Drive Motor Retail Reviews 

2,247
TrustScore 3.5 out of 5

3.4

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Evaluating 156 reviews, most reviewers were somewhat happy with their experience overall. Many customers consistently praise the staff for being helpful, professional, and friendly, making the purchase or service process easy. People appreciate advisors who go above and beyond, providing excellent support and clear communication throughout their interactions. However, some customers also noted significant issues with communication and post-sales care, often experiencing a lack of proactive updates and delays. Several people reported poor after-sales support, needing to constantly chase for resolutions or finding their vehicles not ready as promised. A few reviewers also encountered problems with product quality, such as new cars breaking down or misrepresentation of vehicle specifications. Concerns were also raised regarding unexpected price increases after deposits and high service charges for minimal work.

What people talk about most

Service

Reviewers mention ambiguous feedback about service, with some customers praising individual staff members for... See more

Staff

Users describe positive interactions with staff, frequently highlighting their professionalism, helpfulness,... See more

Product

Consumers find product quality to be ambiguous, with many reporting significant issues shortly after... See more

Customer service

Customers had ambiguous experiences with customer service, with many expressing significant dissatisfaction.... See more

Price

Customers consistently note ambiguous experiences with price, with some reviewers expressing dissatisfaction... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

I can't fault the process up until the point of sale. After the sale, I had to do considerable chasing and was always needing to be proactive. There wasn't any proactivity with comms on the pa... See more

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

I visited the Scarborough site on Saturday and was met by Matthew Kilby. He was extremely polite and welcoming and could not do enough to help. he organised a test drive and once safely back in the s... See more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Do not get involved with the heavy discounts on Vauxhall corsa.it is basically a con!if you take the £4000 discounted price it does not include the 0% finance,you have to pay 9.9% interest!!!never eve... See more

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Purchased Seat Arona, dealt with sales rep Carl Boothby at the Hessle dealership. The car was advertised at a very competative price compared to others in our local area, arranged a viewing and was i... See more


Company details

  1. Car dealer
  2. Car service

Written by the company

Drive Motor Retail - Dealers for New & Used Cars, Vans, Motability & Servicing The nation’s premier Vauxhall, MG and Citroen dealer; Drive Motor Retail have a network of dealerships located across England in the North East, South West, East Anglia & the Midlands. We are very proud of the many years of experience we have enjoyed in the automotive industry which has been built upon an absolute commitment to delivering the very best customer care, each and every time you visit or contact a Drive Motor Retail Garage.


Contact info

3.4

Average

TrustScore 3.5 out of 5

2k reviews

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No recent history of asking for reviews

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Replied to 3% of negative reviews

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3.4

All reviews

(2,247)

148 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

If I could give this company zero I…

If I could give this company zero I would.
You can never talk to anyone at the Hull branch as your main call goes to a call centre, To be fair to the people at the call centre are very nice but this is where the problems start. Purchased a brand new Hyundai car in March 2025 and I have been sent a reminder that my service is due, 15th Sept 2025, Only thing is it is not due while the back end of Feb 2026, Tried calling and never got any call back two times. Now going back to Reid Hyundai in Grimsby at least you get an excellent customer service. As for Drive, needs to look at directing the calls direct to the franchise and do away with the call centre.

15 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Love the car

Love the car, our first Hybrid, and automatic, after sales service, they state they are very proud of good customer service, but the actions don’t live up to the statement, if you have anything , you think is wrong with the car, they’ll investigate, if nothing found you get a nice bill, a bit of plastic trim broken , warranty doesn’t seem to cover that, where as KIA , job done , no bother, I filled in the, after a visit survey, saying not to pleased, they say, a person would contact me, still waiting nearly 3 weeks later, would I use them again, very much doubtful.

28 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

We purchased a hyundai i10 n line from…

We purchased a hyundai i10 n line from Scarborough. Excellent communication from start to finish. Aaron Scott was our dealer, he sent a video to introduce himself and to show us the car we wished to purchase. Transaction was straightforward and we collected the car two days later. Would highly recommend. We were warmly greeted and staff were friendly and helpful.

