Harwoods Group Reviews 

HARWOODS CHICHESTER IS APPALLING, DO NOT USE. I don't think there are words to describe how terrible the service at this branch is. My husband and I have been Pulborough Harwoods customers for a decade and have 2 LR badges on the road. Due to the closure of that branch I've moved to Chichester, which on first appearance was working perfectly well. However, after my car went in for a service, I was told on handover that it needed 2 new tyres. So I booked it into Kwik Fit a few weeks later and asked for a copy of the service report. A week after the service I noticed that a rear mat was missing, which I then reported to Harwoods. I had to do this twice as no one called me back the first time. The second time, I was told it wasn't removed by Harwoods and not their problem. Well, it was there when the car went in and not when it came back, so how does that work? After a debate they agreed that someone from parts would help me get a new one. I am still waiting for that call, 2 months later! It gets better; when I took the car to Kwik Fit they couldn't understand why I been told to change the tyres, as they were all well above the limit. I called Harwoods from Kwik Fit and asked for someone to speak to Kwik Fit to explain, again no one called back and so I sat like a lemon in Kwik Fit ringing Harwoods back a number of times to try and resolve the confusion. Harwoods hadn't provided me with the service report, as requested previously, and so I couldn't even share that with Kwik Fit. Eventually a Harwoods staff member accused me of being mistaken and that they'd never said I needed to change the tyres. This was factually incorrect and, even worse, the staff seemed unable to comprehend the possibility of it beng their mistake. During the hour I was in Kwik Fit wasting my precious time, I told the Harwoods staff no less than 3 times that I wished to make a formal complaint about how I've been treated - my experience with both the missing mat and tyre fiasco was appalling and unwarranted. I was told that someone would call me back and I think by now you can guess whats coming next, yep, a month later and I am still waiting for someone to call me back......

On Friday 27th Feb, I phoned Andrew at Harwoods spare and said I needed a new nearside wing mirror as someone had smashed mine. He said he did not have one one in stock and he would get me a new one on Monday 2nd March. He got it and had it fitted for me on Monday morning. Well done

Why are Harwoods taking on work when they are unable to obtain parts. I took my Defender in for an egr valve to be fitted under warranty. After leaving the car with them for the day, they asked if I could leave it with them for another day. I was duly called on the second day to be told that the parts person was not at work and the part would be ordered on the third day. The third day came and went so I contacted them on the fourth day to then be put on hold by the service dept for 15 minutes and to then be told that they couldn’t talk to the technician as he was in a meeting ! I then drove to Harwoods to discuss this with the service manager who, after eventually making an appearance, told me that they were in a transition stage ( I presume he meant the takeover) and couldn’t order any parts. Why I was fed a load of rubbish leading up to this stage I have no idea, but suffice to say that this is no way to treat customers no matter what is going on behind closed doors. 4 days without the vehicle, very dubious excuses and a lot of mine and their time wasted to get absolutely nowhere!!! Disgraceful.

Following a warranty repair for a locking pin malfunction, the A pillar trim detached while I was driving. This trim was removed as part of the repair work, meaning the last company to handle it was Harwoods of Croydon.
Harwoods are now claiming the trim had previously been “taped” and poorly fitted. However, I have owned the vehicle for two years and there has never been any indication that the trim was loose, insecure, or improperly installed.
Regardless of any alleged prior work, the fact remains that the trim only detached immediately after the repair carried out by Harwoods.

From start to finish excellent service. Completely informative throughout the sale with helpful and friendly staff. 100% recommend and will definitely go back when I need a new car.

I purchased a Jaguar XF 2L Diesel car from Harwood’s Jaguar Crawley
(Manor Royal Crawley)
Specifically choosing a “Jaguar Approved” vehicle to ensure a “like new” experience with reduced risk.
This has been a complete fabrication.
Within five weeks the car required roadside assistance for high exhaust temperatures.
This was only the beginning of a saga involving several more roadside assistance call outs & several visits to a local Jaguar dealership who replaced sensors & repaired the vehicle.
The final detailed inspection revealed a shocking list of modifications that should never of passed a “rigorous 100
Point check”
REPLACEMENT ECM
The engine control module had been tampered with.
DPF TAMPERING
The DPF innards were removed and the
unit re-welded - An illegal modification that renders the car unroadworthy.
SYSTEM ALARMS MAPPING OUT
The Ad blue system alarm was intentionally disabled in the ECM to hide faults. Harwood’s Jaguar have not responded to the local Jaguar dealership to discuss the findings.
Despite being sold a vehicle that was fundamentally misrepresented and potentially illegal to drive, Harwood’s resales manager and his superior manager has offered no resolution other than suggesting I contact the MOTOR OMBUDSMAN
Jaguar Land Rover has been equally unhelpful.
We are now without transport and left facing a very expensive repair bill for a car that is supposedly under a “comprehensive” warranty.
Harwood’s Jaguar Crawley has failed in their legal duty under the Consumer Rights Act to provide a car of satisfactory quality and as described.
AVOID this dealership at all costs.
Their “vetted and certified” promise is worthless.
DESPITE Harwood’s reply on this site no communication has been made whatsoever and mail boxes to them are full. Please note this company has sold up on the 27/02/26 & no longer exist.

