OFFORD MOTOR COMPANY

[MATHEW]

Has anyone used Offord Motor company for a Service.
If so please give me an insight into the company.
Thanks

[TC390SE]

Yea about a month ago.
Hears the list
2 tie rob bushes
4 anti roll bushes
wiper blade
2 front tyres
taga seal
anti roll bar link
oil and filter
serviced to tvr spec
replaced boot button
fixed poor electric window
rewired head lights
mot
cost £1161

as i am not that good on cars this seemed quite reasonable.

The only thing i did not like was the car was dirty when i got it back ie.oily hand prints on windows and body and the break dust still on wheels that were changed but car is going fine.

[met]

i'm just in the process of having my mot done at offord.i travelled from lincoln on the basis that i'd heard good reports onthis website.failed on leaky power steering rack (which i knew about),one headlight pointing at the moon (in his words)!and one of the wishbone bushes was rubbing on the chassis.we decided (well the wife suggested quite surprisingly)to replace all the bushes top and bottom with the purple plastic ones,and we learnt later that a new balljoint and wishbone were required one side also.a sump gasket is also being done(with mobil 1 oil change).the breakdown in prices is as follows: p/steering rack recon £310
replace bushes £250
gasket/oil change £100
mot £36
all prices apart from the oil change are plus vat and then theres the labour charge for the rack which i think is about three hours.i think i'm looking at about £1000 all in.they did provide me with a loan car(saab)for the duration of the repairs (one week) which is handy if you're travelling.pick the car up next week so i'll let you know if any probs.but so far they've been ok.i dread to think what a main dealer would charge(one charged me £60 to free up a battery tray!!!) cheers for now met.

[ianwayne]

Check out their website at www.offord.com to see that the basic price for servicing is a lot less less than "dealers". I use inverted commas because the network has changed so much, I'm not sure who are main dealers anymore!
Anyway, I had my TVR serviced at Offord and they were fine IMO.

[MikeG]

Been using them for the last 4 years and on the basis of the service I have had so far I intend to keep using them.

Mike

[sipow]

Yep

Took my S3 there for 3yrs excellent service.
Havnt taken my Griff there yet but will be when my next service is due.

Simon

[pbrettle]

Used them for a service and a fix to the ECU. End result is good and for a reasonable price. However, dont expect them to provide perfect information or customer care.... something to do with them being too busy and very small. But that is not necessarily a criticsm of them, more of businesses in general that are that size...

They did end up charging me less man-hours than the work took, but still definately cheaper than a main dealer. Oh, and they do give temp cars...

Cheers,

Paul

[leszekg]

quote:
Yea about a month ago.
Hears the list
2 tie rob bushes
4 anti roll bushes
wiper blade
2 front tyres
taga seal
anti roll bar link
oil and filter
serviced to tvr spec
replaced boot button
fixed poor electric window
rewired head lights
mot
cost £1161

as i am not that good on cars this seemed quite reasonable.

The only thing i did not like was the car was dirty when i got it back ie.oily hand prints on windows and body and the break dust still on wheels that were changed but car is going fine.

This might be interesting for a comparison. My car came back from a service at TMS last week:

- 30K service
- MOT (fixed failures resulting from handbrake failure and emmissions problem)
- Stripped, cleaned and refitted brakes, and sorted out brake squeeling
- Rear anti-roll bar bushes
- Headlamps adjusted
- Various small bits (eg new wheel cap centres)
- Checked diagnostics and tuned (car is running noticeably better now)
- The car was picked up and delivered from/to home on time and returned cleaned.

So fairly similar service content. I paid £1190 - despite a few differences in the content of the service (I think most of them probably cancel each other out to some extent?) and the type of cars being serviced (mine is a Cerbera 4.5), not a huge difference in the price.

I have also used Offords for a few small things (but not yet for a service) as well as TMS and both have been good so far. Only drawback with Offords is they can't seem to get hold of the TVR diagnostics. I recently had a throttle pot problem which Offords correctly diagnosed using their knowledge but couldn't confirm without the diagnostic software from TVR. They had to send me to a dealer (which Offords kindly arranged) to have the problem confirmed and fixed.

On the basis of a couple of trips to Offords the only other observations so far are (a) as you found, the car came back filthy from Offords - it had lots of dried in bird crap on it, (b) TMS managed to fix the brake squeel problem which Offords had previously looked at but not succeeded (to be fair to Offords, they did not go as far as stripping down the brakes), (c) when asking Offords to look at my handbrake because I thought it wasn't working properly they diagnosed my handbrake to be working normally - it subsequently failed an MOT; the problem was identifed and fixed by TMS. As far as TMS are concerned, observations so far were (a) one of the panels under the bonnet wasn't secured properly - minor point, and (b) their labour rates are very high.

I plan to continue using a combination of both Offords and TMS for the forseeable future, depending on what requires doing.

[simpo one]

I have some views on this subject, but we're not supposed to name companies that anyone might be critical of, surely?

