Nathaniel Car Sales Ltd

I am very happy with the customer service and the detailed explanation on the work that was done. No complaints, and thanks for the free MOT for life!

We recently brought our Nissan Micra to have a service and mot done and to our surprise, they valeted our car before they called us to let us know its ready for collection. A mechanic also came out to let us know what are the items to look out for until the next mot, carefully and clearly explained to us. A great bunch!

Went in for a routine MOT and service, was prompted to have a minor repair work done, carefully explained to me by service lady. Needed a car to get around and was given a courtesy car at no extra charges! Recommends this garage to everyone I know.

I brought my VW Touran in for a service and mot in October (2nd year with them). I sent in my car early at around 830am and prior to that managed to arrange a complimentary courtesy car so that I could get to other places that I wanted to go to on that day. By around midday, received a call and was told it was ready for pick up. When I arrived and noticed some recommendations on the mot, was a bit unsure about the technical items, so the kind lady at the desk got a technician out to explain them to me, and reassured me that it is ok not to replace certain things for this year, but it would be likely necessary to by next mot. I thought that was a very good gesture. Will recommend them to friends.

I had been looking for a good quality E class Mercedes and thought I had found it at Nathaniel cars. They had a lovely one, a little bit more than some other's but they said it had full service history, offered a warranty and were a local supplier so I went ahead. When I asked them to have a look at the service history as I knew there were some expensive jobs that should have been done they informed me that they did not have it to hand, but there was no need to worry as it had all been done and they would get me a copy soon, I believed them. Some months went by and I had heard nothing so I rang them to be told they were still chasing it up with the manufacturer. I gave it another month or so and then e-mailed them. I informed them that I had contacted Mercedes myself and was informed that the car was serviced by them at 12000 miles and 25000 miles, I bought the car with over 50000 on the clock. I asked Nathaniel’s to either provide me with proof of full service history or compensate me for selling a car at premium price due to full service history when it only had part history. Needless to say they did not respond. I then asked the Mercedes dealer to check out, as far as they could, what needed doing. They informed me that the air filter was the original and must be changed, £80.00, and that the gear box oil had never been changed, another £135.00. If you chose to buy from Nathaniel do NOT believe them when they say they will get you the service history later, if they have not got it walk away there are plenty of other’s that you can buy from and some are good.

Will give them 1 star for two reasons: Firstly because it won't let me leave zero and secondly because they have a really nice facility. Ok, down to the nitty gritty: After a bit of a hunt for a Freelander 2 to replace my discovery I came across a 2008 XS at Nathaniel. It wasn't cheap by any means-about £750 more expensive than an equivalent vehicle at stratstone- but being the kind of person that likes to deal with local companies and not national chains where possible I decided to purchase it from them. On initial test drive a grinding noise could be heard from the rear of the freelander- a problem that was identified and agreed to be sorted before collection. So, a collection date was agreed, my insurance etc was swapped over on that day and having not heard anything to the contrary I set off early from work to collect.............It then transpired that the vehicle was not ready at all, and required a new rear diff and haldex assembly. OK, I said, no problem, just let me know when ready (and swapped my insurance back at a cost of £67.99...) So a few days later the call came for me to collect my freelander. On the way home, I noticed a slight slip of the clutch, I put it down to the vehicle having not been used for a while. Clutch slip got worse the next couple of days- contacted nathaniel and arranged for the vehicle to be returned to them for rectification. A few days pass yet again and I get the call to collect the freelander. I drive out of nathaniel to be greeted by a grinding noise from underneath the vehicle so returned straight away. Vehicle taken straight in and noise rectified. Over the next 5 days the parking sensors gave up, the O/S rear door refused to lock along with a couple of other annoying faults. And here comes the best bit: after the rain and polish had died down a bit I noticed that nearly every panel on the car was a slightly different shade of grey..........On closer inspection it transpired the about 70% of the car had been RESPRAYED BADLY! !! So off I trot back to nathaniels to air my slight displeasure of this, to end up being told that 'Its had no more paint than most 6 year old cars' (RUBBISH) and be pretty much man-handled out of the showroom by my upper arm. Some may say I should have noticed this, but I seriously think that if you are paying top whack for a vehicle from a dealer on your doorstep then you should not be confronted by this type of shoddy workmanship end of. If I bought it from the auctions or some trade sales outfit (for £6K less) well then fair enough but from an apparently well respected local dealer I think not. In the end I totally lost faith in the vehicle when I found that it actually had the wrong rear diff and haldex fitted by nathaniel (gen 4 instead of Gen 3) so the 4wd would not work and the paint on both rear quarter panels flaked off. I traded it in as far away as I could for another defender at a loss of £7K. Good riddance. I'm sure that this kind of thing is not typical of a nathaniel car buying experience as they surely wouldn't still be in business, but it has certainly left a bad taste in my mouth and quite honestly I feel ripped off. My best advice would be to have a thorough 3rd party inspection carried out should you be considering a vehicle from them. This review is based on my own personal experience.