Heritage Automotive Reviews 

I had to wait four weeks for a slot for a routine service and MOT (which may have been nothing to do with Heritage but all to do with my leasing company. Who knows?) I made it clear when booking that I needed a new bonnet release cable as this had snapped. Because I had been unable to access the bonnet for a few weeks, I had warning lights for oil and washer fluid.

Anyway, I arrived at Heritage at the appointed time, 9 AM Tuesday 19th of September 23. I had booked myself off the road for one day but was so busy that for the several days afterwards had a full diary of appointments.

Having heard nothing from Heritage by late afternoon on the Tuesday, I called them to find that the bonnet release cable had not arrived but was expected in on the Wednesday. I arranged to hire a vehicle myself the next day but, by the end of Wednesday having heard nothing from Heritage, I called to find that the vehicle was not ready. This pattern repeated through Thursday and Friday until on Friday afternoon, unbelievably I was told that the bonnet release cable had only just arrived. Hang on, I said, I was told that it arrived on Wednesday. By now, the hire car Charges were racking up. but I was promised that the car would be ready on Monday- without fail. Guess what? I had to call again on Monday afternoon, having heard nothing, to be told that they had started the MOT and had discovered that the car needed a new tyre. Unbelievably, it was gonna take until Wednesday for this tyre to arrive. I was promised it would be ready at the end of Wednesday.

Still having heard nothing, I then called yet again on Wednesday afternoon to be told that the MOT tester was out of the business and the MOT could not be completed. I did suggest that they would have known that at 9 o'clock that morning and, sensibly, could have called me to tell me, but no. I was promised that the vehicle will be ready on Thursday.

4 PM Thursday afternoon it is now nine days since I dropped off my car for a one day service and MOT. Yet again I have had to call the dealership to get an answer about progress. I spoke to somebody "senior" who told me that the vehicle will be ready in 40 minutes. I dropped off my hire car and duly arrived at the dealership around 90 minutes later. I then spent a further few minutes stood like a lemon at reception whilst two chaps behind the counter were on their phones doing whatever young men do on their phones. Eventually, a very harassed -looking young lady asked me if I was being served, grumpily handed me the key to my vehicle and told me where it was. No apology no explanation. I've subsequently emailed a formal complaint and over a week later I'm still yet to receive a substantive response.

Utterly shocking.

Very poor service heritage vw salisbury put a deposit on a car just to be told 4 days later it had numerous faults and they couldn't honour the price. Told me the scratches on car and dents on wheel were OK. Also told me the 3 year gap in service between 2017 - 2020 was covid related. Covid kicked in in 2020. Has to be the worst vw dealer I've come across. Citygate in Watford are superb. My car ? Are you serious. A car i put a deposit on is 1 i want to buy. Its not my car. If I could give them a zero I would do.

Visited them last week in Bristol to take a test drive on the Cupra Born EV car. We waited over an hour as they could not find the car and then waited a further week before getting a follow up call. Never received any prices only received an email the next day to say the could not help us. I wonder how they ever manage to sell any cars and based on my experience I would never contact them again.

In August I visited VW Heritage in Bristol to purchase a new car. I have to say the service I got from Mohammed (Salesman) was so refreshing! He was incredibly helpful, polite, respectful and did all he could to sell us a car. Unfortunately due to the knock on effect since the pandemic of new cars taking so long to make we managed to find the car we wanted further afield but I thought I’d give a shout out to Mohammed who was brilliant! Thank you!

Well what a shambles Heritage Yeovil is. I never did manage to book my 2017 Passat in for a repair. I was given a date 8th September and when I asked for an indication of the price I passed from pillar to post. No one passed on the conversations to the next representative and I ended up talking to "bookings' in Bristol. I gave up.

We purchased a brand new VW Polo R-Line automatic in smokey grey on the 18th of January 2023.

Less than four months later on the 15th of May 2023 we experienced a Front assist major fault that almost killed me and my wife.

Following this experience we immediately contacted Heritage who arranged for a pickup and full inspection of the car. This in total lasted a full week.

They concluded that there wasn't any fault with the vehicle and refused to accept that the car in any way was faulty.We logially responded back to heritage about this claim stating "surely there is some data record kept in the cars system". Heritage responded to our questioning referencing a black box, instantly shutting this suggestions down with a no. Yet if anyone were to read a Volkswagen Polo owners manual, page 320 clearly states that our car indeed has an EDR (Event Data Recorder).

Further research around the wider fault solidifies the fact that the Front Assist major fault is a widely/regularly experienced fault on Volkswagen group cars !

Following that outcome we asked Heritage to offer us a copy of the exact worksheet (our assumption would be a breakdown of the inspection results ?). This was promised to us but never materialised despite asking on 4 separate occasions. The last being on our final return to sell the car back to them due to lack of faith in the company and car as well as the obvious safety concerns. To conclude this part there was never any record that the inspection was ever completed on there system. Which is frightening.

