Diesels Direct Reviews 22

Bought the car back in Jan 2026 with 62,421 miles on it. It has now done just under 63,500 and that includes the delivery mileage of 360 miles.

This is a list of things that where faulty and what I have spent to have it repaired:
1. Ex police car and where police drilled through the roof under the roof rails to fit lights, the holes had been left unsealed. Got in the car one day and noticed a pool of water behind the drivers seat and the rear seats absolutely soaked - £100
2. Cannot recode the car to switch on/off certain options, like indicators when locking/unlocking.
3. Engine warning light indicating excess oil level caused by diesel getting in. Faulty injectors, replaced all 6 injectors - £2,200
4. Rocker cover leaking oil. Replaced rocker cover - £350
5. Had a service redone that the dealer said had been done. Didn't trust that the dealer had done it - £350
6. Air-con not functioning - £150
7. There are many other diagnostic faults that I am sure will cost me further.

So far I have spent an extra £3,150 and have driven approximately 700 miles in it in 4 months (it's been in the garage for 3 weeks of that), value for money and reliability has been very poor!

Dealer provided a warranty through Blue Chip Warranty. It is their Premium level warranty and is not worth the paper it is written on. Rocker cover - Not covered, Injectors - Cover for 1 Injector only to a max value of £250. What a joke and that's their highest level of cover "Premium", Ha!

So I bought the car in good faith and it has cost me dearly. I cannot believe that the faults above wouldn't have been known by the dealer before they sold it to me.

So a word of warning, if you do decide to buy from this dealer, be very careful, check everything works, get a cheap diagnostic app and check for fault codes.

Wish I could give it zero
My friend bought a six-year-old used 4x4 from them last month first day of owning it Daytime running lights stopped working. Dealer says “well what do you expect for a used car if you wanted everything working, you should’ve bought new”
Had to go through the warranty company to get them to fix it
Two weeks later it wouldn’t start a few days after that managed to get it started but would not stay running longer than 20 seconds. The car is a complete lemon won’t start and if it does manage to start, it immediately stalls and the dealer is washing his hands of it.
Dealers refusing a refund won’t answer calls won’t answer. Emails won’t answer messages my friend now going through the warranty company again hopefully he’ll be able to get it fixed all his money back because at the moment the car is a paperweight because it doesn’t work at all
Save yourself some time do not buy any cars from here they are shady as hell

Had a problem with the sat-nav sd card missing when we bought our Audi A1 from Diesels Direct. Being an Audi, it was costly to purchase a new card, and to have it activated by the main dealer, but they did not quibble and met the cost of both, for which we are extremely grateful. I would not hesitate to recommend this company.

After spending 40yrs in the motor trade and having purchased 1000’s of cars for the leasing company I worked for, retirement found me on my own to find and a car and supplier that I could trust. In the past, I’d never dealt with Diesels Direct, but they were offering a number of vehicles in which I was interested. I visited the Lowestoft location and was very impressed as no one tried to sell me anything, but were happy to go into as much detail about the vehicles I fancied. Anyway, I dragged my heels and somebody bought my first choice car. Just a week later, they had a new vehicle came into stock that actually, I preferred to the car I missed, so off to the site to see the car. Not wanting to lose this car, the dealer said they would put it on hold for a couple of days to make my mind up.

I ended up buying the car and needed to work to a tight time line, but they pulled all the stops out and the car was mine and on time.

Having worked in the trade, I was mega impressed with the care and kindness they showed me and frankly, nothing was too much trouble. Funny that probably the last car I’ll ever buy, came from one of the best dealers I’ve ever used. No pressure in any way and you don’t get sold a car, but you buy a car.

So well done and a big thanks to Barry & Paul for putting up with me…….

