Hartwell plc Reviews 

We were lied to about the Fiesta reliabilty by the sales
cowboys and the service lot were as bad.
They would not give us the money back and we are not able to sell this Ford rubbish.
Please do not use this dealer

I had a service booked for my Ford Puma at 0930 and arrived 10 minutes early. The receptionist was polite and efficient and said I would get a call when the car was done. I phoned at midday and was told by Helen that the car was being worked on at that time. At 2:30 I returned to Hartwell’s to find the car hadn’t moved from where I had parked it. I was angry at wasting my day and nothing had been done to my car. Clearly they are indifferent to their customers and I suggest Ford owners look elsewhere for service!

I handed over £31,000 to Hartwell Hereford last tuesday, and I STILL dont own it apparently ! service is terrible

I bought a Puma Gen e at this dealership
What a great experience
Mat Swann (sales person) was outstanding nothing is too much for him how refreshing
I am quite particular about my car, questions are answered quickly even after having owned car for some time
he is a great asset to the dealership
I have had significant problems with other non ford dealerships in the past but not here.
I am very happy with the service I have received and would highly recommend this ford dealership and the staff
The car is great as is the ford app

i bought a ford focus from this nightmare garage,
The battery is rubbish always comes up low battery,
even though i travel down to london and back,
so have no air con {in this heatwave,
they will not replace my battery even if i pay
so must sort this out myself,
The car before that i bought from Hartwells the engine blow up, Need i say more.

I purchased a BYD vehicle from the Reading Harwell dealership, but the car was sold to me without the V5C log book because it had apparently already been sold to someone else. Before the sale, the dealership was unable to obtain the V5C, yet I was told the vehicle was registered in their name. Based on my experience, I found the information provided to be misleading.

It has now been over a month since I bought the car, and the dealership is still unable to transfer the vehicle into my name. Communication and management at this branch have been very disappointing. I would advise others to be cautious before purchasing from this dealership.

Worst experience ever.

I travelled over 5 hours by train to collect what was supposed to be a brand-new Ford Transit Custom costing around £50,000. On arrival, the vehicle was dirty and had clearly not been properly prepared for handover. It was covered in tyre dressing, which had been rubbed over the damaged alloy wheels. This appeared to be an attempt by the team at Hartwells to disguise the damage rather than address it.

On inspection, the van had damage to all four alloy wheels as well as a dent in the rear quarter panel. This was extremely disappointing to discover on a vehicle being sold as brand new.

Hartwells have agreed to contribute up to £50 towards repairing the dent, which is nowhere near what I would expect when purchasing a new vehicle. Even more frustrating, they have completely refused to address the damage to the wheels, simply stating that it’s “just one of those things.”

To make matters worse, I was effectively left with no real option but to take the vehicle. I had travelled over 5 hours by train to collect it, had limited means of getting back home, and had already spent over £500 on train tickets and other associated costs to complete the collection. Faced with those circumstances, rejecting the vehicle and returning home empty-handed was simply not a practical option.

What made the situation even worse was the attitude of the sales manager. Rather than taking ownership of the issue or showing any genuine concern, he came across as dismissive, obnoxious, and completely uninterested in resolving the problems. After brushing off my concerns, he simply retreated back to his office, leaving me with the clear impression that he couldn’t have cared less about the condition of the vehicle or the customer experience.

I find this attitude unacceptable. When spending £50,000 on a new vehicle, customers should reasonably expect it to be delivered in pristine condition, not with visible damage that they’re then expected to accept.

The lack of accountability, poor vehicle preparation, dismissive management, and inadequate customer service have made this a thoroughly disappointing experience. I would strongly advise anyone collecting a vehicle from this dealership to carry out a very thorough inspection before accepting delivery.

As things stand, I am now left with a dent and four damaged alloy wheels that I have to spend my own time and effort trying to get sorted on a vehicle that was sold to me as brand new.

This is by far the worst garage I've ever had the misfortune to work at (Hartwell Hemel Hempstead), the utter negligence inexperience and shear unprofessionalism of the workshop staff and management is a disgrace. If customers had any idea of how they are mislead and deceived into wasting time and money here I'm surprised this place is still open. Avoid at any cost go somewhere else and save time and especially money this place is a complete disgrace to the ford name.

We bought our Omoda EV here everything was great then we started loosing battery power very quickly 3 times we took it in. First 2 times they said nothing wrong this last time they have had it over a week and still nothing done. It's loosing 1% a day doing nothing and going nowhere 🤷‍♀️ no communication and no resolve!

Excellent attention to detail and communication and everything explained without any pressure. Chris sorted minor issues with car before purchase and a video sent to confirm this the next day. After purchase support has been very good too.

We are extremely disappointed by the handling of my husbands van and feel it is important to share our experience.

Over the course of multiple visits, the vehicle has been repeatedly misdiagnosed, resulting in us paying approximately £6,000 for repairs and replacement parts that have failed to resolve the original issue. On each occasion, we trusted the garage’s professional judgement and agreed to the recommended work, only for the same problem to persist.

After the matter was escalated, Nick, the manager, acknowledged the ongoing issues and agreed that the problem would be resolved without any further cost to us, which we appreciated. However, despite this assurance, we have now been informed that the van requires a new engine at an additional cost of £9,000—a completely unacceptable position given the substantial amount we have already paid and the repeated failure to correctly diagnose and repair the fault.

As customers, we placed our trust in the expertise of this garage and expected repairs to be carried out with reasonable care, skill, and professional competence. Instead, we have experienced repeated misdiagnosis, significant financial expense, and considerable stress and inconvenience, all without a satisfactory resolution.

