Formula One Autocentres - Kettering Reviews 

Kept my vehicle overnight even though I booked a service for a specific date and was told they hadn't even started on it by 5pm. Following day, still no contact.

This is the 2nd time I have used this car garage and both of my experiences have been disappointing. My car needed to be at the garage for opening hours so I arrived early. The manager arrived late so the garage failed to open on time. All of the mechanics were also waiting and didn’t seem bothered. My car was booked in for a MOT and full service a week advance. All work undertaken had taken all day to complete, despite not requiring any additional work. I was not alone, with others having to wait for their cars to be ready. I received a call late afternoon to tell me that my car was ready. When I arrived to the garage, I had to wait 50 minutes for it to be taken off the car jack and be handed the keys. Staff seemed unmotivated. I heard comments how bad the day had been. I didn’t receive any invoice or receipt from the garage, despite asking for the work. Advised that I would receive this by email, I still have no record of the service or MOT being undertaken. Rather than receiving news that my car had passed its MOT and the service was done, I was given recommendations for my car for wheel balancing and pollen filter change etc quoting me £200 Rather than have the work undertaken, I declined and decided to take my car away to much my relief knowing that I would never use that garage again.

Diabolical- booked a tyre change online on Tuesday with the appointment booked for 1215pm Thursday. Duly arrived 15 minutes before appointment as required and informed technician running late and car wouldn’t be ready until 1pm. Came back at 1pm no work done on car. Told it would be about 20 minutes so went away again. Came back at 120pm to be told the tyre I had ordered hadn’t actually arrived and was expected after 2pm. The wheel and tyre had already been taken off my car. There was no way I could wait any longer as I had commitments so requested wheel put back on and a refund. Got the keys back at 150pm and told refund 3-5 days. Whilst the manager apologised this doesn’t really do me any good. A complete waste of time and showed how poor their processes and customer service is. Have used other centres before but won’t be going back.

I took my car to the Kettering garage for a full service and MOT. I received a call after few hours and been told there’re couple of things to get sorted but non would affect the MOT. So I said just proceed with the MOT for now and let me know if something major comes up through the MOT. Just before their closing time I received a call and told my car ready to collect. I went and collected it , the manager said nothing.. later on I realised why as my car failed on the MOT and I never been told. I went back on the next day and told all this to the receptionist who answered that I’m sorry been short of stuff yesterday and the manager had to work also. I was thinking that’s a good enough reason to get people on the road in a dangerous car? I been offered discounts, but that’s wasn’t the reason I went back so I have refused in order for them not to think the problem solved with -£20 off the bill. Been advised the manager will be in on Monday so come back. I did but the garage wasn’t open and people was waiting outside. Bank holiday Monday it was, but on the website stated open from 10 am. At 11 still nothing people calling head office but nothing. I decided to go back around 12 and finally was open. Spoke to the manager and again full off apologies but not seems to care at all. My car book in for the next day to get my major fault sorted and re-test MOT. I got my car in and after half of a day went to collect it and been told there was a misunderstanding and the MOT is not done. Had to wait another 2 days to get this done. This garage is not trustworthy, waist of money and time. This was the first and the last time to bring my car to this garage, especially after all the horror stories people told me that morning when the manager slept in instead of coming in on time and fix the mistakes caused to hard working people. An absolute same and wish there was score even lower to give to this useless garage.

Update: Have passed the MOT after all, as they’ve failed my car on ,,coil spring is broken’’. I have argued the point as I have invoice 7 months ago been changed for a new spring on both front side. I understand is could be cause the road condition. Got a quote for 189£, which is ridiculous as the both front new one cost the same, so I showed the invoice to the manager.
He than replied we can only do the one side so it’s half price only and added is not broken just needs re-fitting. I went with it as just want it to get it done. Since this ,,re-fit’’ I can hear the noises even when going through the tiniest potholes.
I can say after the service the problem started.
Recommending to everyone, you can get a lot better service than this for your money.