Had reports from other customers Harwoods service dept was very poor, but until I had to use them for a warranty repair I hadn't realised how appalling they actually are. After a breakdown, Jaguar warranty only recovers your car to the local dealership, despite my requests not to use Harwoods Basingstoke. They replaced the failed part, but didn't fix the obvious cause, an oil leak. Now I am using an independent Jaguar garage to fix the problem at my cost. If you value your car, don't use these people, you'll pay for it in the end!

I recently had my vehicle 24 plate Range Rover serviced and made it very apparent that I wanted the oil sensor replaced that had never worked since the vehicle was purchased new.

At the first service they didn’t fix it.

On the second service, I again requested the sensor was fixed, i politely suggested alI didn’t want to have to ask a third time.

When i had to ring in to find out how my vehicle was doing as i’d received no update by 2:38, I was told that my vehicle didn’t have an oil sensor, just a manual dipstick.

I told the polite but compete lack of knowledge service advisor that the dipstick was the technician working on the vehicle as indeed the V8 Petrol does have an oil sensor, readable from the dash. Please go speak to someone who has this rather basic piece of knowledge.

I was then told that a level 4 tech had confirmed that indeed I did have a sensor. I was then told my vehicle was ready an hour later.

When i arrived - I was handily ( sarcasm) printed off the manual page that told me how to read the oil. I said I know how to do that - it doesn’t
work. I was then told after my £1000 service that they had noted my rear parking sensors didn’t work and the washer bottle was leaking. I said ok, did you fix them - no was the answer - would I like to book them both back in under warranty.

Now I found this difficult to understand that after a £1000 service for little more than an oil change their tech didn’t know it even had a sensor and they expected me to return for the warranty repairs.

I then asked to speak to the service manager Riccardo. Riccardo and I went to a quiet side room and I enlightened him in a calm but frustrated manner of what an appaling service.

I told Riccardo I didn’t want to write a negative review. He looked dutifully sorry and apologised blaming an acute lack of staff for what he agreed was not acceptable service or knowledge of my vehicle….. a very simple basic piece of knowledge even the most fresh from school tech should know before being called a mechanic.

Alas weeks later despite Riccardos promises that he was going to sort everything I have heard nothing.

Today I rang to ask for Riccardo to remind him of our conversation, alas he was not available, he was in a meeting.

Judging by the fact that when I was picking my car up the gentleman to my right was also having to recant his unacceptable service levels i suspect Riccardo must be in a lot of meetings with unhappy customers.

To fix my oil sensor is quite a major job requiring
quite a major disassembly …. i know this…maybe they hope i’ll go away… i won’t.
1

Took my SQ5 in for an oil service at the Crawley branch. Should have been simple but instead Audi took it upon themselves to undertake two recalls to my car without express consent. When I checked into reception the receptionist couldn’t be bothered to check me in so directed me to the self check in machine. The machine confirmed it was an oil service and showed the sentence “no recalls at the time of booking” and I duly signed the screen without reading all the small print (who does when it’s a trustworthy company?!). 2 days later I received a call saying that my car now shows an adblue fault. Turns out the software updates which I had not been verbally warned of had reset my adblue delete and now Audi wants £800 to fix the problem otherwise my car won’t start in 300 miles. Would have been nice to have been warned of this as I would never have knowingly authorised the recall updates had I been aware of the consequences. Audi of course want nothing to do with it and rather than compensate me for the inconvenience they would rather lose the business of my partner and I who both use them for servicing our SQ5 and Q2.

I know Audi will respond to this stating that I authorised these updates by signing the check-in summary, but the document provided is contradictory and misleading. The document explicitly states "No campaigns/recalls at time of booking". While items such as "Carry out filling up adblue reducing agent" were listed, they were not identified as "recalls" or permanent software overwrites that would delete existing engine modifications and therefore this is failure of Duty of Care.

