Bishops Fiat Guildford

Despite having seen this garage slated back in 2003 by Forum member Gav, it's the nearest to me so I thought I'd give them a go.

Before Christmas, I tried to arrange a Panda test drive (both petrol and diesel) to be told by the garage they don't run a diesel but I could try the petrol.

Turned up to an empty showroom with no-one there - seems the FIAT salesman I had spoke to had gone out and not told anyone about the test drive...

However, this turned out to be a good thing because the Alfa salesman (Tork Butt - yes, that it his real name and I'm sure he's heard it all before) apologised, sorted out the test drive and off I went. Great little car, but I thought the diesel would be better. No problem, Tork arranged a diesel for me to drive a week or so later.

Decision made, now for the usual 'dance of negotation' with a car salesman - an utterly tedious process of posture, and counter-posture, at the best of times. Whilst you could easily pick Tork out of a line-up as a car salesman (suit, bright tie, hair gel etc.), it turned out he was actually quite a nice chap once you got past the 'salesman veneer'. Not only that but he was prepared to be competitive on price without the usual bull.

A couple of "this price", "no", "this price", "no", iterations later I got a competitive price - almost matching "DrivetheDeal" - and gave the business to a local dealer (not a faceless internet firm) and the whole process was fairly painless.

So not bad in all. But talk to Tork...

I've been trying to deal with this place for months now. I've been waiting 2 months now for a test drive having been told it would be 2-3 weeks. How hard can it be to get a Punto in diesel to test drive? No calls when promised, constant calls from Fiat HQ asking how my test drive and 5 minutes late a call from Bishops asking what car I wanted to test drive again and being promised one within 2-3 weeks.

The sales guy was nice when I was there, if a bit useless and the women manager didn't seem to take any notice of me (being 19 and looking to buy a new car she must have thought I was just wasting time).

I've only dealt with the Fiat guy (Errol I think) but it's been more pain than anything. Fiat HQ have been pretty bad as well, a few days ago they called again and I explained how annoyed I was getting he said he would look into it and 5 minutes late all he could offer was changing my dealer preference to Aldershot and they would call me within 2 weeks.

Great I've gotta drive even further now because Bishops is useless!

Age can be a great disadvantage - try Mill Lane in Aldershot (a little out of the way) but the guys there are excellent and very helpful.

You could always drag your Dad along when trying to get a test drive, Bishops my be a little more helpful if they thing you're getting a car bought for you.