Just wanted to give a bit of feedback on their dealership as we have recently had a not so pleasant experience with them. My wife has a Fiat 500 TwinAir and after living in Coventry for a few years we have used Sutton Park for the yearly service and MOT due to being the closest. Overall they have done a decent job on the yearly service and MOT but hey, anybody can change an oil and some filters, no big engineering here. It is the customer service and the knowledge of the service advisors that lacks here as we almost every time had this strange feeling that we are being rushed and not being dealt with properly. Also most of the times we would take the car for service on a weekend due to convenience as we both work full time jobs and they usually close midday during the weekend. From all the times we took the car to them for service, they would never call back to let us know the car is finished and MOTd. We would always have to call them close to their closing time to ask about the car and they would simply reply with: "Oh yes, car is serviced and MOTd, you can come and pick it up."
Just to mention that the above happened during the regular yearly service and MOT. We never had an ad-hoc intervention on the car until recently when my wife had an issue with the car (it is still not fixed). To cut the story short, a few weeks ago on a Friday when my wife pulled into her work car park, the car started to jolt/judder or as others call it, the car had that kangaroo jumping effect in 1st and 2nd gear so it wasn't safe to drive anymore. We took the car to Sutton Park on Saturday for diagnosis and to get it fixed and here is when the actual story starts. Being a weekend obviously we didn't have any hopes to get it fixed before the next week so we left the car in their car park. First thing Monday morning we called them and after describing the issue to the service advisor (did I mention that she was a trainee advisor?) I was promised a call back when a technician had a look at it but they advised they are pretty busy and nobody would have a look at the car until Wednesday. Also we asked for a courtesy car: can't have it, they are all booked until new year. Ok, not a big problem we can wait, in the meantime I will drive my wife to work. On Wednesday obviously no call back as promised. I called them at lunch time to get an update on the car, the trainee advisor called me one hour later and told me one of their technicians and also the master technician had a drive in the car and they couldn't find anything wrong with it, to quote her: "The car drives normal for this model." :bang::doh:
Baffled I went in person that day to them after having to make up excuses at work and had a test drive myself with one of their technicians. I managed to reproduce the car jolts and jumps to the technician and he was apologetic as this is not what he was told by the advisor on the jobsheet so he was looking at the problem from a wrong angle. How the hell can you and the master tech have a drive in the car and not notice the jolts/judders and how bad the car drives? Anyway he didn't seem to know why the car was doing that and kept repeating that he was advised the car is juddering in first gear when moving off. As he didn't seem to be able to say what the problem could be I offered some possible causes like engine mounts/gearbox mounts which is also what I read on this and other fiat forums as potential causes. Also the clutch needed some attention however it wasn't the cause for the jolts. I have also dismissed other causes such as misfire (I changed the sparks and coils, etc a few months ago) and also fuel as the car had Shell V-Power which I also use in my GTI with no problems. If these were the causes, the car would jolt in any gear and also have rough idle which wasn't the case.
Anyway he said to leave the car with them and they will sort it. He made some notes on the jobsheet about engine mounts to be checked for cracks etc. The trainee advisor and the service manager assured me they will check it and get it sorted for me and get back to me the next day.
Next day passes and I get a late call close to their closing time that Thursday saying that the technician had a look at the car and that they have to order a tie bar which is worn out and apparently can be the cause for the judder. To mention that they call the dogbone mount/gearbox mount/rear engine mount a tie bar which as far as I know it is another name for the antiroll bar drop links. Anyway I give them the go ahead and also ask them to order a new clutch kit to get it swapped over as the old one was pretty worn.
Next Friday I get a call early in the morning to inform me the tie bar is not in stock so they will get it in the next week so by the end of the week the car will be sorted.
Waited next week and nothing. Gave them a call on Friday (one week later) and said the part had still not arrived but they have started working on the clutch. I've asked when were they expecting the part and where it was coming from. They said the part should've arrived on Thursday and it was coming from France however due to bad weather they were unable to get any of their part orders in. They assured me the part will be there by next week but they don't have a specific date.
Next Monday (current week) obviously no call or sign from them. My wife called them around lunch time and the advisor said they have received the part on Saturday and installed it but the car still jolts and there were some complications but she couldn't give more details. She promised to speak to the technician and get back to my wife or myself with more information. No sign of her until I got off work and I called her again close to their closing time. She acted a bit surprised on the phone, something like: "Oh we were waiting for some parts for your car weren't we? I need to check with the technician." I snapped at this reply and asked to urgently get a status of the car as it has been more than 2 weeks with them and it is still not resolved nor they were able to source a courtesy car for my wife. I have also kindly mentioned the conversation she had with my wife in the morning saying that the part was delivered on Saturday and they didn't bother to give us a call and also asked what was the complication she mentioned to my wife this morning to which she promised a call back and she never called back. She said she will try to find out from the technician and get back to me by end of the day. I stressed that if I don't get a call by end of the day I want to see the car in person. At this point I was really suspicious of what the mistery is and why they are not calling back when they promise they would. I almost thought that they might've crashed our car or damaged it in any way and try to hide it from us.
