Martins Group Reviews 140

After struggling to find a suitable vehicle from other dealers I took a chance on Martins of Farnham despite it being a very long way from my home town. They had a vehicle coming in that hadn’t yet been made available for sale. Shanice got the vehicle in for me to view within days of my enquiry, and we made the long trip to view it. I identified some things that needed some work and also test drove it. Martins assured me the vehicle would be prepped and everything checked. I returned the following week to pick the car up and it was so much better than I had expected. All the agreed work had been done to a very high standard and this also included some extra things found when it went through the workshop. They really went above and beyond. Even the little touches like mats and a keyring which I hadn’t expected were a fantastic surprise. I cannot thank the team at Farnham enough for helping me through what was turning into a stressful search for a car and coming up trumps. I now have a really lovely car. Thank you!

Reading Dacia - Martins Group

Agreed a package for a new Dacia Sandaro Auto with 'The Manager' at this garage on the 18th August 2025, with only a test drive of the car needed to complete the deal.

The garage failed to arrange a test drive before the end of August 2025, when they said the deal would expire.

They failed to find a Dacia Auto they claim, and didn't have the professionalism to even call back and explain.

Rather impotent garage, who are unable to do even very basic car sales.

Looking at the Dacia UK service and support reviews on trustpilot, we dodged a bullet; so thank you Martins Dacia in Reading for being incompetent.

Steve Myers at the Winchester Alpine store was excellent. Really knowledgeable about the cars and passionate about the brand. He did a great job convincing us that the Alpine was the right car to buy.

I placed a deposit with Nick from Winchester to hold a car, which in a video he stated was fully refundable. I decided not to go ahead with the viewing and requested a refund. I did not get a response so I tried to call and email again, with no reply. Three separate sales personnel have answered my calls and said that someone would call back or issue the refund, and after a week no one has ever called back or responded to my email. The customer service seems none existent, so I would never use these again.

I paid a deposit on a car and called the next day to arrange my visit and purchase only to be told that the car had already been sold. This was back in July 2025 and I am still waiting for a refund. Multiple calls but they are always too busy and say they will call back but never do. Thieves

Don’t buy a used vehicle from this outfit ,,
Big mistake buying without going to see ,
Had a quick Video walk round saying no chip no dent no scratches, well it had a door ding ,scratch on rear, dent painted on bonnet and scratches in door well ! , it had a radar not functioning that took 10 days to resolve one day before delivery! After waiting for this to be fixed !! on delivery it’s aircon wasn’t working on passenger side at all ,and fan not working correctly cold air wasn’t good even on max , so I
Rejected the car , then the tone changed I was told they can’t collect the car for two weeks as their driver was off , but it was for me to keep the car insure it tax ,it . I had nowhere to keep it so I paid to have it delivered back to martins Andover 3 days after ! 9 days earlier than them !! from Weymouth , sent email to ask if they would pay half of the 380 it cost me to return the car ! Which is there duty to collect at there expense they said No!! I’m waiting for my repayment if 13.495 , not expecting any prompt payment judging from their total aggressive behaviour towards me ! Sorry I’ve ever got involved with them ,buyer beware !some of these employees and managers are ruthless and have no regard for customers that my experience,have all the emails to prove it ! They said they will not reply to any more emails from Me , bully boys don’t work on me first martins mistake !!
I think they like confrontation strange people !!

I booked a test drive at Martins Camberley VW Dealership for a VW T- ROC .

No problem with the sales staff , very polite and informative with no pushy sales.

But .... I was amazed when I actually saw the car . It was extremely dirty , looked scruffy to the extent I had to ask whether it was actually brand new and checked the mileage . I wiped away some dirt with my hand to actually see if it was a scratch or dirt . There was a blob of oil or something on the offside passenger door on the window trim . I wiped my fingers across it and got all this gooey mess on my hands . The windscreen had remnants of a notice stuck to it , numbers scrolled on it .......

I have bought many new cars in the past but have never come across anything like this .

There was 3 days notice of the test drive.

I will not purchase from Martins VW Camberley as my concern is that if they look after there own cars like this before sell then I would definitely not trust them with my car after sale .

A customer tip for Martins VW Camberley.... Take pride in what you are selling .

I have photos of the car which I took ,

Avoid Avoid. Just been well and truly turned over by Martin Service dept. First ever visit. Took my 10 year old Skoda in to have an intermittent fault on the radio/Sat Nav system looked at. Mentioned to the service staff that the car was 10 years old so not spending a fortune on this problem. Got a quote four hours later for £511.20 for a new aerial but it might also need further work! Obviously declined. Went to collect the car and was told that there was a £199 charge. First time it was mentioned that there would be any charge at all. Why would I even think about spending £199 on a 10 yr old car for a quick report telling me about a fault I was already aware of? No doubt because of previous customers the guy on the desk had even highlighted the figure on the paper work with his yellow pen...pathetic.
Wish I looked at Truspilot before getting the full Martins treatment.

