evasive list of reasons as to why they couldn’t get that pipe, and needed to wait for the one thats ordered. There stance then switched to “we wouldn't use main dealer parts as its uneconomical on your age of car”. The car was £21k and the main dealer part is £140…… uneconomical yeah.

My car went back to them 3 weeks ago, 4 weeks in total off the road so far, the coolant pipe is available from numerous retailers at various prices not just main dealer, the job is a quoted 6-8 hours start to finish. So whats going on Stonebridge?

Anyway my patience with them has gone so 7 days ago i formally rejected the car via email and asked for a refund, guess what? No contact, no acknowledgement, no refund. It is quite literally mind blowing how they are behaving over a vehicle that was sent back for a single pipe replaced.

They could of had my car fixed in a day, 2 days max, id of collected it happy, reputation points for Stonebridge. But instead this, they have my car, have gone silent, and are going to end up in county court with bailiffs knocking.

Think seriously is this what you want to deal with if your used car goes wrong? I would severely warn anyone to not look at any cars they have, go somewhere else, dont end up in this situation. This is over a COOLANT PIPE, Imagine your gearbox or a turbo goes. Dont buy off them.

They need to concentrate on customer service and treating people right instead of posing on Instagram and TikTok videos telling everyone how good they are, it’s a smoke screen. Pure lies

I will update as i go along, im submitting it to court this week

I held off posting a review as I wanted to give the dealership a fair opportunity to resolve this. However, between ignored emails, repeated inaccurate information & unresolved safety & reliability issues, I have no confidence in them.

I agreed to purchase a vehicle from Stonebridge Motors on 13th March, with several issues discussed & promised by the owner to be resolved before collection. I was also trading in a vehicle, which Stonebridge mechanics inspected & used to negotiate the trade-in price.

I didn’t collect the car until 10th April. I was told the delay (almost 4 weeks) was to carry out an MOT & ensure everything was completed to agreed standards. I was also told the MOT had flagged three tyres for replacement, however no advisory appears online.

When I collected the car, several agreed repairs had either not been done or were completed to a poor standard. The rear bumper had not been repaired, the wing mirror appeared to have been sanded & not repainted, and there was a failed repair attempt on the roof where a square outline remained visible.

There were also further issues raised beforehand: trim hanging down in the passenger footwell, centre console not secured, interior & exterior not properly cleaned - as well as issues which arose within the first couple of days: sat nav stuck showing the car in Yorkshire, hands-free microphone not working, knocking noise in the steering, brakes juddering, faulty front left sensor, no log book (three weeks later, still no log book and DVLA records show one hasn’t been issued since 2020), warranty information or MOT certificate not provided, tyre pressure warning shortly after collection, and the car pulling to the left indicating they didn’t correctly inflate the new tyres.

I returned the vehicle on 20th April (as agreed with Adam) for these issues to be addressed. I was told by Dan 48 hours later that everything had been completed aside from the sat nav & hands-free system.

When I returned to collect the vehicle, this was not accurate. None of the issues had been resolved other than some Isofix fittings. I had hoped the mechanical & safety-related issues would have been prioritised, but they were simply ignored.
To make matters worse, a new scratch was present on the rear driver’s side door which was not there before the vehicle went back into their care.

As a result of the unresolved safety-related concerns & repeated inaccurate information, I exercised my right to reject the vehicle within 14 days.

After several days without a response and being informed that my email had not been received by aftersales the dealership got back in touch.

Stonebridge rejected my rejection. They stated that I had to allow them a chance to repair (a quick Google search proves this is incorrect) they also stated I had not allowed sufficient time for repairs - again, the timeframe had been agreed in advance with Adam, & I had made it clear that if additional time was required I would need a courtesy vehicle. Despite this, I was still told the work had been completed when it had not.

I also sought contacted Consumer Advice, who confirmed I was within my rights to reject the vehicle within the first 30 days and I was not required to allow them an opportunity to rectify the issues - though I had given them a chance and they had failed to do so.

Overall, this has completely taken the excitement out of buying a new car. The constant misinformation & lack of aftercare have left me with no confidence in the dealership. I am now left chasing responses to emails with my only options being escalation to the Motor Ombudsman, Trading Standards and a Section 75 claim.

In the meantime, I have had to hire a vehicle for work travel whilst the car purchased from Stonebridge remains unused due to reliability & safety concerns.

What seemed like a “premium” experience - a showroom tour, a promise of flowers on collection (which never materialised) - has fallen well short once issues have arisen.

I would strongly advise others to carefully consider my experience before purchasing from this dealer.