Saw a vehicle we liked that was due in, phoned the company and Barry was great explained everything and would let us know when it arrived, without taking a holding deposit, true to his word he let us know it was in, went to visit,let us take it for a test drive on our own,we were given a good price for our trade in vehicle.Barry wasn't at all pushy and must admit it was the best experience in car buying in all my 40yrs of driving. I certainly would use this company for my next vehicle.
Thank you Barry 😊

This is a really shady company. I was emailing to Stockton regarding filling a 55 gallon drum and they replied that this would be fine. I said that I could bring the drum to them as they were only about 20 miles away in San Jose, but no not necessary. There was zero mention of several major hidden costs. It turns out that the diesel ended up costing over $12 a gallon.
First charge is that they did not mention that the minimum was 75 gallons. So additional charge here.
Second charge was for $299 for delivery from 20 miles away however I was charged $379 which they refuse to explain. I really wonder where the extra $80 came from.
They are very friendly and stab you in the back if you aren’t careful. I would have been well off getting my diesel from a gas station.

I strongly do not recommend this company. Very much an unethical company with hidden fees.

Bought a Ford mondeo from them, unfortunately it had a couple of problems.
I was really impressed by the way the dealt with it. They bent over backwards to try and rectify they unfortunately couldn’t sort the issue out even by sending it to the the Ford dealer,
Eventually they gave up and swapped it for another mondeo, this one runs perfectly,I won’t hesitate to recommend these.
Glen, Paul and James couldn’t have been more helpful. I highly reccomend Diesels Direct for anyone looking for a quality motor,

Surprise they sell any cars when they don’t come back to you after inquiring about certain things

In a World where we often find ourselves looking over our shoulders to look out for what might be coming up behind us to bite us on the rear so to speak "Diesels Direct" have never been anything but the opposite...Solid, Reliable and true to their word when it comes to aftercare!!!
Having first bought 8years or so ago then again last September 2022 I personally can only highly recommend these guys as a dealership to buy from with "Faith"

Happy Customer!
Luke L from Harlow, Essex

Great service! Lovely car would highly recommend.

Visited these guys last week and collected my car today! very helpful and knowledgeable. I was able to test drive 3 cars before I made my final decision. They offered me a very fair price on my part exchange and I was given a 6 months warranty for peace of mind. Car was all freshly valeted on collection. Great business example keep up the hard work! A**

Total lack of honesty and have no interest what effect this has on the integrity or reputation such reports have on them.
I arranged a test drive with Diesels Direct of a car that I liked the look of. My wife and I arrived at the show room 5 minutes before the Test drive was due to start to find the car was sitting indoors and needed to be brought out. When the sales man moved the car, I noticed that there was a small oil stain about 3 inches in size where the car had been. We took the car out for a test and found it to be very nice. I asked the sales man to return the car to the garage so I could check underneath. I noticed that whilst we were on the test drive, he had wiped the stain from the garage floor, on mentioning it he said that he had only swept the floor.
I checked underneath but could not see the sump or sump plug due to the engine undertray and spoke to Glen who stated that it was probably the oil plug seal and also agreed that it was not possible to see the sump due to the undertray. I also pointed out that the undertray was not fitted properly and that a bolt needed tightening. I checked under the bonnet and noticed that the oil level was good but that the oil looked old and black. Glen then checked the service record and stated that the service was due and that if I wanted the car, they would get it done. I agreed with Glen that if the service was done, a fresh MOT provided, a stain cleaned that I noticed on the boot carpet and the oil leak checked and sorted I would take the car. After Glen making a phone call discussing my request, they promised that it would all be done and it would be ready for collection at the week end. I agreed and paid the deposit.
I phoned on Friday afternoon and was told that the MOT had been done but due to the arrival of his sons (who does the servicing) baby the service was being done at another local car dealer. I did not see a problem with this and agreed to pick the car up on the following day. On arrival on Saturday the car was sitting ready so I went in and got the paperwork sorted, with Paul who said that he had washed it and it was ready. I checked the service book and noticed that he had stamped the service with his own Diesel Direct stamp. When I got home, I checked the oil and found that it was at the same level exactly as it was before the service and that the oil was black and looked like it had not been changed. I phoned him and he started getting annoyed and said that the service had been done and that I was calling him a liar, which at this stage I had not. I decided not to mention that the stain in the boot had not been cleaned and hung up the phone. I later checked and found another oil puddle leak on the ground outside my garage where the car had been parked. On looking underneath, I immediately noticed that the engine undertray was missing.
The next phone call I made was to discuss the undertray and apologise to Paul reference my servicing doubts. He assured me he would get back to me within 24 hours with reference to the undertray. 48 hours later I phoned him as no reply was forthcoming, he once again started getting upset and stating that there was never an undertray fitted to the car. I explained that Glen the first sales man had stated that he could not see the sump plug because of the undertray in front of myself and my wife. He said he had spoken to Glen and that he had also said that there was no undertray fitted. At this stage I did call him a Liar. He then continued to tell me that he had spoken to a main Vauxhall dealer and that they had told him that my model had never been fitted with an engine undertray so they could not provide him with one.
I decided to phone the same Vauxhall dealer and was told that the undertray for my model was item reference NO: OE 13239596 and could be ordered and be with them in 3 days at a cost of £230.
Do yourself a favour and do not even think of buying a vehicle from Diesel Direct in Lowestoft. I wish I had taken more time and checked the other reports on Trustpilot about this company, rather than just reading the ones they have published on their own website. My bad, stupid mistake.

