Formula One Autocentres - Orpington Anmeldelser 

I booked two tyres with fitting through a reputable tyre-selling website and selected Formula One Autocentres for same-day fitting. Unfortunately, the experience was extremely disappointing.
Upon arrival, a member of staff inspected my locking wheel nut and immediately claimed it had “micro cracks” and might fail during removal. This was surprising, considering the exact same locking nut had been used earlier that same day to fit my spare wheel without any issue. It felt like an attempt to pressure me into purchasing an unnecessary replacement part.
I was then informed it would take over an hour to fit just two tyres, which is already excessive for such a routine job. In reality, I waited 1 hour and 30 minutes before getting my car back.
The most serious issue became apparent once I drove on the motorway. The car was shaking heavily at speed, making it feel unsafe to drive. I had to book another garage to inspect the work, where I was informed that both newly fitted wheels were severely out of balance. The balancing had clearly not been done properly, creating what I consider to be a dangerous driving condition.
This was a very poor experience from start to finish — unnecessary upselling attempts, excessive waiting times, and most importantly unsafe workmanship. I would strongly advise others to avoid this garage.

Absolute corrupt, unprofessional Formula 1 Orpington

DO NOT USE THEM

Manager walks out, all staff arguing, they all contradict one another and absolutely scam you on prices

Head Office do nothing either

AVOID

( Orpington branch )If I could I would give them 0 stars! I used them a few years back to do a few things on my car but when I picked it up they hadn’t done what they said they had! I then used a company call black circle to get some tires on my car and unfortunately end up here. I had an appointment booked for 9:00am I turned up to be told there was running late! They said it would take a hour to do so I went of for an hour to come back to find they had not even started it yet! In the meantime more people came in to complain about the service they had received the day before and my tyres finally got done 2 and half hours after my appointment time ! Don’t use them

I have tried to respond to the comment but still waiting for them to get back to me

I’ve had to come and get my car wheel changed Formula One auto Centre orpington the guys in there were lovely but the prices of their tyres are absolutely ridiculous. They literally have robbed me for one little tire for my mini Cooper. Would I come back in? No would I suggest anyone comes here? No not for their tyres but for the guys are lovely The price of the tyres are ridiculous. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I’m still waiting for a refund of £44.99 from December because the mot machine broke down half way through my test and I ended up going elsewhere.
Rob requested a refund via
Head office , but still no refund

Had 4 new continental tyres fitted and made a point of them removing the old weights black sticky tape and not to put new weights on top because it doesn’t stick as well and more chance of falling off also don’t look very nice through my clean 19” rims, and guess what they did exactly the opposite of what I asked for even though I just spent quite a bit of money having premium tyres fitted.

This is a follow up from a review I posted 5 days ago.
I had made an online MOT and service booking appointment date 15/12/2025. I left the car at the centre. That afternoon I was telephoned by the centre to say that on starting to look at the car, that it would fail an MOT unless the suspension arms and top mounts were replaced as well as the front brake discs. I expressed disbelief that a car that had done only 13,000 miles (and only 1,200 miles since the last MOT where there were no suspension or brake advisories) could possibly need replacement brake discs! I was told that they would send through an email quote for the work required to get the car through the MOT. It quoted a total of £810.01 for the work.
I knew this was an attempted scam and immediately retrieved the car from the Orpington branch and booked an MOT with National Autocentres for the next day. As I expected, the car passed the MOT without even advisories on the suspension or the front brakes.

The regional manager has now contacted me and basically said that he had listened to the phone call and that the employee should not have told me that the work was required to get the car through an MOT since an MOT had not been carried out. However, while he offered to refund the MOT fee given he accepted it was never carried out, he refused to refund the cost of the service which he said was carried out. Even though I was never given any service sheet or evidence it was carried out. He basically said he would take it up with the branch. That was it.
So I will now initiate a charge back on my credit card. And I would urge anyone reading this that has had similar problems to contact their credit or debit card company to get the money reclaimed.
I will also take the case up with the DVSA and Trading standards.
Appalling company.

