PJ Nicholls Ltd

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Having purchased the Red Ford Kuga St-Line PHEV 20 Plate 30k miles, from PJ Nicholl’s Tewkesbury on 05/08/2023, we have had nothing but problems. It was 4 days into ownership when the powertrain malfunction light appeared & we were forced to pull over & ring Ford Assistance on route to our anniversary. We then took the vehicle back into the dealership where my confidence was severely knocked when the sales manager Mark said that well if the light only comes on when you’re on the engine you can at least do 90% of your journeys on the battery & mentioned that he see’s cars come back 30 minutes after they’ve left. We then got the car back & I was hopeful that was it however, we then received a speeding ticket through in the post for the car whilst it was in PJ Nicholls possession, doing 66mph in a 50mph area on the Tewkesbury Road. Upon speaking with the general manager of the Tewkesbury branch, Liz, who initially said that the driver of the vehicle needed to get up to the speeds that the fault occurred at to test the car properly, when I mentioned this could have happened on the motorway next to this road, she then changed tact & claimed the driver didn’t realise the speed limit, despite the fact the car had a heads-up display with this image on. She also mentioned this conversation was recorded so I have asked for that be emailed over to myself as I intend to raise this with Ford UK. Then another day later, the power train malfunction light appears only a few days after getting the vehicle back (which took 8 days & I’d been told had been driven at least 100 miles to test) at this point I simply asked for a refund. On the day of the swap back, I was phoned by Richard the lead service technician to tell me he was bringing my car back, when I mentioned the MOT will have now expired, he said well I can still drive it & you can still drive it to get an MOT. At this moment I unfortunately lost my cool & made it very clear that was unacceptable at which point Richard did agree to MOT the vehicle before returning. I also asked for compensation for the situation as I was out of pocket for day insurance/fuel/road tax & also felt we deserved to be compensated for the incredibly stressful situation we had been put through. I was told I would not receive any! PJ Nicholls, ‘small family business’, I can’t imagine how you intend to carry on operating with these service levels & wouldn’t be surprised to see your dealership downsize before exiting the market in the near future.