Sadly, really unhappy with my experience of buying a used VW through Martins. Purposely went to a main dealer to avoid having issues, but despite buying a car with only 20,000 miles on the clock, I'm having to take it back for the second time in less than a month to sort another fault - first one an oil leak that really should have been checked before it was sold, and now the touch screen that controls everything - from air con to sat nav – has stopped working completely. Rather than picking it up from me, I'm expected to take yet more time off work to drive over an hour's round trip to take it back to them. Really disappointing service... No manager available to discuss this with and don't call back when say they will. Now looking to return the car and get my money back.

Terrible after sales service. Got a problem after buying a car and no one comes back to you for weeks. Finally get the car in to have the fault fixed and they order the wrong part. New part takes weeks to come in, no communication at all. Now have a problem with the new part they fitted and no one calls you back. Currently on hold waiting for someone and in the 13 minutes of holding not one person picks up to advise of what's going on. Disgraceful service. Probably waiting for me to hang up!!!

Martins Basingstoke had my car to do the diagnostics for an engine warning light on the dashboard - the car was under an extended warranty.

I was very dissapointed that in my circumstance that the warranty did not cover the diagnostic check and I had a bill for £199 (incl VAT) for their report.

My perception is that the Service Department have a focus on revenue generation and not the customer experience (as an example, strongly advising me to also replace the front tyres that have 4mm of tread left and the engine oil needed 'topping up' at a cost of £93.24).

I will struggle to take out another extended warranty or to use the Service Department at Martins Basingstoke again.

I called the parts departments on 1st April 2025 in the afternoon to get a price for a tyre inflator kit (Solution and Hose) as I had to use the one supplied.

I was shocked when I was told it was £98. After searching shop.nissan.co.uk, I found that the price was £31.12, but it was not in stock.

After a bit of searching, there were numerous different prices from Amazon but all were in the region of£20-£35.

Yeomans Nissan in Basingstoke quoted the same price £31.12 for the kit and was available.
After purchasing the kit on the 2nd of April I went back to the parts department in Winchester to question the difference only to my dismay was then given a price of £45 plus £15 for the hose.

The part I bought was a genuine Nissan part and that included the solution and hose.
I proceeded to go to the sales room and spoke to Mr Richard Green (Sales Manager) after explaining the issue he took my email address so I could respond to him. The email response was sent that afternoon.

The email did not bounce and I have not had a response. I went back to speak to Richard and was told he had been moved to Renault.
After asking to speak to somebody else it was suggested that I email a different sales manager who was overall in charge. When I said I would email the CEO as I had both his business and private email addresses which were easily found, it was suggested that I email the Sales Manager Keith Smart as the CEO would email him, email sent on the 17th April. It is now the 1st of May and still no communication or explanation.

It would appear that the dealership no longer sells new Nissans they are not interested in any form of complaint. I was considering changing my current vehicle to another and not necessarily the same manufacturer. Unfortunately, it won't be with Martins, there are plenty of others around Mercedes and Skoda in Winchester, Hendy in Eastleigh, Yeomans in Basingstoke plus various others.

Maybe the price difference is a markup due to not selling Nissan?

Matt the new general manager at Martins Winchester Jaecoo sorted out a refund for my Dad in a couple of days where he’d been struggling before. He always did what he said he would even down sending a message. I will be recommending Martins Winchester to all.

My VW Golf has always been serviced with VW and since I have owned the car continued with Martins.In Dec 2024 it was serviced, MOT'd with 49500 on the clock. In addition a video inspection of the underneath of the car was emailed to me with the technician saying everything was in order with 40% wear left on my front brake pad. Three months later with a further 3500 added both my rear springs snapped and fell of. I took the car to another garage to be repaired and was told that I need new font disks and pads. Cost £949.00. I went back to VW who said that at the time of the service all was in order. I complained to VW head office and they said the same and offered me a hamper and a £150.00 vw voucher as a good will gesture. I refused the offer. I have not hit any pot holes whatsover. My feeling is that if the car had been properly inspected at the time of the MOT by a qualified mechanic rather than perhaps an apprentice the cracks in the springs would of been spotted and repaired at the same time.

Martins VW Basingstoke.
Horrible service. Utter incompetent bunch of employees. Total disrespect towards customers.
Waiting for nearly 4 months for a call back, despite calling the service team and the showroom on a weekly basis.
Either the people work in that place is completely braindead or just showing utter disregard and disrespect.
Avoid this dealership at all costs!!!

Terrible experience in Martins Jaecoo Winchester. Advertised a good deal online and social media. Went in while it was still valid and was told they wouldn’t honour the deal online. Falsely advertising to get customers in. Sales manager was very patronising and unsupportive of his Sales team.