UPDATE : Thanks for offering for me to contact customer care, but if you had read my post you would realise I had and got nowhere.

Had 3 new tyres fitted with an MOT at ORPINGTON F1 Autocentre and it has now just come to light that the fitter excessively overtightened the wheel nuts on all the wheels worked on to such a ridiculous extent that professional efforts to remove the wheels has resulted in stripped wheel nuts which will need to be replaced at unwanted cost of £40. Cannot recommend this branch as excessively overtightening the wheel nuts effectively means proper care and skill was not evident. Local manager not helpful and takes no responsibility. Beware if you are having tyres or other work carried out that requires your wheels to be removed at this branch.

There was a slight mix-up with my booking not being on their work for that day, but the manager soon sorted it and made a slot for me. Work was done to my satisfaction and quicker than the estimated time. Will use again.

I had a very poor experience at Formula One Autocentre Orpington.

Booked my BMW 6 Series in for rear shocks, rear wheel bearings and a four-wheel alignment — all parts supplied by me. Initially quoted £275, later revised to £500 including parking brake shoes, which I agreed to.

Dropped the car off at 8:30am, then told later it would take all day. By 3pm, I was informed that no work had been done and the car was being reassembled because the shocks were “incorrect,” even though they’d been verified by my supplier using the vehicle registration.

No apology, no explanation, and no offer of goodwill or compensation for the wasted day. Very poor communication and customer service. I won’t be returning and wouldn’t recommend this branch.

The manager also refused to give me any proof he had worked on my car, but it’s all on the CCTV and I have a video photos and a recording of a conversation.

I took a flat tyre in to have a puncture repaired about a month ago, which was done but they found another small screw in the side of the tyre, so they refused to charge me for the puncture, even though the tyre held it's pressure and they had fitted the wheel back on the car. The manager just advised me to replace it as soon as possible.

Today, i took a different wheel in to have another puncture repaired, all done and again, they did not charge me, I don't know why the repair was complimentary but it was definitely appreciated.

Thank you

Having had 2 successful MOT’s on our cars here this year, when one had an advisory I did not hesitate to ask this garage to quote on the job.

The car went in on Tuesday evening so that I could get dropped and avoid paying for an Uber.

The job I was told would start first thing on Wednesday and that they would need it for a couple of hours. On the Wednesday no communication at all so I chased them and they said they had received incorrect parts no less than 4 times!! As this was already lunchtime I began to get nervous, school runs were just around the corner and this was about to put me in peril. I was to leave it with them to sort. 3 or so hours then passed and again no phone call to update me so I once again chased them. They had basically given up trying to get the part, a staff member told me the boss was pulling his hair out having spent over 3 hours taking stuff off the car. This was both terrible to hear and slightly comical if truth be known!! School runs went and I had already used 2 Ubers! Eventually at 5.15 I chased them again only to be told a staff member who had a “specialist tool” had gone home and nothing could be done for today. Begrudgingly the car stayed there overnight with the promise the guy would return the next morning with the magical tool and they would need just 30 minutes to put the wheels on. Baring in mind they had also given up on trying to get the right part at this point and wasn’t hiding this.

Next day I gave them until 11.30 only to be told the guy is doing an MOT and mine would be the next car he would look at but they would need 2 more hours! To say this was frustrating and only served to create more annoyance on my part is an understatement.

At this stage I was honestly just wanting my car back, the idea of getting my car fixed was now just a distant memory. I called again in 2hrs then booked an Uber to go and get my car. When I arrived it was no surprise that it wasn’t ready so I sat in the waiting room watching my car still up on the ramp. Nuts and bolts and god knows what else was alarmingly clattering to the floor which seemed so unprofessional.

What I cannot understand is that if a supplier had sent the wrong part the first time why would you not make absolute sure the next supplier did not do the same thing x4? Either they are stupid or not being entirely truthful!!

In the end a very nice guy (Matt) gave me a print out of the part I need. He said to go off and order it (yes me) and they would fit it. They clearly didn’t want the job, which is fine because I wouldn’t trust them anyway.

