Autolusso

AVOID AT ALL COSTS – HOUGHTON REGIS So, my wife’s car DPF went from Amber to Red in a matter of minutes. I advised her to go to a specialist Land Rover garage in Houghton, in her panic she went to the nearest one she recognised. This was a massive and costly mistake. Ned is the classic workman who takes a deep breath and says “ooooh, I don’t know how much this will be until I get under the hood, it’ll be a big job”. Red flag number 1, he said that in not so many words to my wife, which I didn’t know until I picked her up. At no point did Ned advise how much the ongoing work was costing, all while racking up a hefty bill over the weekend. The next day, the car still wasn’t fixed but Ned was pointing all “all these fault codes that need resolving in the engine”. After getting the fault codes printed off and analysed by a third party later on. 99% of the codes were related to a flat battery that hadn’t been reset on the computer. A 2 minute reset job. Ned then proceeded, without authorisation, to complete in his words “a full service” which included an oil change. The oil in the car apparently was wrong, spoiler. it wasn’t, as we checked. But apparently it was “thick black coal minors ****”. This didn’t resolve the red light, so Ned proceeded to a second oil change. This didn’t resolve the red light. Still no quote given despite asking myself by now, slopy shoulders shrug at this point. Ned then proceeded to perform a carbon clean on the car post said oil changes. This still didn’t resolve the red light. By now Ned was saying he was out of options and would need to take the DPF off and send to another company for a clean. How much? “ooooh, I don’t know how much this will be until they assess, it’ll be a big job”. Starting Price? “Oooh if you do it yourself via said company, it’ll be £500+” At this point I advise stop working on the car, I’ll get a second opinion. Total up how much it’ll cost and I’ll limp mode it home. The cost for this at this point? £425 plus he hadn’t fixed the issue. Begrudgingly, Ned agreed albeit advising I risk causing serious damage to my car, and it goes back into red into limp mode after a few seconds. After querying why we hadn’t been quoted or asked for approval before carrying out various items, Ned became more and more defensive, with several of his employees now watching on. I had a voucher for £20 off as a local resident. Nope, Ned said “that was for MOTs”. I point out that no it’s for services and repairs per the T&Cs. Both of which Ned said he’d carried out. Nope - Ned said “that’s an old voucher”. So again, no money off. Nothing. Total scam. I picked up my car and no limp mode… strange? The red light was still on. I phoned a DPF specialist, Ned had said “they are rubbish, don’t use them, use this company that I recommend, it’s £500 start price though, depending on how bad it is, but I can get it cheaper”. The specialist comes out, performs a stage one DPF clean for £80 and BINGO, red light gone. The DPF specialist was actually honest with me and said that Ned hadn’t actually tried to reset the red light (note that he said he had reset it, and came back on after a few seconds), hence the carbon cleans, oil changes etc (which by the way, the DPF specialist was sceptical whether this had actually been done), so rather than being honest, performed unnecessary repairs and wanted to charge more. Gullible people will fall for this. All in all – I hope this helps someone else avoid this garage, we will never be back. What should have been an £80 repair and run to clean, turned into a £500+ nightmare and could have been worse if I hadn’t asked for a second opinion. I’ve waited a couple of weeks to write this review to ensure that it is fixed. No issues, no smell since.

Took my Alfa Romeo Giullietta into AutoLusso to simply replace my alloys. I had 4 new alloys with tyres fitted and just wanted them put on the car. They rang me and said 2 bolts on my wheels were broken and they had to replace the hub and bearing on one side. I asked for a price and they wouldn't commit to a price, the guy Ned (who apparently owns the place) was extremely short and curt with me when pushed on the price, all the while swearing and shouting at staff. When I dropped the car off I had ZERO warning lights. Following them replacing this hub and bearing they said had to be replaced, I drove away and immediately got a load of errors - ABS Unavailable Steering Correcter Unavailable VDC Unavailable ASR Unavailable Hill Holder Unavailable On top of this, they left the car with only 4 bolts on the rear wheels due to the broken bolts! I was told to bring the car back on Monday to look at the cause of the errors. I made it extremely clear I had no errors prior to them doing work on my car therefore must have been down to them. They looked at the car on Monday and said the bearing they fitted was faulty, and this was the cause of all the errors. They said the part will need to be ordered and it would take a week. A week came and went, so I contacted them the following Thursday to be told the part had come in the day before (why they didn't ring me to book me in is beyond me?). I spoke to Ned and he said "Yes, the part you ordered is in". I then made it clear, I didn't order a part, you ordered it as you told me the part was faulty. Anyway, he was rude and short again with me. I took the car back today, Thursday 16th November which was nearly 2 weeks since I asked for my alloys to be switched. When I arrived, Ned just said in an angry voice "Key", and then walked off. I then get a call back an hour later to be told the bearing was replaced and the errors were all still there and I need to pay for him to replace the ABS Sensor. I told him when I brought the car in, there was no issues with any sensors, and no errors on the dash, therefore any issue was caused by the work they did and so therefore should be fixed at their expense. Ned was rude, shouting and swearing down the phone to me. At this point he said, look you have 2 options - 1. Pay me to replace the ABS Sensor 2. Take your car away and get it fixed somewhere else. I chose option 2 as I didn't want them laying another finger on my car. So to have my alloys replaced, I've ended up nearly £300 down getting a hub and bearing replaced, having loads of errors on my dash down to an ABS Sensor they have clearly damaged when they did the hub/bearing, and I'm still running on only 4 out of 5 bolts on my rear wheels. Honestly do not ever go to this garage. They are liars, untrustworthy and very aggressive. Avoid at all costs.

MOT, premium service and fixed aircon. They have also previously changed the clutch and cambelt on my giulietta 1750 tbi - always friendly and reasonably priced.

Charged for aircon service and I have since found out that the aircon system had already been removed from my car. Fitted a generic dpf wrongly which stressed the exhaust flexi which then cracked making car undriveable. Left terrible power steering fluid leak untouched which I specifically said had to be fixed. Overral appalling garage that I will never go back to.

Cambelt has service on my Brera, Main Alfa dealership £1800 Autolusso £625. Did find unknown suspension issues promised a car that would drive like new, And WOW feels like a different car. Ned was very helpful and informative around all works carried. Great price and service.

The fact that they charged me £180 for a second-hand part that I subsequently found I could get new for about £100 was the worst thing. Apart from that they are surly and uncommunicative, leaving the customer to roam Houghton Regis for hours with no idea of what is going on. Never again.