As mentioned above we sold the car back to heritage at a loss, as we had no confidence in either the car or heritage anymore. This following 20 plus years of Volkswagen group cars I have personally owned.

I have always had complete trust in Volkswagen group with my life, hence the purchase of 6 new cars over those 20 plus years. This no longer applies as they are more likely to have contributed to your death.

I won't be back !
You have been warned

I take my Golf R to the guys at Western. Sian is amazing and sorted everything out for my car

This is a review for Heritage Dorchester.
I didn't purchase my vehicle from this outlet. However. I decided to have the first 3 services done by a VW agent - falsley believing I was doing the best thing.
First and second service went as expected - expensive!
The third service turned into quite a charade.

One of the hottest days of the year. I had to wait some time to have the car returned and suffer the most obnoxious sales team experiance.

On the return journey no matter what I did the air-conditioning failed to work. Returning home I contacted the garage and explained the problem and they sent an 'engineer', who couldn't find the fault and had to return the vehicle to the garage - some 40+ miles away.

No problem I thought these things happen.
Later that day the vehicle was returned in working order but without any explaination, apology or more importantly fuel compensation.

The next garage visit - an indipendent - the mechanic noticed that the engine cover was missing. I contacted Heritage who denied any knowledge of the missing part despite only ever being serviced by Heritage.

Bottom line - beware this VW garage.

Recently purchased my second HR-V from Heritage Honda in Gloucester. The help & service I received from the whole sales team (Christian, Edd, Jack) was absolutely first class and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Was meant to write this review last year, but time slipped away. But in summary, I have bought 2 cars from this place now; The first was a New Seat Leon back in 2016 and we had the best experience - couldn't fault it. So when we needed a bigger vehicle, we immediately thought 'we'll go back to Seat in Bristol'. HUGE MISTAKE. This time we opted for a approved used Ateca (19 reg). They sent me videos of the car, conveniently hiding the bodywork defects, and then i agreed to purchase (but only put a deposit down). When i went to buy the car, again i was scooted round the car, which on the face of it looked in very good condition. But the first strange thing is that the guy dealing with me had already done the v5 forms etc, so the car was already in my name. I didnt really think anymore of this at the time, but when i got home i noticed quite severe bodywork damage, and some mechanical issue also - including a knocking noise, bald tyres and insufficient brake pads. I immediately phoned up and lets say the customer care wasnt the best. But, they did agree to take the car back in to have a look. So i had to take time to drive back up to bristol - for them to try to get the dents out (and fix the other bits). When it was re-presented to me, it still looked shocking, so they booked it in with the body shop - which meant another day of travelling up to bristol and working from costa for the full day. The bodywork repair was awful - it looks good from a distance, but from close up - the finish is absolute cowboys work. At this point, i really could not be bothered to complain - i'd already said i wanted a full refund etc, but was knocked back. Now i cant think of taking it back for MOTs / Services - which help to keep the warranty going - why would i bother when they clearly don't do good work? From someone who has now spent c.£50k through this company - i will never return and i absolutely would not recommend this branch of Seat to anyone. Stay clear.

I recently had the pleasure of working with Chris and his team at Heritage of Dorchester to purchase a new INEOS Grenadier, and I cannot speak highly enough of their exceptional level of service.
Chris and his team were knowledgeable, professional, and went above and beyond to ensure that my experience was smooth and stress-free.
I would also like to give a special shoutout to Jordan, who even took the time to call me on his day off to give me an update on the status of my purchase. This level of dedication and commitment to customer service is truly commendable.
I know that this was a new process for all of us, but Chris and his team made it as smooth and stress-free as possible. I highly recommend Heritage of Dorchester to anyone who is looking for a new INEOS Grenadier.
Thank you, Chris and the entire team at Heritage of Dorchester, for the exceptional level of service that you provided. I am a happy customer and will certainly return for any future vehicle needs.

Just bought my second car from Heritage Motors. The service was excellent from finding the model I wanted with the spec I wanted. Part exchange for my T Cross was on a par with online buyers. Delivery was on time and the after sales service was excellent and open ended. Technicalities explained clearly. Recommend buying a service contract. The receptionist, salesman, and service team all very helpful

Never buy from any “Heritage” and certainly don't use Gloucester Heritage

Dismal customer service. Don't buy a VAG vehicle full stop, but, if necessary, certainly don't have one from these people and whatever you do, don't get work done here. Behind the VW-butter-wouldn't-melt veneer is a **FRANCHISE**, NOT VW, though this does vary depending on the narrative they're pushing at the time. Rest assured VW/VAG's customer service is also woeful, but this detail is important for the public to be aware of before it's too late. Diesel-gate is just the tip of the iceberg with VW/VAG.

