St Leonards Motors Reviews 38

SLM select have been amazing! Viewed a car last weekend, and Ian was extremely helpful! Very kind and honest. Staff all helpful, and I was proud enough to walk away with my new car today! Just 7 days later. A big thank you to you all for such smooth organisation. Further thanks to Ian for his kindness and being so helpful. Highly recommend.

Major Service carried out and MOT, very satisfied with the work done, plus the advisory which needed urgent attention. All carried out on the day

From my first phone enquiry I was very pleased with the customer service. Jack was especially helpful and I had a smooth and helpful reassuring experience with SLM cars. I would highly recommend them to anyone seeking to find there next car.

Brought a car from SLM December 2023. The car had had extensive faults since and spent more time with SLM than it has myself. On 08/10/24 the car was returned to SLM due to drinking a tank of coolant/water daily (with no sign of a leak) & going into limp mode daily. I had one voicemail on 08/01/25 from SLM informing me the car still wasn’t repaired. On 20/01 I went over to empty my items from the car due to the finance company collecting it as we defaulted on the payments due to no support from the finance company & consistent faults/poor customer service with SLM. This is how I found the car. Parked away from SLMs forecourt, by the Bosch garage. No power at all. Only able to access with the manual key on the drivers side. My items dumped behind the car in the woodland. And the car in this state! Joint ends, fag butts, food packaging/waste. Amongst my items was a duvet, pair of men’s trousers, food waste and a news paper dated 11/01/25. This leads me to believe someone had been sleeping in the car. However, the car shouldn’t have been accessible to anyone other than SLM staff. The car should have been looked after & kept safe! This was a 14k car when purchased, it’s had nearly 5k of repairs since December 23 & now looks like it’s just been dumped. I previously tried to reject the car in 08/2024 when the car first went into limp mode on the motorway. SLM “investigated and found no issues”. But yet 2 days after receiving the car back it happened again. A member of their own team stated the car wasn’t fit for purpose and yet the manager Russel Jenkins wouldn’t discuss my concerns but was happy to observe from his office window. He did not even attempted to come and speak directly to me. His only argument was via email in response to my complaint, which was to contact the motor ombudsman which I did in 09/2024. Awaiting a response from a case manager. This is the worse customer service I have ever experienced and I cannot believe an established business would provide such terrible customer care/service, let alone allow their car to be left in this state!

Smashed and awfully glued-back-together headlight, and SLM Select are refusing to compensate.

What started out as a pleasant transaction with Jack Humm has become absolutely scandalous by SLM Select. I bought a used car, after negotiating a lower price based on some scuffs/scratches on the front bumper. 3 days after taking delivery, I needed to replace a blown bulb in the headlight, and after removing the bumper I found that the passenger headlight had been completely smashed and botch-job repaired by being glued back together in a totally unacceptable fashion.

When I raised this with the Dealer, they tried to argue that this is what the reduced price was for - whereas I had no idea the headlight was damaged until I removed the bumper. The discount was for damage to the bumper, not the headlight. If SLM Select say this was to cover the headlight, are they happy to sell cars to their customers with such hidden damage?

I have tried to get compensation so I can buy a second-hand headlight, SLM Select have refused.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 I have a right to reject the car inside the first 30 days if it is "of unsatisfactory quality, unfit for purpose or not as described".

SLM Select are refusing to accept this rejection.

I am left with no option but to seek legal counsel as I cannot drive with this botched headlight.

Totally unacceptable behaviour from a dealership, they are completely bang to rights and I would advise everybody to steer well clear of this garage who are clearly happy to sell vehicles with hidden damage and accept no liability when they get found out.

Took van to SLM Vauxhall tunbridge wells .After several visits they claimed a van that was just over four years old and had done 30 000 needed a new catalytic converter at a cost of over £1400.00 This was their diagnoses for an engine management light being on.
We went ahead and let them change the CAT believing that this was the issue and they are the professionals .How wrong was we !!!!
Picked up van after Cat was changed drove 2 miles and light came back on .Took van straight back and after they looked at it they said DPF was blocked due to CAT breaking down.
Common sense should of said ok CATS breaking down we will change that and then remove the debre in the DPF but no not at SLM !!!!
So over £1400 spent and nothing fixed and SLM are now saying I need a new DPF that will cost another £1400 plus !!! .
Van had a new DPF and add blue sensor earlier this year
I would not recommend SLM and certainly would not take another vehicle their .
Complaint is being escalated externally

*** SLM Vauxhall tunbridge wells just changed DPF (third new DPF on 30000 mile car) and guess what Engine management light came back on again. They have had £1000's in repair costs and achieved nothing.

SLM have now diagnosed a sensor needed replacing !!( Seems vehicle is being basically rebuilt !!!)

If you have an intermittent fault on your car even if your car is in warranty or has an extended warranty you may as well forget about taking it to this garage because they won't be able to replicate the fault in any way, leaving you in a situation where you're unable to take kids out or go shopping until the fault happens again and then when you take it back guess what the fault is not a fault anymore... this apparently is the Toyota policy and for the sake of a spare part they have now lost a long term customer.

Not only this but you should be aware for one single light bulb we were charged £76 - Which I think anyone would agree is a shocking price, additionally it seems that Toyota or should I say SLM Toyota (who are not Toyota but a dealership) have a very cunning policy on intermittent faults... Where your car is still in warranty, If you dare to take your car down and the intermittent fault cannot be reproduced then they will charge you £60 for 30 minutes labor...

So every single time you're intermittent fault occurs you take the car to them and guess what - thats right 'the fault cannot be replicated' and you must pay them £60 every time because 'there is no fault' - I'm assuming you can take it to the multiple times until they cover the cost of the actual parts that they need to replace.

