Southern Auto Centre Ltd

DO NOT USE. . This company was called a1 car sales Portsmouth. Same address That magically disappeared Selling dodgy cars that are not road worthy . Mr khan Glasgow . Do not buy from here Do not buy from here Do not buy from here Do not buy from here Do not buy from here Do not buy from here Do not buy from here Do not buy from here Do not buy from here buying Accsident repaired cars and selling on stay away
Feb 3rd, 2023

We picked up a Silver Ford Mondeo last week with this company; they were incredibly helpful in attaining the car and how the process works, the staff were super friendly and welcoming, they were on time, very efficient and thorough, explained everything to us in detail so we understood everything, made sure to ask if we had any questions if we didn't quite understand anything, or if it wasn't covered, gave us details on warranty and how it works, I genuinely couldn't be happier, I would highly recommend, and I would definitely use this company again, well worth the very early morning trip from London! Thank you so much! :)
Feb 2nd, 2023

DO NOT USE We recently purchased a car from this company a month or so, first red flag was when we turned up my husband went into the office and just got handed the keys to look round ourselves and test drive, which we did and really liked the car. Not once did they come out to try and sell or ask if we had any questions however we are quite new to buying used cars and we liked the car so put a deposit down. Got told they need to do MOT and valet. Picked up car few days later and it was certainly not a valet there was still a dead spider that I had noticed from when we viewed the car, found this odd. A week later I had broken down, the manager I must say was efficient at this time and managed to drive it back which again thought surely it would damage the car driving back however they claimed to solve the problem replacing fuel injectors and car back with us, car had a childrens toy which we found odd on return also. The lady who worked there claimed it would have fallen out a bag of someone working on the car (very strange). A week or so later same thing started to happen and the car was jolting a lot, phoned and they said fuel injectors again will check over, I thought obviously wasnt done properly the first time. We insisted on a service which they did do however we had no telephone call feedback just some paperwork which is very unprofessional. Once I mentioned we were considering a refund very poor communication, I was leaving messages, unable to get hold of anyone, being fobbed off by excuses and I wanted updates on the car which they did not provide we suddenly got a text message to say car is coming back when I specifically asked them to contact me by phone as by this point we were considering a refund. Car came back with a horrendous mannered man holding a red bull in which I asked a number of questions and with his reply I dont know Im just a driver car previously dropped off by this man and the car smelt of McDonalds. Week or so later again car broke down, this time a lot of smoke warning lights etc. they said we had to sort out a towing company. At this point we wanted to just get rid of them and this awful car and get our money back but now we are out of pocket with cancelling insurance and towing costs and just looked now and car is already back up for sale for even higher price. Please dont waste your time and money with them. Awful company extremely unprofessional and extremely poor communication.
May 1st, 2023

Looked at a car which on paper seemed a good deal but watch out. So the car was clean in appearance and looked to be good but on close inspection was missing the under tray from the bottom of the engine bay I found it had a oil leak and when checking the dip stick it was completely dry oil was all over the intercooler and radiator I found screws and bolts in various places loose in the engine bay and water trap under the screen probably from the missing undertray also lots of wires hadn't been secured with the plastic push in clips showing signs of shoddy workmanship and the lines on the front bumper which was loose showing signs it had been thrown back together in a hurry. the mechanic tried telling me it had oil (which it 100% didn't) as he had just started it up and made out I was wrong about the vehicle as it only had 40k on the clock he was still trying to sell me the vehicle but it definitely needs the work to be finished before it's ready even though I was told it was ready to go.
Apr 21st, 2023

Absolutely disgusting company, they first sold me a car that broke down in the first 2 months leading to a repair that cost almost 5,000. When I asked for the mechanics reports the managing director told me that they didn't have one. (Who pays almost 5000 for a repair without a report)? This was an obvious lie to withhold information from me regarding the cars condition. The courtesy car that they loaned me had multiple problems, including the windscreen washer not working, windows not working and the horn did nothing. They have done everything they can to avoid my returning the car including lying to the finance company when I made a complaint telling them I was happy with the car regardless of me informing them that I would not accept it without a mechanics report. I am now having to go through the drawn out process of getting the financial ombudsman involved to rectify this. This business promotes itself as a good family run business that cares about its customers but nothing could be further from the truth. The director was supposed to call me weeks ago to address some of these issues but has so far done nothing, provided no updates and has essentially just done her best to avoid me. As another review previously stated DO NOT PURCHASE FROM THIS COMPANY
Apr 15th, 2023