[reallyv]

Well, to be fair, Rydale Cardiff Have Done The Job Well.

I bought a used mini from Rydale, and it had a load or problems, it went to them for a week, and they gave me a courtesy car. It came back with other problems. I did not want that car. So they agreed to give me a nw one that had the order cancelled, with loads of extras.

Good Stuff!!!

Rydale are a professional, and an excellent company to deal with.

[Red Cooper]

I beg to differ - although I haven't dealt with the Cardiff branch...but with their Newport flavour... Professional is not a word I would associate with Rydale... from sales to servicing.

[reallyv]

you really need to come down for a drink sometime red cooper!!!! good to see you again,

Linden! Swansea/

[Red Cooper]

Hey Linden,

I didn't recognised you under the new name...

You buying?...

[smiffy]

I dont rate Rydale at all tbh, parts are OK but sales & serice are rubbish IMO

[Red Cooper]

...it seems to run in the Rydale/Ryland family...

Smiffy, long time no see - what are you up to?

[reallyv]

I have bought,

But, i have had 3 cars from rydale now,

My Red Disaster,

The Diesel Courtesy Car

And the brand new one im picking up next week!!!!!

[jnettleton]

Picked my new baby from Rydale in mid January

The valet was a bit cr@p with wax smudges everywhere.

The sales team were excellent. Andrew was my contact. As for the servicing, well time will tell.

The car started out green, but it is more muddy grey now. Bloody winter roads.

[reallyv]

the valet is a bit bad,

same polish marks on mine too,

the servicing is ok, but they managed to give me a car with a faulty BC1, then they said you could not reset it, but then i did.

bit silly, but they are giving me a new car, cant complain, !!!

Mark is a very good salesman aswell.

[smiffy]

Well I went into to trade up from the ONE to the Cooper S. I was told that the demo S had been crashed & I could have a demo drive.

Then a few months went by.

Went back in & booked a test drive. Asked about there old demo S & it turns out it never had a crash! Then I booked a test drive for the saturday, then they said they didnt have any S's available (there were at least 3 used S's outside!)
Anyway went in for the test drive on the saturday & the demo wasnt even ready for me! Eventually have the demo & then they wont move on price. I walked away, no follow up call or anything, so ended up getting the car from Blackpool!

The service dept arent the best, I was told on a few occasions that a new elec mirror control unit was on order, guess what, im still waiting!

All in all, not very good service or customer care!

[reallyv]

well, they are 10 times better than our local dealership, the service people wont even talk to me, they charge you over the odds for everything, their sales people are unwilling to help you, unless they feel like. the service department will not look at your car unless you 'book it in' and this always takes a week +.

and it is not just minis that suffer from this, BMW's get this poor quality of service too.

[SteveStella]

Quote: Originally Posted by reallyv

well, they are 10 times better than our local dealership, the service people wont even talk to me, they charge you over the odds for everything, their sales people are unwilling to help you, unless they feel like. the service department will not look at your car unless you 'book it in' and this always takes a week +.

and it is not just minis that suffer from this, BMW's get this poor quality of service too.

Hi,
I take it you wouldn't recommend the local Swansea dealer then ! I'm looking to buy a MCS in the near future, where would be the best place to buy from in South Wales.

[Red Cooper]

Not in South Wales by the looks of it... Rydale has the Cardiff/Newport monopoly and they know it... Can't comment on Swansea as I haven't dealt with them.

[Nic D]

Green Bower in Haverfordwest are nice people who give me the courtsey of offering me a BMW as a courtsey car not an old Mitsubushi or Ford

[Jones]

I had my AC Springs fitted at Rydale and they did a neat job for £300.....fitted them, valeted the car, washed it.

I dropped £1500 with them last weekend for a new set of JCW Wheels and firstly the didnt even valet the car, nor wash it....secondly, they didnt fit the steering limiter with the wheels. They are not allowed to sell the wheels without the limiter and I found out today it is still on order and they dont know when it will arrive!
(Secretly pleased as I think I am the only one around here, and was only one on the Chilterns Run II with these new wheels, even if it is by default of incompetence by Rydale Cardiff!)

Jones!

[cooper-boy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Red Cooper

I beg to differ - although I haven't dealt with the Cardiff branch...but with their Newport flavour... Professional is not a word I would associate with Rydale... from sales to servicing.

i do agree with you there, rydale newport are a bag of e....they messed up my order the first time round, and i am having to wait more than a month for my new replacement...

they wont even compensate me in any way...so i am planning to write to bmw directly....

cooper-boy

[Red Cooper]

Update on Rydale Cardiff servicing...

After deciding Rydale Newport is not worth bothering with anymore I tried Rydale Cardiff for a few repairs:
- a door knocking sound first on the drivers side then on passenger's
- replacement of BC1 unit
- unresponsive brakes
- higher fuel consuption

They went fine and in general I got a good servicing although I had to go in about 3 times until the door issue was fixed.

Good help desk staff - very informative and always explained what they did.

Now with new desk staff, I went back as the computer settings were wrong or so I thought - no-one bothered to explain to me that with the new BC1 some of the computer settings will be different...

I asked them to take a look and the mechanic told me that I would have to pay for any changes. I explained that they change the unit and the settings need re-setting. I was told that these are the settings and maybe my car was defect before. His attitude was rather agressive as if he was annoyed he had to deal with this. The concept of a different production year seems to be inexistent to him... My fault for not buying a new car I guess...

Then he said that maybe I had the computer tweaked... I denied that, however later on the help desk girl said the same thing... and that my car had the wrong settings before...

The girl at the desk also said there is nothing wrong with my car - the computer showed everything works fine so the fuel consuption must be my fault... No word on the unresponsive brakes although the display on the speedo shows -200 (I think that means the brake fluid has to be changed).

Anyhow - their general attitude is not friendly and their knowledge is rather poor so I decided to vote with my feet. Never again!

I complained to MINI about the way I was treated - they're not too bothered but said somebody will contact me from Rydale to discuss this.... 4 weeks later I am still to hear from them.

I did find out that the Service Manager at Cardiff is the same person I dealt with at Rydale Newport before deciding enough is enough... At least that explains it!

Avoid them if you can help it!

[ianw12345]

its simple, RYDALE ARE RUBBISH! crap service, crap support, crap salemen (bar andrew squires! top bloke!) my car came back from its 4th time in there in under 6months and non of my previous comments about the poor service were taking into consdieration, again it came back dirtier than it went in, etc etc etc, kept me waiting, said it would be ready at 1pm afterdrop off at 9am and i walked out after arriving at 1pm at 2.30pm, wasnt even offered a coffee! also the problem it went in for, which they knew about and were , 'going to order parts for' is not solved as the parts , 'must of been used on another car'. THAT DEALERSHIP IN CARDIFF IS A JOKE!

[ASTON]

i agree,after service is very poor at cardiff.

[ianw12345]

aston...'poor'?! im sure that the telephone conversations i have with a bmw sales person on the phone following my car going in for work etc at rydale are totally pointless, i say the same thing, poor poor poor, and yet it happens again and again and again! seems all too familiar that they are quick enough to take our money for these in effect expensive cars, yet the after sales service is no factor in the price we paid. i had better service in fordthorne a little further down penarth road when i had a fiesta than now in MINI. Sad story!

Ian