Use a different garage
We took our Mini Countryman to Sycamores service department, trusting that they were a reputable company, how wrong we were. The workmanship and customer service was diabolical! They have let us down miserably!
Our car stopped working, which turned out to be a failed timing chain. We asked Sycamores to quote for this and any other work that may need doing as a result of the timing chain failing. We were told it was going to cost £1500. We agreed for them to go ahead with the work. We then got informed that it was going to cost £5650, we were shocked by this. They said the £1500 was just to diagnose what the issue was with the car and this would have to be paid even if we didn't have the car repaired by them. (We have since found out that a diagnostic cost should only be between £90 - £170) We decided to proceed with the repair as they'd had the car stripped down for 2 months in total. On the day we were due to collect our car they said that the rocker cover was cracked and was going to cost a further £800. I questioned this, because the whole point of the £1500 diagnostic cost was to find out what needed doing, so we could make an informed decision on whether to get the work done. If we knew the cost kept rising we wouldn't have proceeded with the repair, as the cost was creeping up to the value of the car and it wasn't worth it. The customer advisor was extremely rude and unsympathetic. We said we would take it elsewhere to get the rocker cover done. We took it to another garage, they heard the car and said that there was something very seriously wrong with the engine, and it wasn't a case of just a replacement rocker cover needed. The car had a very loud rattling noise coming from deep within the engine. The other garage understandably didn't want to touch it, and advised us to take it back to Sycamores. We contacted them, but it was going to cost us more money just to have it checked, unless the noise was caused by a part that they had fitted.
I am disgusted by them, that I paid out £1500 for a diagnostic test and they obviously didn't diagnose the issue properly, and want to charge me more. I then paid for the repair, and I still have a car that i cannot even drive. They have completely ripped us off, and caused more damage to our car. We cannot afford to get our car working again and are considering selling it as it is.
10 December 2020
Unprompted review