If i could leave nil star i would have done. Phoned about couple of cars as i needed one urgent and was told both had sold but has one the same coming in and would phone and email me as soon as it arrived. The car went from arriving first thing to the afternoon to just needing a quick wash, although i phoned couple of times i never got a call back or any photos left me in a right mess as i lost time waiting for them, now bought car from another garage who couldnt be more helpful. DO NOT TRUST WHAT THIS GARAGE TELLS YOU.

Found a car I liked on their website, called Diesels Direct and spoke to James who was very helpful and easy to talk to on the phone, he offered me a walk round video of the car as I lived over 100 miles away.
we agreed to buy after seeing the walk round video, was a little worried about buying so far from home but I'm so glad I did! Th car was in beautiful condition, totally as described and they even gave the car a full service! very impressed with the whole experience.

Customer Care dreadful..
I needed a quick cash purchase of their vehicle.
Took four days to complete ..
No negotiation regarding the price of the Diesel Direct vehicle.
Could not even deliver on a Saturday even though I offered to take the driver to the local train station .

So disappointed. 67 Reg Renault Clio
Reserved car. (Non refundable deposit paid but not told non refundable) and courier went to collect.
On the eBay site the full description omitted the fact that the front passenger wheel had been scratched as well as various scratches and chips (all seen on video with courier as we did a look around) all over car including bonnet chips, door scratches. Apparently at 3 years old I should, and I quote, ‘expect this kind of wear and tear’. However, I DO NOT and would have expected these scratches to have been taken care of for me. At the very least the description and photos of the ‘perfect’ car should maybe have also mentioned or shown the marks. This would avoid ‘false’ selling of a product.
Generally, the FULL eBay description omitted any description of any marks on the car and also failed to state non refundable deposit either when I paid.
I spoke to various people there and no one told me anything other than there were a ‘couple of marks’ on it.
Wholly disappointing and unprofessional. At least I’ve only lost £300 and not got a disappointing and falsely described vehicle about to be delivered which I’m certain they would have washed their hands of, had I phoned up to complain.
Rude and defensive on the phone. Avoid.
👎🏻

I drove over 200 miles to purchase a car that was claimed to be excellent. I specifically had them walk around the car whilst I was on the phone also taking pics and videos to be sure of its condition before I traveled.
They failed to be honest of its condition and on arrival and test drive I discovered crucial benefits of the car did not work and the the condition was not as discribed.
They simply said go and buy else where after I made all this effort to retrieve there dishonest opinion of there car.
They also said that’s your view of the condition.
I had asked for any mark, scuff or stone chips no matter how small so I can build a picture whether it’s worth the journey but they lied it was caked in marks.
A true stereo typical lying sales team.
I walked away refusing to put a penny in the company’s pocket not that they give a dam.
Stay away from the dishonest company.

Easy to deal with, understood what type of deal I was looking for. Made some minor adjustment's on the car I was buying like replacement tyre, checking the air con and giving a service with new MOT. Said they would sell my car on ebay (which they did). Father and son business and responded to any call I made and were very helpful. Can only speak as I find and I was impressed with the service I received. I would recommend this dealer.

Excellent dealer!!! Such a good deal. My car went down on first petrol station from diesel direct because battery was crap, they came very quickly to charging it just to drive to my home and after few days they bought me a new battery which I collected from euro car parts. Much appreciated!!!