Formula One Autocentres - Bristol (St. Philips)

My son took his car to formula one to get an alignment done. He was told that he needed to get a tire rod repaired. My son took his car to a garage to get the work done. Then took his car back to formula one to get the tracking done. My son was told the car was fine and ready to go but when he started driving the car was pulling to the right. He took the car back to formula one. Where he was told that there was nothing more they could do with the tracking Formula one then tried to say that my son may have problems with the suspension or he could have hit the car. but this was not possible as the car has been off the road for a week. My son has now taken the car to a different garage and they looked at the car and have now put the tracking right the car now drives straight . Formula one has no idea what they are doing used to be the place to go for your cars but not now. Formula one has lost touch with reality the picture on the right is the before the garage put things right the photo on the left is after the garage put things right

This place used to be very good. Something has changed, and we won't be returning. I suggest others think twice. I had my MOT done here annually for years, without problem. I only ever said positive things. Now, all the recent reviews are negative and I can now see why. My wife had her car booked for an MOT. It too much longer than she was promised, so she couldn't go get our kids from school after (despite leaving plenty of time after). That was just the start, as eventually it failed the MOT, needing a simple repair that should take 1-2hrs of work. Simple? Hardly. They said they could normally do it the next morning but the technician who could do it would be away so it would be the morning of the third day. We asked for a quote, and were told they'd ring with a quote in ten minutes. Two hours later they were closed. We tried to ring on day 2, but they never answered. Eventually I got another branch to contact the regional manager, who got the branch to call me. Late on day 2, I was told a quote would be with us at the start of day 3. Day 3 - no quote. Around lunchtime they finally called, quoting almost £550 for a job that online quotes were £325. They said they could do it that day if we confirmed within 20 mins, but it took 3 hours of calling them until they even answered the phone. They then said it would be done that day, but couldn't be re-tested by the MOT person until first thing in the morning of Day 4, so would be ready for us then. Day 4, I rang and rang. Eventually, they answered and said it was in and being worked on at the moment, so would would be MOT re-tested soon. I asked when, and was told before they close at 5 at the latest. We didn't hear any more, so arrived at 4:30pm. We were told they were just finishing reassembly. Looking at it, I could see they hadn't even removed the old parts at that point. The MOT tester left at about 5pm, but apparently signed off on the repair before it was done, as I watched them put it back together until 5.30pm, with an an MOT pass. Whilst I'm glad they did, if we hadn't gone there and waited for it, I have no doubt they'd have made us wait for Day 5 to get the car back. To be fair, they said they were short staffed. Fine. But why continue to let people book in new appointments online? One member of staff said he'd worked weeks in a row without a day off just to keep up. This is a major management failure. We won't be returning. Shame, as they used to be good.

Booked an MOT and service and they opened late meaning 15 minutes of hanging around to drop off the car, then utterly failed to communicate what was happening and didn't answer the phone, either at the garage or head office, so I couldn't find out whether the car was ready. I spent over an hour on hold in total and never got through so eventually called another F1 garage who told me this was a common problem at St Phillips. They couldn't get them to answer the phone either but kindly looked up the details so at least I knew the car was ready for collection. Got the car back the next day instead of same day as at every other garage I've used previously. The whole thing was incredibly frustrating, I've used F1 for years - never again...

We turned up on a Sunday afternoon and they were able to identify and fix a slow puncture within the hour. Simple and did the job with a smile and no hassle. Really appreciated.

For me the overall experience is poor, 1st they changed 2 new front tyres..that was OK, apparently balancing included, after taking it to another garage the balancing wasn't done correctly, and I still have wheel wobble at speed (balancing issues being top). 2ndly they apparently did a 10 point summer check...saying my screen wash fluid was topped up by them, after my own checks (2 days later) I found the levels were still at minimum...so to me it hasn't been topped up.. and lastly within that check they should have checked my brakes, and after having an mot 1 week later the rear brakes failed...which if they were checked as they should then I would have known they weren't good....so overall....disappointed and won't be using f1 again..

Absolute con artists. Paid £250 for tyres, they didn’t fit them; so they said they’d refund me within in 3 days and it’s now been over a week and they haven’t refunded any money. Technician clearly doesn’t know what he’s on about as he stated many things that have turned out to be incorrect. Stated windows don’t work (they worked as soon as i got in the car), same with A/C, said handbrake was broken yet it wasn’t according to an actual vw garage. He was also incredibly rude. it’s a shame as F1 Autocentres back home are outstanding however here they’re just lazy con artists

Absolute Joke... Avoid them at all costs I booked a time slot to have some very basic work done (oil change and two tyres replaced). On the day of my appointment I went at the requested time, very early on a Saturday, after being booked into the system and having had my car keys taken. The person in charge comes about half an hour later and tells me that they can't do the work because their workforce chose not to show up to work.... He apologises and tells me to come back the next day, on Sunday, to get it all sorted. I do so, to again be booked in, but this time another person in charge, who says to me, that they never had the parts to do the job (oil filter and the sort) and because it was Sunday their suppiler wasnt open, so needed to re-book the whole thing for the next day!!! I work all week and weekends are the only free times I get, not only did they ruin my freedom for a whole weekend, not even so, did they manage to get the job done, expecting to ruin yet another precious weekend of mine for them to maybe get their act straight...or not. Aviod them at all costs. Find a local mechaninc that isn't a chain of disgruntled good for nothing emplyees, then probably you will be offered the service of people who care about your custom, unlike this good for, close to nothing, lot.

Excellent customer service from the start to finish of the process, helpful, polite and kept me up to date on each step of the progress. It was the first time using them as I’m based the opposite side of town but I’ll be returning for definite. Many thanks, Graham.