Formula One Autocentres - Portsmouth Reviews 

excellent service and the car is running perfect and received a call from the company and gave some advisories that nedded doing . I was excpecting the car to be there all day and it was finished by 1pm this afternoon after taking it in at 08:30 this morning. Formula 1 Autocentres is worth using and the staff are helpful.

Wheel alignment experience that required independent verification

In February 2026, I had four new tyres fitted along with a wheel alignment. Within days, the car didn’t feel right — higher fuel consumption and unusual driving resistance.

I returned for a re-check and was advised that everything had been adjusted correctly.

However, after around 2,600 miles, all four tyres developed clear uneven wear, mainly on the outer edges.

Independent inspections (including a Toyota service centre) later confirmed incorrect alignment settings and no underlying suspension issues.

This led to replacing all four tyres again much sooner than expected.

A partial refund was eventually provided, but only after multiple visits, external inspections, and follow-up.
Despite the evidence, responsibility was not formally acknowledged.

From my experience, I would not rely solely on a single alignment check if the vehicle behaviour changes afterwards.

Brilliant service for a puncture in my rear tyre.
Staff polite and friendly being a bank holiday was a little bit busy but nothing to worry about.
Thank you Chris.

Sadly.. I’ve spent a lot of time and money at f1 auto centre ln Portsmouth, what with my van, my wife’s car and my daughter’s car. But the service you receive is exemplary, Simon the manager along with his team bend over backwards to get the job done. I have nothing but praise for the service they provide. My latest visit was 10/03/26 with a screw in my tyre, unfortunately the tyre could not repaired, but Simon came up with a solution ordered two new tyres to be fitted the following day. That’s great customer service. 10/10 ⭐

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE - I'm having no end of problems with this garage & the Portsmouth branch.Took my Wife's car in to have it's MOT - she is v ill in hospital with Leukaemia so our family is going through hell right now.Formula 1 first told me the car had failed slightly on emissions.They said if I paid £299 for some new plugs & HT leads and then "run the car down the motorway for a bit" that should suffice to get it through MOT.Next day, having paid & done as they said was told the car had failed again with even worse emissions reading!! Complained to Head Office that they'd misled me & an area manager told me he'd listened back to the calls & I was never given a "black and white assurance" that the plugs/leads would fix the car.Sorry but when you take your car to a professional you rely on their expert knowledge to fix it, in this case we were told wrong advice and out of pocket by hundreds.After the car then failed to start completely & was in a worse running condition than when we'd brought it to them I was told "actually we were wrong, it's your CAT converter, we can fit a new one for an extra £537" so I paid the £537.Now the car is still running badly and they have said "it might need a new cylinder".Jesus wept! They seem incapable of correctly fault finding & fixing & have left me out of pocket with a car that still isn't fixed.I had similar issues with the 2 years prior when taking it to Formula 1 & paying them £900.They seem to think it's acceptable to operate in this grey area of not telling the customer categorically what the problem is, but still charging them to carry out expensive work that doesn't fix the problem. Completely unacceptable and am fully prepared to pursue legal recourse if no honest and satisfactory fix is offered.

Dear Customer Service, Part2.

In relation to my previous post (Part 1), you mentioned that more information was needed to verify its authenticity. I can confirm that my post is 100% accurate. During the previous two tyre changes, when the wheels were incorrectly balanced, I took the car to another garage for inspection, where it turned out that the balancing had been done as poorly as possible on a new tyre. They rebalanced the wheels, and the problem was completely resolved.

You refunded the cost of this correction, which I appreciate. However, a poorly tightened valve could have potentially caused damage to the tyre as well, although fortunately this did not happen. Therefore, I do not wish to complicate the matter any further, and I would prefer not to provide additional reference numbers or documentation.

Went to get aircon recessed and not even 2 weeks in my aircon wasn’t working again, they wanted me to bring back to do ‘checks’ on the aircon which would of cost me more money so I didn’t do that, went to another garage who said they should of tested for leaks beforehand and tested for leaks, I didn’t have any and they regarded and now all is good. What makes it worse is they are refusing to refund me for their poor work. Avoid at all costs, obviously like ripping people off. Be warned before you take your car there. UPDATE they can’t even be bothered to reply to people individually and just generate same responses…. Great customer service

1. My Son was ripped off of 700£ pounds,,Over priced for doing the MOT and not finishing the job and referred to another garage to finish the job that caused another 150£.

2. They asked my son to leave the car so that they can fix it , but probably a staff use it and parked it illegally and now my son is crying for another 100 pounds to pay. This case is still investigation as we will make an appeal to Premier Parking. This is horrible and inhuman.

Called in the morning to see if they could repair a puncture, asked if I needed to book and was told no just bring it in this afternoon. Arrived and went to reception and was told they had no availability, no apology given !!!
Will never use them again

Squeezed me in to get my MOT at very short notice - could not have been anymore helpful and got the MOT done. A real pleasure to deal with and thoroughly recommend them!

Price started at 175 pounds to fit rear end of exhaust then had phone call asking for extra 100 pounds for another part , on the way to pick the car up I got a phone call asking for another 102 pounds, what went from 175 pounds initially ended up being 375 pounds , I was told the last item was just being charged at cost of 102 pounds at which after ringing round other suppliers I found most charged half that price , 2nd time they've tried this on , had no choice but to pay bill to get the car back

Great team, fantastic approach and always very professional. Highly recommended!

2017 Eco Boost Fiesta.
Very knowledgeable about car requirements (oil type etc).
Didn't force or market anything not needed.
Fixed alignment and key/locking issue, where other garages didn't attempt.
Made recommendations on specialist for head gasket / coolant issue.
Best garage in Portsmouth I've been too.

Went in as my tyre kept going flat. The staff were lovely and got me in straight away. 5 stars.
I drove away and had an error saying check brake pad. Now at the time I didn't know the rear wheels didn't have sensors so not their fault. The issue was the dark haired middle aged man that I spoke to. When I said it's been in and now the brake pad light is on, he shrugged his shoulder as if to say, so what. He didn't k ow it was the back wheel then. I asked if someone could make sure it hadn't anything to do with the wheel they looked at and he said no we're too busy. At the end he asked which tyre and I said the back to which he said they dont have sensors on them. Which is fine but the attitude at the beginning was unnecessary. He needs an attitude readjustment. Other than that the others were great.

We were going away for a few nights, and found out we had a puncture. I phoned up our local centre and asked about a puncture repair.
They said if I could go down straight away they would do their best to fit us in. I drove down and they fixed the puncture for me very quickly.
The staff were very friendly and helpful, and the price was very good.
Would definitely recommend them for all your tyre needs.

Had a red light come up on my car warning me about tyre issue…..I was nearby and took car straight into Portsmouth branch….. excellent service , did repair on tyre and also sorted back light out that I didn’t realise had gone….quick and friendly service and good value:) will definitely return for other stuff in future:) thank you!

Simon (The Pompey Centre branch) you are a complete life saver and thank you for arranging for my repair to be completed quickly. Amazing service and you will definitely have my custom in the future. Thank you, again, you won’t appreciate how much of a life saver you were earlier today.

Took my car in recently for an mot. The workers there were really helpful (particularly Simon) everything was explained well, they were very quick and efficient!
I'd definatly take my car back.

Friendly fast and professional and very good value

Just love these guys. We have two old and expensive cars and we’ve been customers for tyres and general servicing for years. Staff there (particularly manager - Simon) are just awesome we wouldn’t go anywhere else. Fair pricing and work, bend over backwards for our “special needs” cars. Wouldn’t go anywhere else.