Purchased a low mileage, used Clio from Martin's Basingstoke. The experience from start to finish was courteous, professional and thoughtful. (special mention to Dan-Stefan Radu!). On the day of purchase, Dan was happy to taxi us from our local We Buy Any Car depot back to Martin's to collect our Clio. He also offered to send over any vidoes explaining features that we weren't familiar with or that we would find generally helpful. All this was followed up with after sales calls to check we were happy with the car. Overall a smooth, seamless experience.

We contacted Hannah Wilson @ Martins VW Farnham on 18th March, regarding a used Polo for our daughter. The car had not come in yet but she advised us that once they had the car she would send us a detailed video. On the 24th March we contacted Hannah again regarding the car only to be told that someone had reserved it the day before. At no point had she advised us to put a deposit down to secure the car. This is very bad business practice from a vw dealer and we are very disappointed that she did not advise us to do this. I have seen in other reviews that this is not the first time this has happened. We assumed that we had first refusal as we had contacted them the week before regarding the car and basically said we would have the car once we had seen the video. We have emailed the head of operations but have received no response.

Update...it seems I never got a response from Martins. They seem to pick and choose who they respond to. My advice to others is think very carefully about using them and read some of the 1 star reviews.

Unfortunately we did not have the best of experiences with Martins of Winchester Renault.
I visited the Renault branch in Winchester in January 2025. I travelled from Bournemouth to view a Kona Electric vehicle (£18k+ vehicle).
Nick Anderton showed me the vehicle and I was happy to purchase it. I left a deposit and was asked to pick it up a week later. At the time I was told it had 2 keys, it would be cleaned in and out, it had a recent service and the HPI would be cleared when I collect.
So far so good. If only that were the case.
Then the stress and constant chasing begins, when I say chasing I mean lots and lots of emails and telephone calls.

A week later I traveled back to the branch to see Nick again to pay for the vehicle and collect it. I did another HPI check just before I paid and it said it still had outstanding finance. Nick explained that this is normal and that it would be cleared after I purchase it. He also said that he only has 1 key at the moment as the previous owners need to drop it off. They are on a 'cruise' and Nick will post it to me as soon as he gets it. He would have known that so he should have told us before we started the journey. I would have then waited until Nick had both the keys.
I asked to see the service book, the last service was a year ago and it was due a service. Nick then said it just had a service and he then signed the service book and stamped it, this didn't seem right to me.

So at the time I had 3 issues - HPI, 1 key and also the lack of service record.

HPI issue: I had to call and email multiple times during the following week, eventually the finance was removed. So this was fine, but still stressful as it looked like it had finance on it.

Missing key: The lack of key is a big concern because they cost £700 from Hyundai. Every time I spoke to Nick he would say that they were still on holiday or he would send it soon. He even said the last owners had it in their kitchen hanging up! I felt I was constantly contacting Nick asking for the key.

The service record: no service was completed, so I had my own done at my own expense at Hyundai.
The car was not cleaned inside at all as it still had food from the previous owners. You do not expect this from a £18k car.

We also had a problem with the headlight that needed an urgent fix.

In the end we gave up speaking with Nick as he clearly was not able to tell me the truth and we were getting nowhere. Every time I asked about the key he would say phone back next week.

In the end we spoke with a man called Ed and he was very helpful. He asked me to get the vehicle fixed and that they would then reimburse me once I send them the payment receipt.
So I got the headlight fixed and sent the bill to Nick, what a surprise. Nick just ignored the emails and no payment was sent to me. So I contacted Ed again and he sorted the payment out for me, which was great.
At the same time he said that I should order the new key and send him the payment receipt and he will reimburse me. It took lots of chasing but I eventually did get the payment for the key, but it took a couple of months in total.

So to cut a long story short, it's been very stressful as I have had to send many emails and lots of phone calls, it's been going on for a couple of months. You just don't expect this when you buy a car.

But Martins Renault did resolve the issues in the end thanks to Ed Spence, Ed did a great job and really did help us.

My advice to any potential car buyers if you go to Martins, do not deal with Nick. If you do, make sure you have everything you need as he will not follow up on anything he says. If he says it has 2 keys, it's likely that this means 1 key. If he says it will be cleaned, this means it won't. If he says it's just been serviced, this means it hasn't etc etc.

It's such a shame I had to write this bad review as everything could have been much better without too much hassle.

Just a very frustrating experience and not one I would want to go through again.

I wanted to share the fabulous experience dealing with Martins Renault Winchester when sourcing a brand new Renault Clio.
Not only did Matt Hayes offer a fantastic deal the care, attention to detail, and customer service Matt Hayes provided were first class from beginning to end. I would highly recommend Matt Hayes and his team!
Mrs D Carey (Wimborne Minster)