Formula One Autocentres Reviews 

Having visited wigston branch yesterday for service & mot can't fault them on that just wish they had more staff to answer the phones as very busy garage with the manager doing lots things at once welldone team very professional

Bought 2 New Vanco camper tyres with fitting for our motorhome. Turned up at the appointed time for fitting only be to be told they couldn't fit them as their jack was only rated at 3 tonne ( motorhome is 3.5t ). The majority of motorhomes are 3.5t so why sell these camper specific tyres and book it in for fitting if not able to fit. What a waste of my time . Plus side, managed to get tyres fitted at home they came to me and cheaper than f1.

Disappointing experience. I have been a loyal customer for years at the Hertford branch with no issues. Having moved I recently had my car serviced/mot at the Harlow branch. After a month I noticed an oil leak and upon opening the bonnet saw that the air filter lid had only been half clipped back on. I then took the car to my local garage to be told the leak was causes by a poorly fitted sump plug. I paid for the garage to replace it and then contacted formula1 to report this. I was then contacted by the area manager and told legally they don’t have to do anything and what I should have done was take it to them to be inspected and repaired. So the expectation is once I knew what the issue was I was to get the garage to get the car off the ramp, for me to go home and contact customer services and await up to three working days for someone to contact me back to then be told to have to bring it to formula 1 garage for it to be inspected all the time still with the leak?

I have now been offered £20 to cover the price of the sump plug but they have declined to cover the labour costs and offered me a £40 voucher. I have declined this, due to the two issues I have discovered my confidence in their ability has gone and I shall not be returning. Overall I am disappointed in the initial quality of workmanship and then the following involvement with customer services

Do not use at all. Went to the tyldesley centre. My car failed its MOT, fair enough failed on back brakepads and a tyre….but also failed because they couldn’t do an emissions test….said my coolant level was below minimum….after checking myself it was wasn’t. Also said I needed a service before and emissions test was done and that didn’t just mean turning my service light off I needed proof!! Exactly told me if they tried to do one my engine might blow up!!! It’s a 2019 A5. Also got told, I’d run it into the ground…what because of new brake pads and a tyre….slight jealously over the car I think. Carl at Tyldesley, hang your head in shame…absolute arse. I wonder if someone else would’ve gone in and he said the same whether they’d have booked a service…complete cowboys!!!

Bought tyres via tyre leader delivered to F1 in burton. Tyre leader advertise £14 per tyre fitting at F1, nothing was said to me until they presented me with a £50 bill for fitting 2 tyres! When I questioned it I was told that’s what we charge, take it up with them to get your money back, really nice helpful guy…not. The had to ask for blue roll to clean my car as there was wet black marks down the back wings and the drivers door. Would not use these guys again awful customer service when there are plenty of good tyre fitters out there.

The worst experience I’ve ever encountered from a tyre fitting company at the Camberley Branch

I originally booked 4 new tyres to be fitted, alongside their 2 wheel tracking service for my LWB van through Blackcircles.com. The day before the appointment I realised I might be running late on the install day due to an unforeseen meeting elsewhere. So rather than risk being late, I called them and the Manager at Formula One said it wouldn’t be a problem and I could turn up at 1pm instead. During that call, he advised they would not be able to carry out the 2 wheel tracking but would still be able to fit the 4 tyres. I called Blackcirlces to advise them of the new appointment time and got the 2 wheel tracking refunded.

I turned up to the appointment at Formula One on the day at 1pm, to be told they wouldn’t do it, as the manager hadn’t told any of the staff of the new time, and I had missed my 11am appointment. Obviously I wasn’t happy as I had changed the appointment time.. but they had not, yet there were 4 staff members standing in front of me telling me they were too busy to do anything, and they all were very disrespectful towards the manager, who was off on the day, and none of this was their problem, none of this was helping me, the customer, who had paid upfront for a service. At one point, one of the staff members even said they wouldn’t even be able to fit it anyway, due to the size of my van.. i knew something wasn’t adding up.

