Mangoletsi

Car booked in for Friday.

Anyone else there on friday AM to look out for

Damn,if only I had the AO flyers!!!! I could go crazy in their car park!

i'm there friday morning,pretty early dropping mine off to have power steering fault done,picking up courtesy car..what time you there?

About 0830-0900.

Keep an eye out for me

I'll wrestle you for the 159 loaner!

i'll prob be there around that time..as long as they don't give me a bloody corsa or something i'll be fine,but was promised by craig that i would get a brera or 159 as a courtesy car

You might get one of their Fiat 500s.

All,

I've had 5 Alfa's, 3 of which have been supplied by Mangos. I've always found them to be a good bunch of guys

I am certainly not on a retainer to Mango's and I can understand the communication frustrations (email tends to work well for comms with servicing) but I think people are being a bit unfair.

1. You have got to bear in mind that its is a privately owned dealership - Fraser has had to dig deep in to his own pockets to bring the place up to the new Alfa dealer spec - £500k is a lot of money to invest and that takes a lot of car sales plus servicing/parts to make a return on that. Remember its only in the recent past that Alfa has started to get a product line of cars that people really desire (159, GT, Brera, Spider). That means as a small business, Fraser is trying to play in the big league but has to keep a very tight lid on overheads/headcount until he starts to realise a RoI. With the current economic environment I think that's a sensible move.

2. Service costs/parts - Mangos use menu pricing for servicing. Like all dealers/manufacturers what margin they don't make on new car sales (and you do get a lot of car for money with AR) they need to make elsewhere. Ever been to Volvo, BMW or Audi and seen their pricing?

3. Service Dept - we need to remember that Paul and his team have to deal with many issues which are not of their making - usually shortcomings in manufacture or design. They do take a right royal load of abuse day in day out often unjustified (I've witnessed some scenes from some real herberts). The problems are often not THEIR fault but they take a caining for it. I have found that if you are calm, patient and treat the team with respect they will go the extra mile to help.

Going to run for cover now...............INCOMING!!!!!!

166Lover.

Well, I've just read the above comment, and as a relative " newbie " on this site, I often get the idea that my views are not relevant here....HOWEVER, I dealt with Mangoletsi, way back in the early 1990's through until 1994, and their customer service was abysmal, constantly treating people badly, as if it was our fault, that things went wrong. So I have no sympathy for them if they have a bad name.....In my opinion they deserve it.......

never had any problems with them personally, always had very good customer service from them (considering all i ever did was buy a used car from them) and never any quibbles on warranty issues. had plenty of test drives of the newer models since, despite them knowing full well i wasn't in the market for a new car. my only problem is the 80 mile round trip but there's not a lot they can do about that! am probably looking at changing my car back end of this year and i'll be back there like a shot

i'll echo what 166lover says about their investment in the dealership as well - they're a one-off privately owned company who don't have the financial clout of a perry's/hr owen etc but fraser has been willing to make the effort and make it into a showroom to match ze germans.

PS craig if you're listening if you don't give me a big f*ck off discount on a 159ti then i'll be off to ES jones like a shot

n13roy,

Your views are always relevant and I did make it clear in my post understand some people have views different to mine, but you can't really judge a dealerships current performance on your experience 14-18 years ago.

AR and Mango's have pulled their socks up since I started with Alfas in 2002.

All the best 166Lover.

Yes, fair point indeed there 166Lover, and I toatally agree with you as well. I live FAR to way away to use them nowdays, but I'm glad to see they have pulled their socks up a lot. Its got to be good news all round I would think.....

Roy...

Originally Posted by 73GTVJim

You might get one of their Fiat 500s.

Oh the joys of arriving at clients in a 500! Better than a punto though!

Hopefully all being well, my 159 will be in and out in 1 day.

Originally Posted by 166lover

All,

I've had 5 Alfa's, 3 of which have been supplied by Mangos. I've always found them to be a good bunch of guys

I am certainly not on a retainer to Mango's and I can understand the communication frustrations (email tends to work well for comms with servicing) but I think people are being a bit unfair.

1. You have got to bear in mind that its is a privately owned dealership - Fraser has had to dig deep in to his own pockets to bring the place up to the new Alfa dealer spec - £500k is a lot of money to invest and that takes a lot of car sales plus servicing/parts to make a return on that. Remember its only in the recent past that Alfa has started to get a product line of cars that people really desire (159, GT, Brera, Spider). That means as a small business, Fraser is trying to play in the big league but has to keep a very tight lid on overheads/headcount until he starts to realise a RoI. With the current economic environment I think that's a sensible move.

