Honda HoldCroft - www.holdcrofthonda.co.uk

Firstly the Civic , we purchased a brand new Civic and traded in our 2016 Toyota Auris 1.4d Business Edition, we wanted an EX grade however there were apparanelty some issues around what the car was valued at which would have meant we would have needed to put down I believe over £3000 in addition to the deposit for the vehicle, we settled on a lower trim level and asked for the Heated seats from an EX to be installed into the SR vehicle as part of the purchase.

We also asked for a set of He-Man dual controls to be installed into the vehicle as it would be used by my wife who's a driving instructor, these are required for her work - and we've used the He-Man sets of dual controls in every car we've had for over 10 years with no issues nor fuss.

The offer letter for the car was printed and said "Heated Seats" & "Dual Controls", to which we queried in both cases with the sales exec at the time - You ARE fitting the EX heated seats and HE-MAN dual controls right? That's what we asked for, the sales exec assured us not to worry about it not being fully described on the offer letter as he would be dealing with the installation and as we'd told him what we wanted in detail during the discussions he knew what kit we wanted installing in the vehicle.

We also queried the service interval on the vehicle, we were told it was to be 10,000 miles which was the same as the Auris, that's good as it meant we wouldn't be spending more on servicing, I quickly asked the parts team to price up a service kit as we took the Auris to an independent garage for servicing and used a genuine service kit, they told me the Civic was on a 6000 mile service schedule not 10,000.

I queried this with the sales and service team who assured me it's 10,000.

Fast forward to the day of collection and the sales exec informs both my wife and I that he received an email THAT MORNING stating the service intervals were now 6000 not 10,000 - not what was said originally.

In addition when we looked over the car we found that the heated seat switches were missing from the dash (under the touch screen), I asked the sales exec where they were, and he said down at the bottom of the seat - I said why aren't they in the dash like they're supposed to be? His response was because they're aftermarket, you didn't think you were getting Honda ones did you? I'm utterly floored at this point as the dealership hasn't fitted what I asked, despite me querying this on the offer letter and being assured what we asked for was what was going to be fitted, both my wife and I were party to the conversation with the sales exec.

I took a closer look over the car and found the switches for the aftermarket seats weren't even sitting into the seat, they were falling out, in addition the wiring to power the heated seat was falling out of the centre console (near the handbrake switch), which I had to push back under the centre console to prevent it getting caught on the seat runners and potentially damaging the system if it shorted to the steelwork on the seats.

My wife reports that the dual controls have seized, the brake pedal is now on the floor and won't move. She calls the dealership to be palmed off with a response from the same sales exec who sold us the car that essentially said call the installer directly, what do you want me to do? Which she did, however shouldn't have had to as the contract for installing those dual controls is with the dealership, we're not directly involved with the installer.

Anyway she called the installer who said oh yeah they get stuck sometimes, you need to move a swivel switch.

Now at this point note we've had HE-Man dual controls for over 10 years with no issues nor fuss, never had a problem and most certainly they've never seized on any car we've had - as it's a huge safety issue if your car starts to emergency stop on it's own!

My wife managed to free up the dual controls, however this happened 2-3 more times and during this time I'd engaged the dealership to find out what's happening with the controls, as I was on site most weeks due to my Honda Accord needing more warranty work (it's needed a LOT which is still ongoing!) I was told by the new car sales manager that he wasn't sure what was happening with the duals but the guy they used was reputable and approved, so I asked for his details.

I received the details at the end of the day after having to ask a few times to get a response, it was at this point I found they'd used a random man-in-a-van, so I called HE-Man directly to see if he worked for them as an approved installer, they confirmed in email (attached) that he's not one of their approved installers.

So at this point we'd asked for HE-Man dual controls and genuine heated seats from the EX Grade civic and we've received aftermarket heated seats alongside a dual control kit that hasn't been installed or approved by HE-Man - i spoke to the dealer principal who said to me:

"Because you're so fussy with the kit you have in the car, you contact He-Man and sort it out and I'll pay for it"

(Amazingly when I brought this quote up on site last week he's now arguing he never said that)

Which I did, I contacted HE-Man and asked them for a list of installers near me and the price on a kit for the new shape Civic.

He-Man told me there was no kit for the Civic yet, as they'd not manufactured one, and they'd need a vehicle for 6 weeks to do so.

So now we've got incorrect heated seats installed, along with dual controls installed by an unapproved installer that aren't even a HE-Man product!

I’d note here that driving instructors use specialised motor vehicle insurance, a lot of which WONT insurance the vehicle if they aren’t using official HeMan dual controls – which isn’t a bad thing as they represent quality reliability and safety, they’re controlling the brake and clutch of the car, they have to be in perfect working order and made properly otherwise you’re putting people’s lives at risk.

I spoke to the 2 closest installers alongside speaking with HeMan on what else could be fitted to a vehicle, and at this point they gave me two numbers of fitters and only one option - to fit what's called a general purpose kit, which is a prototype kit that needs to be adapted to the floor pan of the vehicle.

I took the car down to meet the installer, who looked at the existing kit and immediately managed to pull the brake pedal off of the car, it wasn't even bolted in place, he proceeded to look over the driver’s side and noticed the clutch cable was starting to fray (this is a fairly hefty steel cable), he advised that the installation wasn't fit for purpose and he would not advise to continue driving the car, stating the car only had 1-2 months of life left in that kit before it failed and potentially damaged the car - note at this point every time the dual controls failed in the vehicle they caused the car to come to an emergency stop, putting the life of both my wife, her pupil and other road users at risk.