Words were exchanged over their appalling attitude in helping a customer. I walked out to my van, and made a phone call to blackcirlces to arrange collection of my tyres, the situation escalated fast to the point where a staff member was having to physically restrain the most senior person on site (The assistant manager), as he wanted to attack me. One of the staff members calmed him down and he went back inside.

With everything going on, I did not get anyone’s name, so during my phone call, I tried to take a picture of the assistant manager, as he was outside, he noticed me taking his picture and went berserk, again. One of the staff members tried to restrain him but he got through and ran up to the van, he actually tried to get into my van, tried to open the driver’s door and he even punched the van door when he found out it was locked. At this point I was able to start videoing him aggressively banging on the window, while shouting to the person he was on the phone to that I was taking his photo.

How he was made assistant manager is beyond me, the other staff did a better job of handling the situation than the person responsible for the sites wellbeing on the day.

I even sent a message similar to the above about the experience to their customer services link and although the CS representative said someone would be in touch.. no one ever contacted me, so don't bother complaining through their website either, nothing will happen

Go somewhere else, AVOID this company!!!

The car went in for a full service, and I chose it for its reasonable price (do be mindful of what is and isn't included in the price). The place stunk of pot when I entered the reception. However, upon collection,I was given a shopping list of things that required doing to the sum of £1900.

Taking my car to my local garage, they took the list and called later to say that they only agreed on a few things specified. Total bill £378.

booked a tyre change at my local branch in bulwell Nottingham. For what I assumed was a slow puncture. The tyre change was ok until the next day when it was flat. Spoke to garage who said they couldn't see me for a few days. I advised I needed the car for work, no empathy there. I complained and got a response from an area manager advising me to ring around other branches (further away) and drive there. On a tyre that can't hold its pressure?

I was displeased with this branch about 10 years ago and thought they must have changed by now obviously not!

Terrible service from start. The manager said they cannot swap my tyres with the slot I had as third party books multiple slots. Asked to come back or next day or wait. I waited and eventually the tyres were changed. Inspite of the manager knowing and the fitter decided to change the front 2 tyres. Original request was to change 2 rear tyres. Incorrect tyres changed. By chance I decided to check the tyres and found the rear tyres were the old ones and not the ones I had agree and asked.
The fitter was adamant that you need to change front tyres and NOT rear. The manager went off for a long time and was no in the premises. Another fitter was I will ask him to swap over and put your old front tyres again. Front nearside wheel does not look like the wheel I had originally. He had a pile of tyres and he said this is yours.Asked that I wish to make a complaint, the gentleman said he was the manager. Intact he does not listen and not interested and was not in the office either.
Will NOT recommend and will never use them and the owners need to be aware.

I booked an MOT with Formula One Autocentres on 01/12/2025 for 17/12/2025 at 10:30am at the Woodford Green branch.

At 10:00am on the day of the appointment, I called myself to confirm, only to be told the branch could not do the MOT because my Tesla is “too wide”. This was the first time I was informed, despite the booking being made 16 days earlier.

I was told by a staff member (Reece) that he had “been calling me all morning”, which is not true. My phone did not ring once and there were no missed calls or voicemails. Had I not called, I would have turned up and been turned away.

I then contacted customer services and spoke to Shanice, whose handling of the call was appalling. Instead of resolving the issue, she blamed me and claimed the communication failure was because I paid via PayPal, saying they had taken an old home phone number from 15 years ago. In all my years of using PayPal, no company has ever tried to contact me on that number and this is not a valid excuse. A booking system should clearly request and confirm a current contact number.

Shanice was rude, dismissive and robotic, repeatedly repeating the same script rather than listening or helping. Even after explaining that I am over 8½ months pregnant and extremely stressed, with my car now out of MOT just before Christmas, she remained unhelpful and told me to “wait three more working days”, which is completely unreasonable at this time of year.