2. Service costs/parts - Mangos use menu pricing for servicing. Like all dealers/manufacturers what margin they don't make on new car sales (and you do get a lot of car for money with AR) they need to make elsewhere. Ever been to Volvo, BMW or Audi and seen their pricing?

3. Service Dept - we need to remember that Paul and his team have to deal with many issues which are not of their making - usually shortcomings in manufacture or design. They do take a right royal load of abuse day in day out often unjustified (I've witnessed some scenes from some real herberts). The problems are often not THEIR fault but they take a caining for it. I have found that if you are calm, patient and treat the team with respect they will go the extra mile to help.

Going to run for cover now...............INCOMING!!!!!!

166Lover.

You have obviously had good dealings with them, having bought 2 cars of them in the past I expected much more from them when I went in a few months ago to look at buying a Brera.

The service dept has improved a lot but the sales guys have a great deal to learn.

I'm sorry but I cannot let go that they wanted to charge £100 to transfer the warranty on a car less than 1 year old to put it in my name do you honestly believe that BMW, Audi or Merc would do that?

Pennywise pounds foolish, they lost the sale, what this has taught me is that I will now go anywhere in the country to buy a car instead of being loyal to a dealer, it cuts both ways.

Hi tony44,

Sounds like you had a ****ty experience and can understand why you feel the way you do. Is this standard Alfa practice to charge for warranty transfer at all stealers? Did you negotiate on the £100?

166Lover

Originally Posted by 166lover

Hi tony44,

Sounds like you had a ****ty experience and can understand why you feel the way you do. Is this standard Alfa practice to charge for warranty transfer at all stealers? Did you negotiate on the £100?

166Lover

It's not standard practice, I questioned the salesman over it and he was not prepared to negotiate, it was take it or leave it and thats what I did.

As I said earlier in this thread I asked for a straight forward cost to change and they couldn't provide it without adding on £1k of extras that weren't asked for e.g. satnav, paint protection etc.
I asked the salesman why did the cost to change price include a satnav and the answer I got was 'well you are going to need a satnav' how the hell does he know what I need. The 'hard' sell was too much.

Quiite franky the whole experience was a joke. My wife was with me at the time and couldn't believe what was going on, she swore she wouldn't go to Mango's again.

Got a much better deal on a Brera off another dealer. Mango's loss my gain

phoned today to get the reg for the courtesy car..they are giving me an '08 147 1.9 diesel turismo..fair enough i suppose,but i did stress that craig told me when i bought the car that i would get a 159 or brera as a courtesy car..he said there was'nt any available tomorrow..then when i rang my insurers they told me i was'nt covered for it so i am having to go under mango's insurance at a cost of £10 per day!!..rang mango's back,played merry hell with them,eventually spoke to fraser who said there would be no charge..can't ask for better than that!!

Shocked. I only ever deal with Craig Aspin or Mark Hutchinson and never had any such capers with them. Are you prepared to name and shame the "suit" that you dealt with?

Originally Posted by alfaman155

have to agree..i have emailed on several occasions without a reply

Yes, do they ever look at their emails, sales, service or anyone

Originally Posted by happy man

You may not know that Mango's are the ONLY dealership we have in the NW

Originally Posted by ACAPULCO AL

might be an idea to try ES Jones (i think that's what they're called) in wrexham. i think dpat got his 159 from them and i seem to remember he was pretty pleased with them

Don't forget ES Jones just outside Chester - ask for Frank Tompkin.

However I am going to Mangos tomorrow as seemingly they 'want my 159'!!!!!

I have been to Mangoletsi today and Kevan was dealing with me. Since I have been last the place and the people have undergone a dramatic change. The new showroom looks great and Kevan and Gordan were great.

I was given a great test drive in the 147 Q2 Sport () and then was allowed to have it for the afternoon to bring it home, show it to my wife and try the children in it.

Ultimately it isn't the car for us but Kevan is working on something else for me. They are keen on acquiring my car and the deal they worked me for the 147 was pretty good but hopefully we can get a deal together so I can stay in an Alfa

All-in-all top marks to Mangos

I was impressed with Kevan's approach too when we met a month or so ago.

We'll definitely just be speaking to him when we look again at the GT or Ti. Hopefully we'll get to test a GT and at least the 2.4 so I can get a feel for the 159 outside a showroom.

Originally Posted by dpat

Yes, do they ever look at their emails, sales, service or anyone

Apparently not...nor do they appear to read letters.

Time to go to the top, I think - problems move down an organisation much more quickly than they move up!