The so called warranty on intermittent faults is worthless. Take a glance at the very comprehensive legal terms and conditions that you agree to before signing anyhting...

Once again I see unreasonable practises in use. I complained a couple of years ago when SLM refused to sign the service book unless the oil was changed, and yet the car had used less than 10 gallons of petrol since last service, the rest of the miles being on battery. A blatant waste of resources for which they still charge. At the last service I did not spot until I got home they had changed the battery in the key fob, and left me another spare one, presumably to fit is the second key. The batteries (CR2032) were listed as £6.66 each but a discount of 30% was applied making the final cost £9.32. These batteries cost 35pence each and I have a full card of them already. Blatant profiteering.

Service standards have certainly dropped to the lowest level, the only reason I gave them 1 star is there’s no option for zero.
My car has been serviced by them from new and I had to have a new clutch fitted in January 23, then on the next service January 24 they noted on the service report there may be a slight oil leak from the seal at the rear of the gearbox. The technician advised having it rechecked in 3 to 4 months time. This was done and indeed the oil seal was leaking. Car was booked in and seal replaced, this was due to take one day and ended up being without a car over the weekend. I phoned numerous times on Monday throughout the morning and couldn’t get through to the service department. Only getting through to the sales team every time only once did I get asked if I wanted to leave a message, this I did.
I waited until mid afternoon and traveled over to see what the latest was.
When I arrived car was parked up, when I went in to speak to the service reception staff they were merrily chatting away to each other and when I was finally asked if they could help I tapped on the salesman’s note with my details sitting on his desk.
I drove the car home and noticed a juddering noise when reversing onto my drive.
I took the car back to SLM the following morning and it was checked by a technician and result was to be told it needs a new clutch!!!!!!! It was fine, no noises no juddering before it went in to have the seal done, I ended up getting told by a smarmy service receptionist that he’s known clutches to go after about 1k miles and I’d done 6k miles and that perhaps a manual gearbox car is not for me. I have driven manual cars for over 40 years so I’m well aware of how to drive
I believe the clutch was contaminated when they took it all apart to change the seal.

Excellent Service from David today when we collected the Citroen Picaso that we had looked over with him a week ago. Couple of small jobs carried out before we collected as promised with a 12 Month MOT
Friendly service and no pressure selling.
Would definitely recommend speaking to David if you are looking for a new car as they certainly have a fantastic range to suit all pockets.

Excellent dealers, no deposit needed, 12 months warranty, great lending options and all makes of cars. David was fantastic and very helpful, I LOVE my car Thank you so very much, she’s absolutely beautiful especially after the valet she had.

Very bad service,please stay away from Slm Nissan.
I only live half a mile away from this garage and I never ever bought any vehicles from them cos I had the impression that customer service was very bad and saddly that was true.
On the 03-03-2024 I test drove a vw polo for my son,we liked it so we put the deposit down £99 to secure it for 24 hours.
Before we left the inexperienced lady at customer service said I’ll call you tomorrow to see if you want the car or not,I said ok and then we left.
Next day I waited and waited all day for that phone call which it never came so I decided to call them myself to see what’s going on.
I tried calling for about 40 minutes had no answer at all and then I tried parts and service number and luckily I did get thru.
I said I have been waiting all day for you promised phone call and her answer was”We have been busy”…I said ok.
We started the conversation and I said is car ready to come and collect it and she said the car was sold to someone else,I said ok but I have put the deposit down for that car she said that’s ok,we will refund it for you.
So I had no choice just to get my refund.
This is the true story from a fake company,no wonder has been sold 20 times over 5 years.
Good luck if you buy a car from Slm Nissan.

Do these people want to sell cars or what. I have tried six times to contact them on the phone this morning and hung on for far too long. Option 2 -sales - no response after half hour. Then tried all other options to see if anyone was there, again the message that the call is very important to them but no one answers. I simply wanted to know if they had a particular car that I want for cash. Oh well. Tunbridge Wells branch.

Stop Ignoring Emails and Phone Calls

We purchased a new yaris in September 2022 from the SLM Uckfield Garage.
From the start we had problems with the my toyota app connecting to the car from our phone .
The car went back to the garage 4 times but they couldnt find anything wrong.
We sent 15 emails with video attached showing the problem and numerour phone calls. Weeks went by with the garage saying they had sent the information to Toyota and would contact us with a response, but were unable to phone Toyota for clarification .
In January we advised them that things had settled down and asked what to do about our second phone (should it be on myt or not,on the 30th January we emailed again as we had no response to the question ,we followed up with a phone call had a promise the service manager would call us back .
In March we had a message via the cars entertainment system to say the connection problem with myT was resolved.However this week easter its not working again and appears to require a new app but no word from the service manager who we have been in contact with.Our experience is the sales team do their best to assist but the General Manager and service team have let us down badly .

I have been buying cars from SLM toyota (Norwich) for 10 years now. Obviously, that says a lot by itself. I have always been looked after by both the sales team and service department. I would happily recommend to anybody.

Cant fault the service
I use SLM toyota in Hastings for my servicing on my rav4, always great and lovely staff that know there stuff

I just bought my first Toyota off slm Hastings and I have bought a few cars through dealers but never have I had such a good experience like this , friendly staff that can’t do enough for you and not the usual pushy sales reps that I have delt with in the past , I had dealings with two reps which I got to say was a real pleasure , Ryan and Stuart ,
Would I buy off them again you ask , most definitely !!!!!
A real pleasure
Many thanks to Hastings Toyota slm