Another bit of context is if your VAG/VW car is of a certain age, check your COOLANT RESERVOIR for a SILICA BAG. VW/VAG and the likes of this place will happily let you and their customers continue for years continue to drive with this pointless piece of poison and then they can and will hand you a bill of thousands of pounds to get it fixed. It is a TIMEBOMB, ask any mechanic (only outside of VW/VAG). Research, carefully remove and then change your coolant just that bit more regularly. Scandalous and deceitful.

Do your research into VAG reliability and ultimately, buy a Japanese petrol manual (non-turbo) with a chain belt if reliability is the main concern. Which it should be in these economic times and being vulnerable to these price gougers. Lied to about a silica bag and lied to about a perfectly functioning EGR, which "needed replacing".

Check out this review at the bottom from 18 months ago on the Ombudsman website:

“Awful customer service, majority of the staff are rude and do not care for you, I wouldn't recommend you spend any money with this garage, I have complained and they still will not resolve this. Don't be a fool and ignore this message, you will have nothing but problems and no way to resolve them.
Volkswagen won't take ownership of the complaint as it is a franchise, be careful.”

Went to look at and test drive a VW electric car. Show room had absolutely nothing available other than a nice but expensive £60k id5. Tried to get the attention of a staff member, but nope, they weren't interested. So went next door instead to look at a Cupra. Same group, different brand. Loads in stock, demo available to drive, all good. Came back to the showroom to discuss a deal. Was not offered a drink and nothing available at all to have, not even a glass of water, despite it being 34 degrees. Finally got a quote only to find the sales bloke trying it on. Padded the quote with over 4k of stuff we didn't need and he was more motivated by selling gaap insurance, paint protection, tyre insurance and telling us pcp over 49 months was what we wanted and how no discounts were available. Came home, checked their website and i was offered a deal 5k less than the showroom price without the padding. Needless to say he and the group lost the sale.

Amazing service from Dave at Volkswagen in Yeovil. From the moment we walked into the showroom he was very friendly, kind and not your typical pushy salesman. Even 2 weeks after we purchased our car his after sales has been amazing. Will definitely be back.

I have to agree with all the other reviewers of VW Heritage Bristol, had a minor fault with a Polo under warranty, so far it has taken them 3 attempts to fix it and have kept the vehicle over a week in total, on the last attempt they managed to fix the issue but left the dash hanging out and loose along with the data plug and a torch left on the floor. the next available date I was offered to fix the issue is 5 weeks away as they are so busy (probably fixing faults over and over again).

I recently bought a car from Volkswagen Heritage Branch in Bristol. Pre purchase, the Service was good but post sale the service, once they got their money, they were not interested in meeting their pre sale commitments - they were no longer interested in me as a customer.. Worst customer experience - Calls were never returned and I was constantly chasing for response. All in all my view is that once they have your money they are not interested at all in you as a customer. Never again will I consider buying a car from them.

Very good at selling cars but not so good at servicing them. Put on hold for ages trying to book a service. Requests for call back not received. Cancellation of service due to covid not registered and bill produced even though they didnt have the car. They use a call centre for servicing.

The service I received from Heritage Seat Gloucester was absolutely appalling, having purchased over 40 cars, both new and used from main dealers, independents and privately this has been without doubt the worst buying experience I’ve received and has left me substantially out of pocket.

Dealership informed me they could not repair this cars paintwork as it couldn’t be sourced by their in house body shop, as it happens the body shop is not in house and can source the paint, I called and asked. ** LIE ** number 1 & 2.

After a week of waiting I was informed that the car was already undergoing prep at the groups Volkswagen dealership, I called the Volkswagen dealership directly the next day to check and was told the car had only arrived that morning. ** LIE ** number 3

Parts required for the car not even put on order until the day of agreed collection.

Car collected with front and rear wheels not matching despite the dealership promising this would be rectified. Also a poor quality repair completed on one of the wheels, they didn’t even sand the curb marks out of the alloy lip!

Was told car would come on the original reg, I insured it as such, on collecting the car found out it was on the personalised registration meaning I’ve now to pay 2 insurance admin fees, purchase my own plates and pay £80 to have the registration removed from the car!

On the agreed day of collection I received a TEXT MESSAGE at 4:45pm to inform me the car was not ready with no explanation, incredibly poor!

Approx £150 to sort registration.
2 alloy wheel refurbs to pay for.
Another 100 mile trip to collect late parts.

The dealerships idea of a fair compromise?
£50 and a tank of fuel! Pathetic.

Totally sh!t I booked a taxi for 6am came out of work at 6am no taxi called the base automated machine said the driver was 2mins away I waited nothing so I called the base was told 10 maybe 15mins half he later I was still waiting don't use these if you in a hurry or like to arrive on time to things wasted of time and energy driver was rude he lucky to have been paid -1 star public transport Is faster base doesn't pass booking on when they come in