We booked for a mot at your Kettering Test Centre. We were given a time slot to drop our car off and were told it would be 45 minutes for our car to be tested. Come 45 minutes later and our car hasn’t moved and apparently you are ‘running late’ so that it will be an Hour and a Half until our car was done. This was when you would be closing in 40 minutes anyway. What’s the point in giving a time slot when you are going to miss it anyway. Asked for a refund but wish I had never booked with yourselves in the first place. What a waste of an hour.

Fitted a faulty part to my daughter’s suspension. Acknowledged it was faulty and said they’d order the part and call when it was there to fit it. Weeks go by and she heard nothing. A visit to the garage by a family friend who asked to speak to the manager who was very apologetic and said for her to arrive first thing today to have it fitted. She’s been sat there for 30 minutes (website states open at 10am today) with a baby in the car and it is not open. Absolutely not acceptable. Zero communication from them. Another customer was waiting as well who had been told to get there ‘first thing Monday’. They both gave up at 10.30am

Booked a tyre fitting for 12 noon on Saturday 22nd March, got there early to be told the technicians were very busy and it would be 45 minutes to an hour. I decided to stay with my car and observe the "very busy technicians". I watched a lot of walking around with clipboards, smoking, phone calla ang generally doing nothing that could be described as work. After an hour of waiting my wife went to reception to express her displeasure when somebody actually moved my car to give the impression it was about to be worked on. The individual then went to the side of the building with a can of coke and returned some time later making no attempt to work on my car, At this point I had enough and started to remove my own wheel. This obviously prompted somebody to put their clipboard and phone away to sort my tyre out.
Never seen a bunch of lazy ignorant individuals not even bothering to hide their lack of customer care, As for the manager she has a strong opinion on pot noodles and absolutely no idea of managing customer expectations or her staff,

Took my car in for an MOT on Monday morning, handed over my keys, gave them my number, and was told they’d call me when it’s ready. An hour passed—nothing. So, I walk back, only to be told, “Oh yeah, we actually can’t do it today because of another all-day job.” A simple phone call would have been nice, but hey, who needs communication in a customer-facing business, right?

Fine. I reschedule for Thursday. Drop the car off, leave again, fully expecting a phone call this time. Nope. Nada. So, like déjà vu, I wander back over. Turns out my car failed its MOT—annoying but fair enough, these things happen. They offer to do the repairs and say it’ll be sorted by the afternoon. It’s midday, so I think, Great! Shouldn’t be long now.

Fast forward five hours. Still no call, no text, no carrier pigeon. Just silence. I give up waiting and go back in person. Turns out they haven’t even started working on the car. Five hours and not even a spanner lifted. Impressive.

They finally start the repairs, which take another hour, followed by the MOT retest. Seven painful hours after dropping the car off, it’s finally done. Throughout this entire process, Rebecca at reception—the one person who should be keeping customers informed—seemed to think that communicating was entirely optional.

Moral of the story? If you enjoy playing detective just to figure out what’s happening with your own vehicle, then by all means, give this place a go. Otherwise, steer clear.

Seen some mixed reviews on here which made me anxious about using formula one in Kettering again, this is my 3rd time in the last few years using them for various things tyres/servicing and the lads have been very friendly and got the job done with no issues, the only issue I had before was after my service the price that they had given me to do some minor work before my MOT was much higher than my local mechanic. I will gladly come back for tyres

Very friendly and welcoming staff at Kettering branch. Quick service and reasonable prices compared to other local suppliers. Will definitely use again.

Good Service, Polite Staff

Very helpful. Helped me out of trouble following a "gashed" tyre with sound advice and action.
Stayed beyond closing time to complete job.
Thank you.

Avoid!
Booked in for a service and MOT. MOT came back that car needed a new cat convertor and sensor, to the tune of £1250 AND that it would take them 5 days minimum.
I thought that seemed steep so took it elsewhere and they literally laughed when they saw the quote, and booked me in straight away. Completed that same afternoon for £600, and didn't even need a new sensor.
This coupled with the general poor service, especially the girl with pink hair, who seemed to prefer to slag off an ex employee who is seemingly moving to the Corby branch, rather than assist customers, I will definitely not being going back.