13 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Avoid! Especially Stockton

Would leave zero stars if possible - poor experience with Stockton. Agreed to deliver car on flatbed but arrived driven with excessive mileage added and litter left inside. Worse still, car was delivered with an empty fuel tank and it cut out 20m from the delivery address. Rude GM (Dan), whose approach seemed to be that, as I had apparently got a good deal on the car, genuine issues could be ignored. Agreed to take car back, and then took seven days to issue a refund. GM apparently unaware refund was outstanding, despite having been sent a number of emails. Appalling.

21 August 2025
Unprompted review
Drive Motor Retail logo

Reply from Drive Motor Retail

I’m sorry for the experience you’ve described. While errors can occur, it’s our job to put them right quickly. The car should have arrived as agreed (on a flatbed), clean, and with sufficient fuel—falling short is unacceptable. We collected the vehicle, processed a full refund within seven days, and also offered to reimburse your fuel.

I’m very surprised to hear you felt our GM was rude; that’s not the standard we expect. We’ve addressed your feedback with the team and tightened our processes (delivery method locked on the order, pre-delivery checks and photos, and faster refund sign-off) to prevent a repeat.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great car buying experience

From the start the salesmen were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Kevin was great explaining, giving advice and had lots of knowledge about different models. He carried out all aspects of the sale , clearly and smoothly. Thank you.

10 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Very good experience at MG Weston super mare

My experience at Drive MG Weston Super Mare was very good. The car I have purchased is just what we need and wanted. Neil at MG was very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable about the car I purchased. Explained everything thoroughly during the process to buy the car. Would highly recommend.

2 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

From the minute I met Gaynor the…

From the minute I met Gaynor the Motability rep I could tell I was in good hands. She was very informative and knowledgeable on my vehicle of choice. Gaynor shone through as a people person and was more than happy to take my questions and answered them fully. I would have no hesitation in recommending Gaynor and drivemotorretail to anyone.

26 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Jose Hidalgo from Drive Ipswich

Jose Hidalgo from Drive Ipswich ,
Wonderful service from Jose Hidalgo at Vauxhall. Insists on everything being spot on and tge customer definitely comes first with him. Well done

22 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

We were buying a Jag

We were buying a Jag. We sat in it inspected it. The salesman drove our car we were sitting in the dealership going through figures ready to buy. Then a salesman who had watched the whole thing as we were the only ones in came up and said we’re the keys I have sold it. What he really meant he rang a customer who had take 2 days to decide to accept the part ex price up and told them if he didn’t put a deposit on it it was gone. Sales manager hide in his office and the other salesman ran into the other room leaving our guy to explain it to us. E-mailed them to complain not even a sorry. Flipping awful company. No scruples. Would buy a pint of milk if them. Diabolical.

12 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Bad Experience At Drive Vauxhall Leamington Spa

Took my VW Tiguan into drive vauxhall Leamington Spa due to clutch issues (pedal was sticking and sometimes stuck to the floor which i had to lift up with my foot, occasionally i couldn't select a gear) took the car back to vauxhall because that's where i bought the car and also had an extending warranty from them, they supposedly checked the car and took for a test drive and said they couldn't see a problem with it, i said fair enough I'll see how it goes in the next few weeks, over this time the clutch got steadily worse again with the same issues, so i took the car back to vauxhall again, left the car with them with the clutch pedal stuck to the floor, they checked the problem again with a test drive and inspection on the ramp, they admitted the pedal was stuck to the floor and reckoned it was okay after that and there were no leaks, that rang me back and said they had no idea what the problem was and suggested it must be a problem peculiar to VW, initially i had to pay an inspection fee of £110 plus vat which I agreed to because i knew there was a definite problem and I'd be reimbursed through the warranty, so that was a load of money wasted.
I took the car to an independent garage and they found the problem within 30 mins (clutch master slave cylinder) so why vauxhall mechanics couldn't find the problem is just baffling, i can only assume they couldn't be bothered to do a proper examination and it was to much bother, it seems they're only interested in doing servicing and finding faults on a code reader.
Having being a loyal customer of Drive Vauxhall for many years i feel totally let down and have no reason to use this company again.

