Cars are not checked
Originally I gave a 5-star review, but 8 months later I feel I need to update it to reflect my overall experience with the car I bought.
In July 2025 I bought a 2018 Vauxhall Corsa from Newtown. The car had less than 20,000 miles at the time of sale and a clean MOT history. After checking the dealership’s reviews beforehand, I felt confident the car would be reliable. Unfortunately, that has not been my experience.
About a month after buying the car I was driving home from work and suddenly could not get the car into gear. After some effort the gears came back, but the clutch pedal felt wrong and would not spring back properly. Thankfully the car was still under warranty, so I took it back to Newtown where they identified that the spring in the clutch pedal had snapped.
They ordered the part and booked me in for a second appointment to fit it. The day before the appointment I was told the wrong part had been delivered and to return the following week. When I came back the following week I was told there was no booking in the system, so another appointment had to be arranged. The repair was eventually completed at that visit.
The car then seemed fine until October when it suddenly developed a significant oil leak. The leak appeared without warning and would drip quite heavily once the engine was turned off. I happened to be in Cardiff when this occurred and, to their credit, Newtown were able to look at the car the same day. They found that a sensor was leaking oil when the engine was switched off, which was repaired under warranty.
At this stage I was already starting to lose confidence in the car. The staff were polite and suggested the option of purchasing an extended warranty at a discounted rate. I accepted this as a safety net in case further issues occurred.
In February 2026 the car started juddering while idling, so I booked it in with Newtown for a service and to have the issue investigated. After the service I was called to collect the car, but when I arrived I was told they had tried replacing two sensors in an attempt to resolve the issue but had been unable to fix it. They suggested the timing belt might be the cause and said they would need the car for a full day to investigate further. I was also told that if they could not identify a specific faulty part related to the timing belt, the repair might cost around £1,800 as it may not be covered under the warranty.
At this point I raised my concerns and spoke with the manager, who took my details and said a member of the sales team would contact me. I spoke briefly with a sales representative before leaving and he mentioned the possibility of the dealership buying the car back, asking me to send over my finance settlement figure.
I sent this shortly afterwards but did not receive a call the following day, so I contacted the dealership myself. Another discussion followed about the possibility of changing into a different vehicle, but by that stage I felt I had lost confidence and simply wanted to move on. After discussing my settlement figure (around £6,500) I was told they could not get close to that amount due to the fault with the car. The only option offered was a small reduction on the potential timing belt repair cost.
At that stage I decided to stop pursuing the matter with the dealership. I spoke with another garage who quoted around £1,100 for a timing belt replacement and suggested it was unlikely to be the actual cause of the issue.
Due to the repeated problems and my lack of confidence in the car, I decided to sell it.
During one of my visits I also overheard staff discussing another vehicle that had repeatedly returned with issues and that they had “basically rebuilt”. Hearing this did not give me much confidence that my experience was unique.
Based on my overall experience, I personally would not recommend Newtown Motors.
July 16, 2025
Unprompted review