I did not want a refund, I wanted a solution. Instead, I was blamed for their internal failures and treated with zero empathy.

This experience shows:
• Poor booking checks
• No proactive communication
• Blame placed on the customer
• Rude and inflexible customer service

I will not be using Formula One Autocentres again and would strongly caution others, especially if you need reliability or are under time pressure. They have still not refunded my booking either.

Car was worse after than before took it back , still couldn’t sort it, basically everyone is 12 years old and have no idea about steering suspension etc

I had 2 tyres fitted. F1 auto Swinton. Drove off and my warning lights come on for my tyres when i check the pressure. One was set 30 and one 40 absolute Cowboys, i should have learnt from last time. I went there. Caught one of the Tyre fitters driving round in my car with my air suspension turned of and he had no permission. To drive my car on the road i will never use this place again.

DO NOT GO HERE, Formula one Eccles incredibly overpriced, knowledge of vehicles is poor, workmanship very poor. If your happy to get less than 5000 miles on very overpriced tyres, shredded to the wire chords time and time again, and go through thousands of pounds basically down the drain then GO HERE ! They say theyve done work which is likely not done, or do not know how to do it or correctly. This company in ECCLES should be closed down, how are they still getting away with these practices.

Car failed MOT on Saturday.
Asked garage to order the part which they agreed to do. Arrived today and told that they have not ordered it, and said car wont be ready until this afternoon.
Additional cost of a taxi incurred.

I took my car for an MOT & service at the Longwell Green branch in Bristol . I was very impressed with the whole experience Mark was really friendly & helpful on the phone & in person. The guys in the garage were really helpful explaining things that needed to be done on the car no hidden surprises like you can experience at other garages. I would definitely recommend using this particular branch & I will be taking my car for future MOTs etc

Steer clear from these charlatans . They will rip you off. I booked my car in as it was leaking steering wheel fluid. I needed them to locate where the leak was and to replace/repair the section or sections. Staff were relatively friendly. After 24 hours I phoned them for an update. I was advised that the exact location of the leak could not be located and the assistant manager Richard advised that the entire Power steering unit needed to be replaced at just under £800 and this did not include labour. I was flabbergasted as quite clearly (I'm female)he underestimated my knowledge of cars and saw me as an easy candidate to be ripped off and to add insult to injury wanted to charge me for diagnosing a leak that they couldn't be bothered to locate, so lets just charge the client to replace everything because we're too lazy to check properly and charge for the specific section. I removed my car immediately took it to another garage a few yards away. A completely different experience. Professionalism, communication, videos showing the location of the leak and price to replace the section all Excellent !!!!!! the total cost to replace the parts, plus labour and a full car service all for £740 what a huge difference from Formula one wanting to charge almost £1200 for the part and labour alone. I will NEVER GO to formula one again

I cannot thank the amazing staff enough at the Formula1 garage in Clacton. Tonight realised i had a rear flat tyre and took it across the road to see if they could help. The guy on the desk (sorry not sure of his name) was really friendly and I was so impressed that he remembered my name from last time I had been in. The guy who sorted the tyre out for me even checked all the other tyre pressures. Talk about going above and beyond. I would never take my car anywhere else. Staff are extremely knowledgeable and professional. Nothing is too much trouble for them. Thank you Formula1 in Clacton from a very happy customer!!

Popped in to get some window wipers at Wheatley Hall Road. Was told they don’t offer that, even though there was a sign right in front of me to say ‘get your window blades here’. I pointed that out and he said ‘well we can but we have to order them’
Stating the obvious, needless to say I left with out the order.

Had a puncture repair on a Sunday morning in Barkingside fairlop waters the mechanic Ryan was so professional and pleasant wouldn't go anywhere else for tyres or repairs..Don

Refreshing to see a young lady working in a predominantly male environment. Held her own and did a Stirling job. The guy on front desk was spot on. These will be my no.1 choice moving forwards.
Thanks
GB