Obviously no call until closing time, tried to call them but nobody picked up.
Tuesday first thing my wife called them and asked to speak to a manager as this is really unacceptable, the car has been with them for so long and they didn't seem interested in helping in any way nor made things any easier for us. The advisor said they have replaced the clutch and the tie bar part and the issue was still there and they can't figure out what is wrong with the car. So basically they made us wait more than 2 weeks, ordered a part which apparently was worn but still not the cause for our problem and they are out of ideas. We called them at lunch time and said we will take the car to another garage as they are unable to fix it. Miraculously they said that there was an issue with one of the injection parameters which they swore they solved so the car was ready. Went to pick up the car later that day and drove it home.
To conclude, the issue is still not resolved, the car still jolts and judders although not as bad as before, I assume the gearbox mount they replaced has alleviated some of the effect. Furthermore Start/Stop doesn't work anymore and after a long drive there is an error message popping up on the dash: Start/Stop unavailable and the yellow warning triangle stays on. If I restart the engine the error goes away. Scanning with OBD does not register any error codes.
Later last night I was able to identify the actual cause for the jolts thanks to the fiat forum. Searching for the Start/Stop error I came across a few topics describing the main issue being the clutch pedal linkage to the clutch sensor being broken. Another symptom of this is the arrows which show when to shift gear don't work anymore. Still don't understand how the hell that linkage broke, it is metal after all and it seems to be welded onto the clutch pedal body. I will see if I can get the pedal out and weld it somewhere. Also don't understand how they can call themselves technicians experts in Fiat and not be able to identify a broken clutch pedal especially since they have also replaced the clutch and this seems to be a known issue with 500.
All in all we are very disappointed of Sutton Park Coventry and would not recommend. They do not seem very interested in helping you and their service advisors are not really car knowledgeable persons, they are just front desk faces telling customers whatever they understand from the technician job sheets. Even when you ask them a basic technical question they will not be able to answer that and will reply with: I will ask the technician and get back to you. Obviously the "getting back to you" part doesn't happen most of the times and you have to chase.
On the other hand I had a pleasant experience with Research Fiat in Nuneaton when they replaced my wife's locks and key when she had her purse stolen with the car key in it. They have kept us informed of all the progress on the car, they have called us when there was an issue with the part ordered and we never had to chase them or ask them to resolve a problem.
Just to mention that the above happened during the regular yearly service and MOT. We never had an ad-hoc intervention on the car until recently when my wife had an issue with the car (it is still not fixed). To cut the story short, a few weeks ago on a Friday when my wife pulled into her work car park, the car started to jolt/judder or as others call it, the car had that kangaroo jumping effect in 1st and 2nd gear so it wasn't safe to drive anymore. We took the car to Sutton Park on Saturday for diagnosis and to get it fixed and here is when the actual story starts. Being a weekend obviously we didn't have any hopes to get it fixed before the next week so we left the car in their car park. First thing Monday morning we called them and after describing the issue to the service advisor (did I mention that she was a trainee advisor?) I was promised a call back when a technician had a look at it but they advised they are pretty busy and nobody would have a look at the car until Wednesday. Also we asked for a courtesy car: can't have it, they are all booked until new year. Ok, not a big problem we can wait, in the meantime I will drive my wife to work. On Wednesday obviously no call back as promised. I called them at lunch time to get an update on the car, the trainee advisor called me one hour later and told me one of their technicians and also the master technician had a drive in the car and they couldn't find anything wrong with it, to quote her: "The car drives normal for this model." :bang::doh:
Baffled I went in person that day to them after having to make up excuses at work and had a test drive myself with one of their technicians. I managed to reproduce the car jolts and jumps to the technician and he was apologetic as this is not what he was told by the advisor on the jobsheet so he was looking at the problem from a wrong angle. How the hell can you and the master tech have a drive in the car and not notice the jolts/judders and how bad the car drives? Anyway he didn't seem to know why the car was doing that and kept repeating that he was advised the car is juddering in first gear when moving off. As he didn't seem to be able to say what the problem could be I offered some possible causes like engine mounts/gearbox mounts which is also what I read on this and other fiat forums as potential causes. Also the clutch needed some attention however it wasn't the cause for the jolts. I have also dismissed other causes such as misfire (I changed the sparks and coils, etc a few months ago) and also fuel as the car had Shell V-Power which I also use in my GTI with no problems. If these were the causes, the car would jolt in any gear and also have rough idle which wasn't the case.
