FJ Chalke & Vale Motors Reviews 

We had a turbo replaced in our Nissan in September 2023 by FJ Chalke, Wincanton after it failed.
The replacement turbo failed (as diagnosed by FJC,W) in September 2024, 12 days after the warranty period expired. We were told there would be no 'good will' gesture to attempt to cover this as it was out of warranty. We were initially quoted (over the phone) in excess of £4,000 to replace it this time. This was reduced to a little over £3,000 once it was challenged.
The turbo was deemed as 'faulty' by both Nissan and FJC (owing to the fact it failed after c.8,000 miles).
This has been ongoing for weeks now. We were given a courtesy car but this has been revoked and now, FJC are demanding we remove the vehicle from their care (despite it still having a failed turbo).
As far as customer service goes, this ranks extremely poorly. We're simply looking for a resolution which covers the cost of the replacement and for a fully-working turbo to be installed.

Edit: the Service Manager is not in discussion with us as he has refused to offer any help on the failed part you installed, forcing us to wait months for the Ombudsman to provide a solution. So no, I wouldn't say this illustrates that you are committed to the best possible outcome for your customers.

I'm not usually one to leave bad reviews but I had a poor experience at this dealership. I was told a car had a full service history on the phone, I booked an appointment for 4d later to see the car and paid the reserve price to hold it. Travelled two hours to view the car and was planning on driving it away all being well. On arrival they got my appointment time wrong by an hour despite me having confirmed the appointment the day before and the car was still being cleaned as I arrived. When I requested the service history it turned out they were missing 5 years worth of paperwork, apparently it had grown legs. I was shown the empty folder where the paperwork had 'definitely been yesterday’ but was clear they'd never had the service history to start with. Total waste of time. I was disappointed with their lack of organisation and their attempt to pull the wool over my eyes.
EDIT: the director of the dealership has been in touch, he’d taken the time to listen back to the recorded phone conversation which I appreciated. He was very sincere and apologetic and I felt reassured he has really looked into this situation. I like to think both from my conversation with him and from reading other reviews that this situation is not a regular occurrence and I just got unlucky on the day.

I have just bought two cars from the Mere showroom and Colin then Ian were second to none.
Amazing service and made it so simple.
Would recommend the showroom any day thank you 😊

FJ Chalke has continually failed to deliver satisfactory service. First was a refusal to sort damage to the bumper lacquer under warranty - eventually undertaken after intervention by Nissan. Second was the first service at 18k miles, at which I was quoted for changing the brake discs, because they were showing signs of corrosion - probably due to having been washed. Three years and two MOTs later, we’re still on the same discs. Seems like a crude approach to chisel money for unnecessary work. Third was a service undertaken followed a day later by failure of the 12v battery. Probably a coincidence but I was quoted a month's wait to get the car back in to run a diagnostic. In the end, I bought and fitted a new battery without a diagnostic - seems fine now. Surely they should have capacity for what should have been fairly simple.

I cannot believe how poor the service is at FJ Halle in Yeovil is. I took my car in under warranty as the turbo blew. I was told it would be back on the Friday. I phone on the Thursday to make sure it was ready as no one called. They said there was a problem. Now two weeks later with poor communication and then drilling holes in the engine of my car I go to the garage to be told there is another problem and my car isn’t ready. They have now had the car for three weeks. They are saying they need to diagnose it again. I work and have had to use a work car and then when I finally get a courtesy car on Friday last week they say they need it back first thing Monday. I get to the garage only to be told don’t you get the message over the weekend that your car isn’t ready still. This branch are plainly incompetent at communication and fixing cars without making them worse first

After some problems with aftersales and lack of communication FJ Chalke have sorted everything thing out. Thank you Steve, the sales manager! The car is great

I can't speak for their other branches but their Kia branch in Mere have always gone out of their way to be helpful even when searching the service history of a car I wasn't buying from them! My wife and I both now own Kia, and both will be serviced, etc, at Kia in Mere (my wife's was before).

FJ Chalke are a company who make their customers pay for their mistakes. Great cars shame we have been treated so poorly. Will not be recommending them or using them again.

Excellent professional service,pleasant and charming staff, very accommodating to my needs, highly recommended

Dreadful customer service
No one ever returns calls I had to chase someone on the sales team when looking to change our current Kia and left four messages. When we eventually decided
Service department never all back either it’s a constant chore trying to deal with this group.
Kia cars are great, the customer service is dreadful

I can not review buying a car from FJ Chalke as we already had our Nissan when we moved down here but that makes this lot even better. They didn't sell us the car but they still help, discuss, suggest and even smile when I come in to buy parts. There are lots of damn good cars to buy out there so it's all down to after sales servicing and parts, so you won't go far wrong with this group.