Now here is a blast from the past. What has happened? I am now 40, and found myself at a loose end, ...
Now here is a blast from the past. What has happened? I am now 40, and found myself at a loose end, so I thought I would pick up my opinionating pen again. Will pop in from time to time and write stuff.
Enjoy!
Nolly
Member since:27.04.2001
Reviews:136
Members who trust:16
Well, I had better begin by claiming an interest here, hadn't I? I was first introduced to St Leonards Motors of Hastings by my brother, who at the time was working in their sales department. In total, my family has bought several cars from them, including:
1 Fiat Bravo 1 Fiat Punto 1 Fiat Uno 2 Fiat Tipos 1 Fiat Croma
So you can see that we have bought over the entire range, both new and used. I can seriously say that, with my hand on my heart, they are a very friendly, not in the least bit pushy or overbearing, and accommodating dealership.
As you drive up Harley Shute Road from the A259 and turn left at the roundabout at the top, you zip down a little hill (hills, oh how I miss hills now that I live in Lincolnshire- you see fell walkers queuing to go over a speed hump round here!) and turn right into Churchwood Drive. You can't really miss the showroom, seeing that there is a ruddy great aeroplane on a pole in their grounds. The dealership used to only deal with Fiat on the site, but has since added Alfa Romeo and Nissan to its roll of honour.
Anyway, let's look at the dealers in terms of various attributes:
SETTING
As I said, on the northern edge of the twin towns of Hastings and St Leonards on Sea, a bus ride from the town centre, about 3 miles I would say. The setting is quite nice, although there is an industrial estate nearby. There is also a large Tesco Superstore 5 minutes away by foot along Churchwood Drive, so if you are staying a while (they normally look at servicing or fixing any car), you could nip in there and have a cheap breakfast, buy a newspaper, add to your DVD collection, buy a lottery ticket and do the week's shopping, though how you will manage to carry all that back I don't know!
SALES
This is always a tricky one with car dealers. Are they being genuinely friendly or are they considering their profits more? You never can tell, but I must say that SLM never ever tried to sell me or my loved ones a car we didn't want. Indeed they will often try to locate a car if they don't have quite what you want (Chieftain Tanks being especially hard to source, apparently!).
They also have a good selection of Used and Nearly New stock.
Finance is provided by an in-house specialist if that is what you want. They deal with major finance companies, but normally with Fiat Finance, with whom I never had any trouble whatsoever.
The one thing I felt is that they let you take your time to reach a decision. They don't push a certain model. Let's face it, if you don't like what you buy you won't want to buy again, so brand loyalty is an important facet of the company's ethos, apparently.
SERVICING
Well, they serviced me several times! I even took non Fiat Cars there because of the good service. The staff are courteous and explain what is going on in layman's terms. Coffee is available and they also do MOT tests.
My funniest recollection is when there was severe flooding in Hailsham- I had had to drive home to Eastbourne throught he flood waters and water had gone up my exhaust pipe- it certainly brought tears to my eyes, I can tell you. I took my poorly Fiat Tipo to SLM and the diagnosis was cooked spark plugs, not exactly a tasty delicacy. The parting shot from Graham and Carl at the desk was:
"Neil, next time you want to wash your car, by all means do it, but don't do it by driving along the beach again, okay?"
That sums them up. They are a friendly dealership who still have that human touch, which in my view is all too rare nowadays.
The group has a Fiat dealership in Eastbourne and also has Toyota and Vauxhall garages in the Hastings and Bexhill areas.
Neil
September 2002
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: small cruiser that any legal rider can ride. price isn't too bad if you look around , looks and sounds great,makes heads turn Disadvantages: could go a little faster
kelly54 13.06.2001 ·
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Sep 17th, 2002
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