Bottom line is that Audi performed work I did not authorise. If Harwoods believed my vehicle's modifications were an issue, the correct professional procedure was to inform me and refuse the service, not to unilaterally delete them without my knowledge or consent.

Poor form Audi and total shortsightedness to lose two customers over something where a goodwill gesture would have preserved this relationship.

Avoid this dealership if you want your car back in the same condition you gave it to them!

We have been customers of Audi Southampton for at least 12 years and have always had good service from them. We first tried them after having had negative experiences with the two competing dealers in German cars in the area - after waiting around to be able to speak to someone, it was then like we were doing them a favour in asking about their cars. Our visit to Audi Southampton then followed where we were treated with friendly courtesy by a sales person and we then bought two cars - an A3 convertible & a Q3. At our latest visit, I bought a Q2 to replace my previous Q2 and my wife bought an A1 to replace her A3 convertible. Our sales person, Megan, was very helpful and saw both deals through to delivery - a very pleasureful experience.

Awful aftersales experience over 70 years of dealing with car dealerships Harwoods are definitely the worst

Buying a car from a reputable company
Thinking I had the best car and warranty
To find 6 months down the line that I needed a new battery
To find it's not covered and they are not prepared to do a good will gesture
On research to find out a battery has about 3 year life span
So surely a company of that size should have replaced battery as not knowing how it had been treated in the past
We have checked the age of battery as its on the battery so was fitted over 3 years ago
So does this mean it's something a customer should check before buying

Great service from first contact to car collection.

We bought a 2022 Defender 130. Fantastic service from Tom Simpson at Harwoods Basingstoke. Curteous, helpful, happy to advise, he answered emails and telephone calls immediately and made the whole process an easy, stress-free experience

I bought a new Q3 from Harwoods (Crawley) Audi. Brilliant service from start to finish. The staff were excellent, especially Dan, Xander and Frankie who were very professional. Highly recommended.

Friendly, quickly narrowed down spec, pricing, trade in and availability of an Audi to offer. Salesman was helpful in all the above areas, other staff contributed as needed. Result I bought an Audi Q5 my first Audi having had other makes till then. Took delivery a week later.

Overall excellent.

Ended up with a lease car thru these guys via a broker and basically they ignored any attempt to contact them

This meant an awful delivery experience and has put me right off Audi as a brand

Avoid them

Factual Errors in Complaint Response & Mis-sold "Complete Wheel Cover" Insurance

As an IT Consultant, I expect a high level of data accuracy and professional diligence. Unfortunately, my experience with Harwoods Audi Southampton (Chandlers Ford) has been characterised by administrative negligence and the mis-selling of insurance products.

I was sold a "Complete Alloy Wheel Cover" by sales executive, under the premise of "peace of mind." However, this policy is fundamentally unsuitable for an Audi S4. The "Complete" cover fails to reinstate the factory-standard "Audi Sport" branding on the wheels, a critical aesthetic and value component of the car.

Furthermore, the dealership's formal "Final Response" was a masterclass in poor service:

Harwoods claim that they have provided a "full response" is demonstrably false. They completely failed to address the second point of my complaint, which Mr Harwood stated "Your detailed account of the challenges you've faced is concerning, and I want to assure you that this is not the level of service we strive to provide at Harwoods. The miscommunication and lack of follow-up you've described are unacceptable, and I understand how this has added to your frustration." and highlighted to Mr WIlliams and who acknowledged as: "Poor communication from Southampton Audi when raising the concerns with them, and the lack of response". Harwoods investigation did not provide any findings or resolutions regarding the dismissive attitude and lack of basic competence I experienced when dealing with staff members.

Administrative Negligence: The formal document was addressed to a template placeholder "[Enter name]" despite weeks of correspondence.

Factual Errors: The response claimed repairs were "completed" and "benefits paid" for claims were approved but repairs that were explicitly declined. No work has been carried out on my vehicle.

For a prestige brand like Audi UK, the "Complete" wheel protection sold at this Harwoods branch is misleading and fails to meet the basic demands and needs of the vehicle. I have now escalated this matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

#HarwoodsAudi #AudiUK #AudiS4 #MisSelling #ConsumerRights #SouthamptonAudi #ChandlersFord

Steve Robson was extermely helpful and accommodating during our visit to the showroom. he thoroughly explained the condition of our vehicle and kindly offered his assistance whenever we may require support with our car

I had my car in for MOT and oil change and the reception from everyone I met was exceptional but if I had to pick one person it would be Steve.