Phil,becky and I think it was josh at the kettering branch went above and beyond to try and help fix my car today. Kept me amused for the 3 odd hours I was there. Unfortunately it's unfixable but they tried everything. 100% reccomend and will use them again in the future.

Booked in for a mot and service at 10 am. Asked to get there early i was there at 9 am. Rang at 2 pm for an update was told should all be finished by 4 pm. Arrived at 4 and was told 4-45 finally got my car at 5-35pm
I asked for an approximate time schedule when booking the car in was told 1 hour 15 for each job approximate. Didn't realise it would be the first hour and the last hour l.
Will most definitely not be using the garage again.

Terrible service from Kettering branch. I booked my MOT online via the website for 5:30pm last Friday. I booked this on the Tuesday before. I then got a reminder via email on Thursday to re-confirm the booking. I was then called on the Friday at 9am to tell me that my booking had to be cancelled because they don’t do MOTs at 5:30pm!! So why did it let me book online? And why did it take until on the day to let me know it had to be cancelled when my MOT was due to run out the day after. Totally shocking customer service and did not even offer a decent resolution. Bit of a “tuff” attitude. I will no longer be going back there and neither will all my family and friends. You have lost quite a bit of custom over this.

The worst service ever will never recommend anyone. Non of the people doesn’t know anything about engine work. Very disappointing and please no one go to this station. Before giving my car to them it’s in good working condition.now car is not starting and went to limp mode. I enquired about this to them they are telling bring this car to another workshop then why this people open this shop even they don’t know what to do. Just worst service worst customer experience 0/5

I used to think this place was really good, and always took mine and my girlfriend’s car here for MOT and repair.

How I was wrong..

Over the last year or so they have been awful. Messed my partners cars tracking up after a tyre change, which we had to take back about 5 times. In the end we gave up and went quick fit who sorted it out straight away!

Recently a wing mirror and MOT had been booked for the morning, dropped off at 8.30 and didn’t get the car back until 6pm.. as soon as we got home, we found the door panel had not been fitted correctly. Dropped off this morning and still waiting for it to be fixed. You would have thought we would have been a priority.. not even a sorry.

Lesson learnt, will never use them again.

If you fancy waiting ages for simple repairs and MOT’s go here, you will also need to return multiple times when they haven’t repaired correctly, wasting more of your time.

Update: fitted the seal correctly but the panel still does not sit flush. Couldn’t make it up…

I work in Social Media, you have an option to request the customers email and contact the customer directly, but instead, you settle for a copy and paste message with no apology asking the customer to contact you. Shows how good your customer service is.

Easy to book online, friendly helpful service, work completed when they said it would be, great price. Have used before and they are consistently excellent

I took a wheel in for inspection on the 30th December 2024 as I had a nail in the tyre. The advisor said it couldn't be repaired but quickly offered to price up some tyres and claimed they could price match halfords. They then proceeded to take the best part of an hour collecting details from me including the price that halfords had quoted for the tyres.

They said the tyres needed to be ordered in as they didn't have any in stock and it would take until 7th January 2025 until they were in. They said they would call as soon as they arrived to get me booked in.

I hadn't heard from the branch so went in to check on the progress only to be told that nobody had ordered any tyres at all.

So they then reiterated they could price match halfords and they would have to order them in.

This time they searched for the tyres and claimed they could not price match halfords as it was an online price and they didn't price match online.

In the time between 30th December and today the price of the tyres at halfords also increased.

So no tyres ordered, now informed they won't price match and wouldn't come close to the price previously agreed to.

Poor service and the advisor didn't seem to even care. So I left without tyres which is a shame as I had been a regular customer for the Kettering branch and would often refer people to them for their tyres. Truly disappointed and won't be returning to them in the future