Panda 2012+ Advice on Dealership to TRUST

[madam yap]

Good day All,
Well, further to all my previous threads, while I was agonising as to whether to buy my first Fiat ( a Panda 4 x 4 ) in spite of all the constant bad press this Manufacturer and their Dealerships attract.

I had some really good advice and sound common sense from you, which gave me heart.
A couple of you made a telling point - the Dealership you choose is key. For both the purchase, and the ongoing servicing and support thereafter.

So, now at last, I have the money to go ahead and make the purchase.

I live near Southampton, and the question now is can anybody, from experience, advise me which Dealership within a reasonable distance to choose - or avoid ?

As ever, your response will be valued.

 

[Super Uwe]

Hi madam yap,

I live in Devon now, before then we lived in Cardiff, but I am originally from near (Beastly) Eastleigh. You can understand why I left....!

I have never dealt with any FIAT dealers in the Hampshire area, but if you are willing to travel a bit further, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Griffin Mill near Pontypridd. deeyup knows one of the guys who works there. We bought our old 500 from there in 2009 and I have always found them to be really clued up.

OK, it's a 2 and a half hour trip from Soton, but if you are going to spend £15k on a new car, I think it is worth using up a day and maybe £50-60 worth of petrol.

Appreciate they may be too far for you to go to, and I'm sure that there will be some more suggestions closer to home! But that's my recommendation anyway.

Edit: by the way, I accept of course that would only be a solution for the sales side of things. Of course it wouldn't be realistic for you to travel to South Wales to get servicing/warranty work done!

 

[JTD_Liam]

From looking on Fiat.co.uk, quite a few dealerships near to the SO postcode area have good customer ratings, 4 or 5 stars.

However, the only one I've heard several positive comments about is PDH Garages. They have a dealership in Worthing and another in Hassocks. They've been Fiat for a number of years (not sure exactly how many but they were Fiat when I first got a Punto 10 years ago) and a few members on here have had positive things to say about them.

I remember when visiting Brighton/Sussex there were always an awful lot of cars with PDH stickers in the back too - with some competition nearby I'd have thought if they were awful to deal with, people wouldn't still be buying from them, so I'd give them a try. Not exactly on the doorstep but not too horrific either.

Liam