Unfortunately this garage has no respect for your time and operate in a completely different time zone to normal folk. Reading the reviews (after) each negative story carries a very common theme.

Matt by the way is a thoroughly decent chap but the Manager really isn’t. When I dropped the car off initially parking was difficult, naturally I put it in front of their workshop. The Manager asked me to move it but I asked why if he was driving it into their workshop overnight. Anyway he didn’t press me on this but I could tell he had complete disdain for anyone questioning him.

To summarise this garage will never see our cars again but I also don’t think they cared either.

As I left was that Matt said that someone had left the cars lights on and this had flattened my battery. They had needed to give it a charge before I could take it. My sat nav is also now speaking in an American accent as well grrr!!

Fantastic customer service, competitive pricing and lovely friendly team.
Very happy with service and. MOT, great feedback sheet too to help plan upcoming servicing or issues.
Great for budgeting and no surprises.

Thank you Rob and Team, extremely happy customer.

Orpington site.
Good points first. Matt is a reasonable man that knows how to speak to customers and is a fair person.
Bad points. I paid £250 for full service mot and aircon. The car failed the mot and the extortionate bill was £900. I put the car in at 8.30 Thursday. They asked me to leave the car overnight. I said no and they did a temporary fix but I had to bring the car back 8.30 Friday. The manager Roy said he didn't have a retester till Sat so I would have to bring it back Saturday. Luckily all the work was completed Friday by 2pm.
Considering my bill was £1100 the manager Roy told me 5 times a least I had to see it from his point that he was short staffed and had to come in on his day off. His exaggerated sighs and ridiculous eye rolling were nerve tingling.
My point of view as an £1100 customer was the bill was extortionate. The time going to and from the centre was annoying.
And If Roy speaks to customers in such a sharp rude manner then I bet he treats his staff far worse and I can understand why people ring in sick.
Long and short version. Never again

My father took my vehicle here for MOT, unfortunately it failed on a tyre defect. Not an issue as I had a replacement at home. So he brought the car back to me where I swapped the wheel over. Then took it straight back the next day, got it retested, which consisted of it being driven into the workshop and parked up for roughly 20/30 minutes, without any interest from anyone which I could see through the window. Then it was driven back out and I got my certificate and was told I had to pay £14.95 for the retest as I had the repair done offsite. There is no obvious mention of this in the waiting room or further more no staff members mentioned it either side of my MOT. So beware if you go here there is probably more hidden charges!

Very easy to book and competitive priced MOT. Rang me back within an hour to collect. Very nice and friendly staff. Highly recommended!

Not happy with the staff
I saw today was a tester trying to brake my bonnet of my van, by slamming it so hard, how he didn’t break it, then told me that my washer for the window had no water in it, funny that it worked perfectly,
So failed my van on its MOT, I got the impression that the tester, is to make sure that the van is rd worthy, I was so upset, I walked in to the garage, and said forget it, took it to Central garage in green st green, Orpington Kent, and it passed, the tester said it had fabulous admission test, and the van seals were in great condition, by the way, my van is a 57 plate, so my advice would be, dont use formula one in Orpington Kent,

Booked a re-gas with Brandon for 9.30, and on the day arrived to find temporary receptionist couldn’t find my appointment and said there were 2 in line waiting so a two hour wait.
No thanks,
Will not be visiting again.

Terrible!
I booked a tyre change with this company Days in advance and I received a call on the morning of the arranged tire fitting telling me that the one tire fitter that they had at the branch had called in sick and so they could not change my tyre.

I was only 10 minutes away from the branch when I receive the phone call after taking a morning off work.

This is Very shoddy service And I am surprised that such a large company has only one tyre fitter.

I told them that I will take my business elsewhere as this is Unacceptable. The guy I spoke to on the phone didn’t sound too bothered.

I certainly won’t be using this company ever again!

Booked mot for swb transit. Went to centre they say can’t do . Too big cos it’s a man. It’s not it’s a Swb. Anyway wouldn’t do mot . Which leaves me with an expiring mot.
Hopeless
They say they don’t do vans so I suggest van drivers go elsewhere for all your needs