For the sake of your safety, sanity and salary, steer clear of this garage.
In hindsight there were many red flags with these guys, but I was in a tight position so had my eyes and ears firmly shut, hoping to solve a simple issue without any hassle. Now, I'm arguably in a worse position and over a grand lighter for the pleasure.
The headlines are that I've been lied to, deceived and had my car damaged even more. The scary thing is, beyond paying out even more money to a different garage, I have no easy way of knowing whether the work I payed for was done in the first place.
Booked online and took my car in to have the clutch replaced. Half a day, they said, then ended up stringing me along for 2 days. Got a call to say that they'd cross-threaded a bolt and needed to weld part of the car together, which I've since learnt was the worst decision, as it actually prevents me from checking whether the clutch was replaced, without having to pay out a big lump of money. When I drove it away from the garage, the clutch pedal felt much smoother and seemed to be more responsive. Having driven the car for 1,000 miles since then, the clutch system has the same issues that I took it in for - miserably high, sluggish and stalling unnecessarily.
Scarier still, one of the plastics ended up hanging from under the car and shattering, causing a whole bunch of damage. The garage hadn't fixed the panel in place with rivets, so it vibrated out of place and got dragged into the road by the wind while driving along. I ended up buying a replacement panel and fitting it myself, which was costly and time consuming. I sent these guys an email and then took the car in so that they could inspect it. Despite me being clear that I was concerned about what else might not have been put back together properly, they don't seem to have found or fixed anything. In fact, within a few miles I noticed that my steering wheel was now crackling too. I would have taken it straight back there but the trust was gone at that point. I'll be taking my car elsewhere, when I can afford to. read more