9 June 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great for EV service and MOT

We struggled to find a local garage that could service our Renault Zoe EV but Drive Motor Retail provided an excellent service. We had helpful and honest advice about how long we could leave MOT advisory work. All staff were professional. We would definitely return to them again in the future.

24 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Don’t buy MG Cars i have made a big mistake to buy this brand alot of my friends have bad experience with mg dealerships

Avoid MG & Drive Vauxhall Leicester – Worst After-Sales Experience
I already posted a review when this issue started – now it’s been 25 days and they are still playing games. My MG HS 2022 has been stuck at Drive Vauxhall Leicester for a grinding noise (likely gearbox issue). No written report, no explanation for the delay, no repair timeline – and they refuse to provide one.

I even have proof they promised a courtesy car for long repairs under warranty – but in my case, they refuse. When questioned, they say “we are Vauxhall, we just took the MG dealership” – yet they still sell and repair MG cars while providing this shocking level of service.

Now, instead of actually fixing the issue, they replied to one of my reviews telling me to contact Thomas Abbott so he will help me. Why should I be the one chasing them and MG head office all the time? If they cared, they’d contact me first.
Calls, visits, and speaking to MG Customer

Service (Ajay, Harry) have gone nowhere. This has caused me financial loss, stress, and a total loss of trust.

If this is how MG and this dealership treat customers, think twice before buying MG or trusting Drive Vauxhall Leicester.

28 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Drive BSE Experience

After a bad experience 10 years + with drive it was a completely different team now Lucas and Conner were first class pleased with my new Astra only thing was a very poor standard off valet/polish on collection the sales manager was very apologetic and stated this is way below our standard booked in for a re valet /deep clean next week apart from that was looked after well recommended

2 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

SHAMBOLIC COMPANY

As always starts so well placing order but then communication was awful. Car will be ready Tuesday 15/7/25 I was told. Was asked for driving licences on the Monday for ID purposes and for V5 to be in the name and address of Anne. I arranged transport to uplift car late Tuesday. Received phone call on the Tuesday transport here but not paid for car, very true as no one had sent payment information to enable payment. Payment info then sent and I made immediate payment. Transport company kindly returned to uplift car but as it turned out car was not ready. Car was dropped off next day and was filthy had not been properly valeted or prepared. I complained and finally sent £50 for valet but cost me £75 plus the time wasted. V5 then arrived with wrong address and this was after I phoned to check it would be correct but no it wasn't. My emails are ignored now but this is typical of shockingly poor communication from Drive Motor Retail, I could write so much more but cut it as short as I could, Would I recommend? Certainly not. Would I buy car from them again. Most certainly not!
Avoid buying car from this company as the service and communication is awful.

18 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Shocking experience at Drive Nuneaton

Shocking experience at Drive Nuneaton. Investigation required for serious loss of power while driving. They changed parts that didn't need changing charged me an arm and a leg and the problem did not get fixed. All they do is look for fault codes if not they can only do speculative repairs, not prepared to do manual investigations and even offered to do another speculative replacement and charge me again. My car is still a risk to me and other drivers and it makes you wonder if many accidents are due to dodgy companies like these. Escalation process going on and will be speaking to the road safety experts about this poor and unethical practice.

1 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Vehicle Returned With Steering Fault After Airbag Recall

After airbag recall-related work on my Citroën at Drive Vauxhall Hartlepool, the vehicle developed a dangerous steering fault linked to the steering angle sensor — a safety-critical component located beneath the airbag, which was removed during the recall.

Disturbingly, no evidence was provided that basic safety checks were performed before the vehicle was returned to me:

No technician record of the fault

No diagnostic log confirming a reset

No signed road test

No service log entry, despite recalibration of a critical component

These documentation gaps raise serious questions about the repair process. I have raised the issue multiple times, including with senior staff. Referral to Citroën UK, the DVSA, and other authorities is now being considered.

Safety should come before procedure or reputation.

"Citroën should be ashamed this dealer is representing them..."

24 July 2025
Unprompted review

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