We believe this situation raises serious concerns about the quality of diagnosis, the necessity of the previous repairs, and the overall standard of customer care. We are now seeking formal advice regarding our consumer rights and whether further action is necessary.

We would strongly advise others to seek detailed explanations, request written diagnostics, and consider obtaining an independent second opinion before authorising costly repair work.

Large selection of vehicles to look at with extensive photography online. I liked the route for test drives as it has a good variety of road types. The salesman (Chris Clarke) was personable and answered all my questions. I appreciate that the few missing items (parcel shelf, tyre inflation kit) were replaced promptly at not extra cost post sale.

Based on my experience, I would do business with Hartwell (Kidlington) again.

Whilst this review is for the sales purchase, I note i am enjoying my new car. Adaptive cruise control is very good for the A34 circus.

So I sold my Ford Ecosport ST to Ford Hartwell Hereford on Monday April 27th, the only reason I did this was I was moving to the US the following weekend and wanted a quick sale, obviously it was a lower price than it was worth but it was about convenience as I then obtained a hire car from a nearby Enterprise to then leave at LHR.

So why the low score, because nearly 3 weeks later I am still waiting for payment. The UK/US currency is slipping because of govn.
I was advised my payment transfer had been rejected, I’ve had my account 25+ years no explanation as to why it was rejected but I guess anything can happen.
So Monday May 11th I was advised the manager had expedited payment and I would have the payment by the end of the week, so now it’s Friday past 1pm and STILL no payment.

Why is it when I can pay a window cleaner on my banking app in seconds does it take this unacceptable amount of time to simply get payment for a car they have probably all ready sold since I’ve been waiting.

I even made an online complaint through their website on May 11th, still no reply received

I’m now living in the US and the best contact I have is the original agent on What’s App?

Very helpful & friendly team, also very knowledgeable.
A very big thank you to Oskar who made our experience great and easy in purchasing our Kuga, which we are really pleased with.
Also we would like to thank Jason and Finn for doing an excellent job.
We would certainly recommend you.

Well done Hartwell Reading an excellent team.

Dan and Colin made the new car purchase and handover experience fantastic. Thank you

I have put this as a 1 star as theres no zero stars. This is no longer a Ford dealership and is now BYD. Sadly the service and sales team havent improved over the years.

I had a very disappointing experience with a salesman. He initially misrepresented the price of the car, which already raised concerns about transparency.

Afterward, I emailed him requesting the registration number so I could carry out basic checks on the vehicle. He never responded. When I later visited the dealership and asked why my email was ignored, he claimed he was dealing with a bereavement and hadn’t been responding to any clients.

That explanation doesn’t match the earlier behaviour, and overall the experience felt dishonest and unprofessional. Whether it’s poor communication or something more deliberate, it completely undermined my trust.

As a result, I’ve lost confidence not just in this salesperson, but in the brand he represents. I would strongly advise others to double-check everything and proceed with caution.

Great service, done on time, updated through the day. Value for money

I strongly advise avoiding BYD Reading (Hartwell). My experience from placing a deposit to trying to get it back was an absolute masterclass in poor communication and sheer incompetence.

The False Promises & Shifting Dates:
On March 30th, I test-drove a BYD Seal Excellence with Xander Nowlan. I paid a £250 refundable deposit via Apple Pay but wasn’t given a single piece of paperwork to take home (my first red flag). When discussing a collection date, I suggested Saturday. Xander pushed for me to collect it the very next day (Tuesday), confidently claiming the dent repair, alloys, and service would all be finished by Tuesday morning. Since Tuesday didn't work for me, we agreed on Saturday.

Because Xander had assured me the car would be fully prepped by Tuesday morning, I called on Wednesday hoping to bring my collection forward. Suddenly, the story changed. Xander told me that because we had officially agreed on Saturday, they "weren't in a rush" to get the car ready. He then told me it was in for a service and I could collect on Friday instead, promising a callback with a time.

The Ghosting:
By Thursday, with no callback, I spoke to another salesman, Finn. Finn openly admitted the situation had been handled "totally unprofessionally”, the service and repairs hadn’t even been booked in. He claimed he did in 5 minutes what the showroom couldn't do, booked an urgent service, and confirmed a Saturday collection was now impossible. He promised to call me back the next day to confirm details. He never did.

Over the next few days, I tried calling repeatedly. If my caller ID was visible, it went straight to voicemail. If I hid my caller ID, they picked up immediately, only to tell me "Finn is with a customer, he'll call back." The callbacks never happened. I finally sent an email on Saturday to cancel the sale, which was completely ignored.

The Manager's Incompetence:
After a week of being ignored, I used their AI chatbot to finally get through to the Sales Manager, Jason Rowlands. Despite knowing about the situation, he had made no effort to contact me. When I demanded my refund, Jason insisted I had to physically drive to the dealership to process it because I had used Apple Pay.

I drove all the way there, only for the staff to process the refund immediately using just my card details. They openly admitted that Jason simply didn't understand the process and that my trip was entirely unnecessary.

To top it all off, after stringing me along, dodging my calls, and wasting my time making me drive in for no reason, the staff still had the audacity to try and "recover the sale"!

An incredibly unprofessional outfit from start to finish. Take your business elsewhere.

Having bought a BYD seal from this company at hereford branch, I experienced my first problem after mice/rats ate the fluid lines under the bonnet. Service was exceptional, and the matter was dealt with expeditiously and pleasantly. Well done, Hereford branch, great service.,