Simon Hartwell Ltd

A real breath of fresh air when dealing with Chris at Simon Hartwell. He was very knowledgeable and provided us with a relaxed no pressure sales process. We bought the car from them and have so far been very pleased.

Awful. On 6th October 2023 we had our Citroen Grande Picasso serviced here. The following day we tried to drive from Bournemouth to Market Harborough and broke down with our two children on the A43 just after a slight bend where there was no hard shoulder. The AA couldn’t recover us safely and the police had to close the road. The AA mechanic immediately diagnosed the problem, our timing belt had degraded blocking the oil system. He told us this should have been picked up during the service as it was a known fault with Citroens. The garage rudely refuted this, so I checked with a mechanic who is a family friend. He told me “the problems experienced with the Puretec belt failures means all technicians should check thoroughly after draining the oil for rubber deposits”. In this instance this clearly wasn’t done and not only were the garage not apologetic but they were rude and patronising. We had to wait five weeks for them to replace the timing belt and were without a car for this time. I would never jeapordise the safety of me and family by going to them again.

I bought a used C4 from this garage last year and got a good deal on an excellent car. No problems or issues. C4 has just been back for an annual service and MOT. Again no issues and very reasonable charges.