Kwik-Fit Tyre & Exhaust Centres

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Many centres, atrractive setup
Disadvantages:	Shoddy after sales, workmanship not always upto standard, maybe dishonest

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Kwik fit with their signs and glorious advertising 'you can't get better than a Kwik fit fitter'- you'd think well, I must give them a try, because one of the beauties of Kwik Fit is that they are literally everywhere, yes literally everywhere. Last count there were at least 600 of them around the country. An attractive proposition if your looking for a garage. Or is it?

Kwit Fit, founded by Tom Farmer, and its first centre opened in Edinburgh in 1971. In 1999 it was bought by the Ford Motor Company for a cool £1bn only to be sold in 2002 to CVC Capital Partners and again in 2005 to the French company PAI Partners.

Kwik Fit prides itself on customer service, you notice this on their flyers which reads 'customer satisfaction' but with satisfaction struck through and replaced by 'delight' above. Question is, how far is this true?

Certainly, the availability of garages are not an issue. I live in North Birmingham, and I know there is one in Great Barr, Sheldon, Erdington, Walsall, Perry Barr etc. But is this enough? Also, some of the setups are not very busy while some are busy.

SETUP
Kwik fit generally do tyres, brakes, MOT's, servicing, exhausts, batteries and other bits and pieces. Only some of the large garages, do the MOT. There is generally 'waiting area' with sofa type seating with a drinks machine and toilet facilities and friendly staff. This clearly adds to the atmosphere of the 'feel good' factor. And staff are most certainly trained to capitalise on this.

STAFF
Blue uniforms. clean, friendly, courteous and professional when you first meet them. This is one thing that gives them the edge, since you wouldn't think that they'd been working on cars, because look clean and tidy.

CENTRE APPEARANCE
Clean and tidy - even the workshops have very little clutter, and if ever you wanted to inspect your car in the workshop, you find it a safe and clean (clean as garage could ever be) experience. As mentioned above, the customer waiting area is also clean.

Now the above, is all about customer first impressions and presentation is certainly delightful as the staff come on really friendly.

EXAMPLE
Perry Barr - VW brakes problem, needed new brake pads and since they had worn to the metal - discs were required as well. Time 4pm and I went to Kwik Fit wishing they'd be able to do it. Met the staff, friendly and using touch screen and book references they identified the brake pads and discs, and said to me they would be ready in an hour. Excellent! They even took my phone number to call me as soon as. They called me at 4.40pm that my vehicle was ready. They also informed me that these pads are good and a guaranteed to be replaced if they wear out. Delighted ? Yes, of course. So definitely, I drove away, new discs and pads for, if I remember just over £100.
So far so good>??? Read on!

10000 miles in, I could hear some rubbing in the brakes - I thought nothing of it since it was irregular, but it increased. Naturally, I went to Kwik Fit Perry Barr to have them checked. To my suprise, they turned me away saying it cannot be looked at now, to busy. This happened 5 times. Not only with Perry Barr, I could not get some of the others to look at them either.

Anyway, the brakes got worse and my worst fears, brake discs were materialising again. This time, I went to Perry Barr - again they didn't have the time and I then demanded to see the manager. When I exchanged a few words of disgust and told him the problem, he said he would like to check them. I thought finally! I'd get my brake pads replaced and discs would have survived. Read on!!

The manager didn't physically inspect the brakes, instead he insisted driving the vehicle around the block. I found this strange at first, because, surely checking brakepads, fluids etc can be inspected manually. Anyway, he drove and guess what - he drove at speed and applied emergency braking! I could hear screeching of metal tearing. After doing all that he said 'Yep, your is your brakes and brake discs, they've had it.' Read on!

Ok, so the manager, ruins your brake pads and discs at the same time to find what the problem is. Yep, ok I naturally would get them replaced free of charge woudn't I? Or would I ? This is what I found out. We are back at the garage, and the manager finds me a quote for new discs, pads. Whoa, what are they charging me for? !! I asked the manger to explain. He just said, 'your brake discs were already scrap before you came here', I then referred to first his careless driving and secondly to the guarantee. He refuted the 'careless driving' allegation and said the guarantee did not apply because I came in too late to get them checked!

By this point I was outraged. Kwik Fit were prepared to leave my vehicle damaged, disclaim themselves from any fault or guarantee, and happily do the job at full whack! I was speechless. The manager then turned away and started dealing with another customer. Read on- there's more .......

At this point I rang Kwik Fit customer services, explained the situation. Very helpful at first, and then rang the manager at the branch. To my horror, Kwik Fit were patronising me for not going to any of the local branches, but offered free brake pads, but not the discs. I also explained, the life of the pads and discs, why should they wear out so quick? No answer. So eventually I paid to sort them out.

A couple of months later- you guessed it, same problem. Brakes wearing out into my discs. Kwik Fit could not give me an answer and I was adament that they were not doing the job properly - moreover, they would not allow me to get the parts for them to fit.

This time, I was in no mood to argue with Kwik Fit, so I went to Euro Parts and bought front discs and pads and take it to another reputable place where I have had other work done. He fitted the discs and pads relatively cheaply, I thought this would be reckoning whether Kwik Fit were indeed doing it properly, or my vehicle is faulty or this other garage is dodgy as well??

6 months later, no problems with the brakes, 12 months later, no problem until I finally sold it after 20 months. Throughout that time it would have done around 60000 miles yet not a single issue with the brake pads or the discs.

So what do I conclude from this??

It doesn't sit well with me that, there were things going wrong, fitting or otherwise, and they could not be honest about it. Further, they were very 'Kwik' to have the brakes done and 'delight' me by doing so, but they were very poor when it came to 'after-sale' service.

But of greater importance, and worrying, is that a company the size of Kwik Fit can be capable of such malpractices. Hard testing already worn brakes, as a result of poor workmanship and/or parts and then blaming the customer, I mean this is the worst kind of service you may expect from a rogue trader.

SERVICING
For a basic oil and filter change, £23.95, if again everything is ok, its not bad. I once did this in Doncaster and the guys did it more or less there and then. Just had to turn off the service light (Kwik Fit will charge as the want you to a proper full service) but this can easily be done yourself manually if you know how (most garages will charge you). But again, some local Kwik Fit garages moan about this. They now say they need to order the filters in and usually wanting you to book it in.

All in all Kwik Fit is a company that over-tries in winning customer bases, but does nothing to retain them. If you don't have any problems with Kwit Fit's work on your vehicle, then probably you would value their service. But situations develop, and believe me there are many, beware!

RECOMMENDATION????
They certainly should not be anyone's first choice, if you want a big recognisable brand to record your service and workmanship and don't mind paying a premium - then a better choice would be National Auto-centres.
Kwik Fit in my view are all about PR and 'looking good'. It is almost as if when they do I good job they were 'lucky'. They specialise in exhausts amongst other things, and but they certainly are not experts in mechanics.
I would not recommend them, unless you know exactly what the problem is, and your Kwik Fit garage, can really be 'Kwik' and fix it there and then. Otherwise, stay well clear.