At this point we’ve had the general purpose kit installed and it appears to work OK, however I mentioned to both the dealer and finance company that I was reluctant to look into this option as it wasn’t a production kit, and my sneaking suspicion was that should I have this installed, the dealership would write off the safety critical aspect of my complaint, which they have done insisting they’ve fixed the problem, which they haven’t – I’ve had to fix everything myself, organise the fitting, speak to the company, meet with installers, take the car to Birmingham for the day (so I lost a day’s wage there in addition to my wife), and even though we’ve now got a HeMan kit, it still wasn’t what we asked for, it should have been a production kit, not a kit that’s had to be modified for it to fit properly as I’m sure you’d appreciate it wouldn’t look the same, and for a £24000 car I wanted everything to be as it should have been, a factory car, with factory seats and a factory approved he man dual control kit – something the dealership should have made me aware of during the sales process and did not.

I managed to find out who they’d used to fit the heated seats and the dealer principles issue was the installed seats were a 2 stage heating system and the EX civic is a 3 stage, and they weren’t compatible, of which I replied I asked for genuine ones, this isn’t my concern, fix it – they refused. They offered to move the switches anywhere else if it was suitable, which it was not as my issue was that it wasn’t a genuine kit.

I came up with a compromise arrangement, the installer they used make both a 2 stage and 3 stage heating system, if a 3 stage system was fitted instead, the installer (and I’ve spoken to them and confirmed this already, however the price would be over £720) could make use of the genuine Honda heated seat switches and replace the small plastic section over the heater controls which doesn’t currently have the switch blanks present, and this would give me a set of seats that look as close to OEM as possible, as Honda rejected the fitting of a complete EX setup as it would cost too much money – they refused to even investigate what parts they’d need to replace and what the cost would be, it was an outright refusal without investigating.

At this point I asked the question on why the offer of a 3 stage system wasn’t given to me during the sales process, why a 2 stage when the EX Civic has a 3 stage system as standard? It’s almost as if again if they’d have told me this I would have quickly realised they weren’t using genuine parts.

Honda rejected this offer and their final response to me has been to replace the SR seats with a new set which aren’t modified and to refund the £600 it cost them to put the 2 stage heated seats into the vehicle – which isn't what we asked for - complaint has now been escalated to the Holdcroft Group.

Please stay away from holdcroft. Nothing but poor salesmen with no concept of empathy or customer values. Brought a car and after the battery was poorly connected I was told to 'roll the dice' by the franchise manager if I wanted to take it further. Utterly shameful and if you think about using them, please consider one of the many many other reputable companies out there on the same road or town

Terrible service and poor quality vehicles! Avoid take you money elsewhere!

1. Brought an approved used car with FULL service history... 3 months on still no service book and we have had to report Holdcroft to Honda UK in an attempt to help us resolve this as we are unable to get anything out of the sales rep that sold us the vehicle.

2. The "Honda 30 day exchange policy" promise Holdcroft refused to honor. The vehicle we purchased was checked over by our trusted garage that we have used for over 10 years... Their words "Take it back". We took it back to Holdcrofts the same day along with the list of faults they had found and Holdcroft Honda's reply "there is nothing wrong with the car this garage is lying" why would they lie, what benefit would it be to the garage to lie?? We then asked to exchange the vehicle for a £2000 more expensive model, this was within 14 days of picking it up (only actually having it to drive for 5 days due to the amount of issues) and the manager point blank refused to allow us to swap the car.

3. The "Honda Multi Point Pre Sales Check" for "peace of mind"... well if the "unrivalled quality" of this car sets the standard then it is god help other Honda owners. The issues with paintwork which we were promised would be rectified for when we picked the car up were not so for the first 7 days of owning the car Holdcrofts had it for 5 of them days. Then there was the mechanics of the vehicle...unsafe and certainly not fit for purpose. Holdcrofts response "there is nothing wrong with it" feel free to sent it to Honda Crewe. Yes well that would be because they also own Honda Crewe... of course they wont find anything wrong with it.

Only after we brought the car did we find out that it had been brought at auction as they had accidentally left the auction slip in the car and was not a part ex which we had been previously told.

We understand things can happen, things can go wrong but it is how issues are dealt with that make a difference. Being lied to, fobbed off, ignored and spoken to like dirt are not the way to build a good reputation. If there was nothing wrong with the vehicle then why not allow us to pay the extra money and have the more expensive Civic knowing that they could always sell it on. The truth is they knew there were issues with the car and the did not want it back as they knew they would not be able to sell it.

We were warned by a previous customer that Holdcroft are "a bunch of cowboys" but we thought it maybe a one off. Turns out it wasn't our poor experience is mirrored by alot of people and considering the purchase of a car is a big expense for a lot of people you need to be able to trust the garage you purchase it from. To me Holdcroft Honda and Holdcroft vehicles on a whole is not a trustworthy company.

You have been warned...

Had a car battery fitted, at a discount price which was very good indeed.

Mentioned that the battery was dirty looking, they told me what did I inspect they didn't charge for fitting as it was heavily discounted , and the batteries come like that from Honda, which is fair enough I suppose, they were just a bit rude about it.