Anyway he said to leave the car with them and they will sort it. He made some notes on the jobsheet about engine mounts to be checked for cracks etc. The trainee advisor and the service manager assured me they will check it and get it sorted for me and get back to me the next day.
Next day passes and I get a late call close to their closing time that Thursday saying that the technician had a look at the car and that they have to order a tie bar which is worn out and apparently can be the cause for the judder. To mention that they call the dogbone mount/gearbox mount/rear engine mount a tie bar which as far as I know it is another name for the antiroll bar drop links. Anyway I give them the go ahead and also ask them to order a new clutch kit to get it swapped over as the old one was pretty worn.
Next Friday I get a call early in the morning to inform me the tie bar is not in stock so they will get it in the next week so by the end of the week the car will be sorted.
Waited next week and nothing. Gave them a call on Friday (one week later) and said the part had still not arrived but they have started working on the clutch. I've asked when were they expecting the part and where it was coming from. They said the part should've arrived on Thursday and it was coming from France however due to bad weather they were unable to get any of their part orders in. They assured me the part will be there by next week but they don't have a specific date.
Next Monday (current week) obviously no call or sign from them. My wife called them around lunch time and the advisor said they have received the part on Saturday and installed it but the car still jolts and there were some complications but she couldn't give more details. She promised to speak to the technician and get back to my wife or myself with more information. No sign of her until I got off work and I called her again close to their closing time. She acted a bit surprised on the phone, something like: "Oh we were waiting for some parts for your car weren't we? I need to check with the technician." I snapped at this reply and asked to urgently get a status of the car as it has been more than 2 weeks with them and it is still not resolved nor they were able to source a courtesy car for my wife. I have also kindly mentioned the conversation she had with my wife in the morning saying that the part was delivered on Saturday and they didn't bother to give us a call and also asked what was the complication she mentioned to my wife this morning to which she promised a call back and she never called back. She said she will try to find out from the technician and get back to me by end of the day. I stressed that if I don't get a call by end of the day I want to see the car in person. At this point I was really suspicious of what the mistery is and why they are not calling back when they promise they would. I almost thought that they might've crashed our car or damaged it in any way and try to hide it from us.
Obviously no call until closing time, tried to call them but nobody picked up.
Tuesday first thing my wife called them and asked to speak to a manager as this is really unacceptable, the car has been with them for so long and they didn't seem interested in helping in any way nor made things any easier for us. The advisor said they have replaced the clutch and the tie bar part and the issue was still there and they can't figure out what is wrong with the car. So basically they made us wait more than 2 weeks, ordered a part which apparently was worn but still not the cause for our problem and they are out of ideas. We called them at lunch time and said we will take the car to another garage as they are unable to fix it. Miraculously they said that there was an issue with one of the injection parameters which they swore they solved so the car was ready. Went to pick up the car later that day and drove it home.
To conclude, the issue is still not resolved, the car still jolts and judders although not as bad as before, I assume the gearbox mount they replaced has alleviated some of the effect. Furthermore Start/Stop doesn't work anymore and after a long drive there is an error message popping up on the dash: Start/Stop unavailable and the yellow warning triangle stays on. If I restart the engine the error goes away. Scanning with OBD does not register any error codes.
Later last night I was able to identify the actual cause for the jolts thanks to the fiat forum. Searching for the Start/Stop error I came across a few topics describing the main issue being the clutch pedal linkage to the clutch sensor being broken. Another symptom of this is the arrows which show when to shift gear don't work anymore. Still don't understand how the hell that linkage broke, it is metal after all and it seems to be welded onto the clutch pedal body. I will see if I can get the pedal out and weld it somewhere. Also don't understand how they can call themselves technicians experts in Fiat and not be able to identify a broken clutch pedal especially since they have also replaced the clutch and this seems to be a known issue with 500.
All in all we are very disappointed of Sutton Park Coventry and would not recommend. They do not seem very interested in helping you and their service advisors are not really car knowledgeable persons, they are just front desk faces telling customers whatever they understand from the technician job sheets. Even when you ask them a basic technical question they will not be able to answer that and will reply with: I will ask the technician and get back to you. Obviously the "getting back to you" part doesn't happen most of the times and you have to chase.
On the other hand I had a pleasant experience with Research Fiat in Nuneaton when they replaced my wife's locks and key when she had her purse stolen with the car key in it. They have kept us informed of all the progress on the car, they have called us when there was an issue with the part ordered and we never had to chase them or ask them to resolve a problem.
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