[SpeedEight]

I've just had a 12K service at offords which I was happy with, they also found some work that needed doing which the car went in for about 3 weeks later to get it through its MOT.

They were very good in my opinion and kept me informed about the progress of the work during the 5 days they had the car. The courtesy car they lent me (a saab) was handy as the Chimaera is my only car.

As for the car coming back dirty comments, I have found the complete opposite. After the 12k Service and the following work the car was presented very clean inside and out and saved me the trouble of washing it those weeks.

All in all a good service at reasonable prices, I will continue to use them in the future.

[PetrolTed]

quote:
I have some views on this subject, but we're not supposed to name companies that anyone might be critical of, surely?

I appreciate your dilemma as these things can artificially appear to be one sided because of the rules in operation on the Gassing Station. Sadly that's the only way to operate the forum effectively.

Please mail your comments directly to the person who posted the original question if you have a more contentious experience.

[bennno]

i know of several whom swear by offords and one whom took his new tiv there for 3 years as he preffered the prices and service. when time came to trade it in the main dealer was very happy and did not devalue the car in any way..

as for the price comparison below its a joke, what you are saying is offord only cost £30 more yet that price included loads of bushes, wiper blades, a pair of new tyres (£300), targa seal and re-wiring headlights....

the work tms did such as checking the diagnostics and stripping the brakes are included in the standard tvr service btw!!

Bennno

[davidd]

How is this for customer service..
We moved house last week and the TVR needed a 54k service so I called Simon at Offord booked the car in and asked him to loan me a car that I could cart stuff about in. When I dropped the TVR off he lent me an old yet fine Saab 900 and said as it was due for retirement he was not worried if I used it to cart rubbish about in etc. What a godsend!
The TVR had
A full 54k service
The rear window restitching (thanks AA for breaking that and then denying it I'll be using the RAC in future)
new rear shocks
Exhaust manifild gasket
fan rewire (for seperate fuses)
Wiper blade
New sump gasket
new rocker cover gasket
the bill was about £1k.

The other thing to note is that they cn now cater for Cerberas 'properly' if you get my drift.

D.

[simpo one]

'Saab 900 and said as it was due for retirement he was not worried if I used it to cart rubbish about in etc.'

Must be the one I got - I took it through 200,000 miles!

[davidd]

No this one was just run it at 180k :-)

[leszekg]

quote:

as for the price comparison below its a joke, what you are saying is offord only cost £30 more yet that price included loads of bushes, wiper blades, a pair of new tyres (£300), targa seal and re-wiring headlights....

Bennno

No, you are saying that! I posted the comparison so you can come to your own conclusions based on the service provided and bearing in mind that the 2 cars serviced were different models.

Agreed that the tyres possibly make a difference but if you're going to start counting the cost of wiper blades ....!

And what price would you put on the marks that are left behind on the paintwork from the bird crap (not Offord's fault by the way but a consequence of the fact that independents may not have the same storage facilities as a dealer)? What price do you put on knowing that the diagnostics have been checked (an independent is not in a position to do this unless they've managed to get the diagnostic software from TVR) and acted on? What price do you put on the convenience of having your car picked up and delivered in a purpose built covered vehicle rather than some ropey breakdown truck with a dodgy winch that some garages use? Some people won't be bothered by some or any of these things; others will. You can come to your own conclusions depending on what value you put on these.

I stress again that I've been happy with the overall service provided by both Offords and TMS and plan to continue using both.

[bennno]

sorry leszkeg

point i was making is that the offord service may have only been £30 cheaper, but if you took out all of the additional work done (above yours which was basically just a service)...tyres£300, rewire headlights £100....fit tie rod / anti roll bar bushes £150... replace boot button...£40 then it was actually half the price you paid a main dealer.

for £5-600 i would be happy to wash my own car and organise taking it and picking it up!

Bennno

[TC390SE]

I did wash my own car.It was not much to do and I did not complain about the work done.I will use them again.Just know what to expect in the future.

[leszekg]

Benno

Well not quite: the handbrake was completely seized and required effort over and above what is covered by a service, the 'various other bits' included re-adjusting pedal distances and fixing an oil leak. Not significant but at dealer rates this quickly racks up the £££'s (2 hours labour gets you a tyre!).

But I do take your point and I would have expected to pay less at an indpendent for the labour (though only assuming they do the work in the same number of hours or less).

I also take your point regards washing the car, but I'm not concerned about that at all. What does bother me is that I have to either (a) live with the marks left on the paintwork because they won't come out now, or (b) respray the boot (£££'s). I wouldn't be faced with this if the garage facilities included decent under cover storage/parking.

>> Edited by leszekg on Thursday 11th July 18:50

[RZD]

Hi Leszekg, from possibly the only other "Leszek" on PistonHeads

I too have decided to go the "independent" route for the servicing of my Cerbera due to the complete indifference and unfortunately poor service I have received from some TVR dealers.
At least I know that my car is being looked after by an enthusiastic mechanic

I've just looked at your profile, it would appear that we share a similar interest in the cars we have owned.....spooky!!!!!

Cheers,

Leszek