Cotswold BMW Omdömen 

I took my BMW X3M in for a full service and wheel alignment check. I’d also asked them to identify a strong judder when applying the brakes.
I collected the car having been told it was ready. I asked what they had found and was met by a blank look. Upon drinking the car away there was an instant smell of burning rubber and the brake judder was unchanged. I took the car straight back. After waiting 30 minutes for an engineer to sort out the problem I was told the car was fine and nothing was wrong with it. I could come back if I wasn’t happy. What did they think I was doing now? This went on for 2 more returns. The car was booked in and the brake tensioner arms replaced. No change. I took the car straight back in. I was told to come back if unhappy and to look on the bright side, I had 2 new brake tensioner arms! The burning rubber smell was still ever present.
Following a puncture I had my tyres replaced at an independent tyre fitting garage and the wheel alignment done.
Work meant I was away for much of the next month. Upon return the car was handling worse each day. I took it back to get it seen as I’d also noticed the 2 new rear tyres were badly worn after 3500 miles.
Cotswold BMW diagnosed a worn differential and 2 bald tyres. They quoted for replacing both. I asked if the warranty or they were covering it. They said neither. They then refused to offer me a courtesy car stating I would only be eligible if they had to order parts from Germany. The same for a hire car. Several stressful days later I was informed that the differential was actually ok and that the fault must have been caused by the tyre garage! When I refused to accept this I was then told that the front discs were badly worn, hence the judder, and that the tyre garage must have done a bad wheel alignment and this had caused the wear to the rear tyres. I asked how the burning rubber smell had only started after I’d asked them to check the wheel alignment when the car was serviced, yet now they were claiming it was all the third party garages fault. The service desk person then stated that the check they do ( listed as a safety check) is only a guide and not that accurate!
After 18 days without my car they are saying that they have not been negligent at all and that they are happy for the car to be taken away to be independently assessed or they are happy to do the recommended repairs.
BMW finance who I lease the car from and who I have the service plan with have refused to read my emails as I sent them from a different email address to the one listed on their files. I have used both email addresses that I have and I have had no response beyond an acknowledgment that I have contacted them.
If there was a minus star section I would be giving them a minus 100 for the appalling way they treat their customers and the way the whole BMW chain locks together in order to wear you down. This whole experience has been stressful and handled with a calculated level of pressure designed to make the individual back down due to putting all of the financial burden on the customer despite the customer trying everything to get them to take the problem seriously.

I purchased an approved used 2024 BMW 520i from Cotswold Cheltenham BMW on the 16th of March, 2026 expecting the premium service associated with an authorized main dealer. Instead, I was subjected to appalling vehicle preparation, immense stress, and manipulative sales tactics that ultimately impacted my mental well-being.

The Purchase & Initial Defects:
During the viewing with salesperson Zaid Parekh, I pointed out a minor scratch on the passenger side of the dashboard and small stone chips on the front bumper. While he refused to adjust the purchase price, Zaid explicitly promised that their team would rectify both cosmetic issues while I completed the paperwork.

The moment the payment was transferred, his demeanor completely flipped. When I asked about purchasing an extended cosmetic or alloy package (standard add-ons I always buy for high-end vehicles), his response was incredibly rude: "Customers don't usually ask again when we tell them that we do not offer any cosmetics or alloy package." I felt like walking away there and then, but the funds had already been transferred.

The "Fix" That Ruined the Interior:
When the car was handed over, the bumper touch-ups hadn't even been touched. Worse, the dashboard was a total mess. The prep team had lazily smeared GuardX polish across half the dashboard, leaving a heavy, patchy residue. Zaid dismissed it, assuring me it would "just rub off tomorrow" and promised to post a Brooklyn Grey touch-up paint stick to my home since they didn't have it in stock. I trusted him because this was an approved dealership.

By the next morning, the dashboard looked significantly worse. I contacted Sales Controller Chris Wakefield and sent photos. To his credit, Chris immediately agreed this was completely below BMW-approved standards. BMW Customer Support also intervened.

Under pressure from myself and BMW UK, Cotswold agreed to take the car back to have their "expert" fix it. They provided a 3 Series courtesy car, promising a 2-day turnaround. It took 5 days. When my 5 Series was returned via a delivery driver, even the driver openly admitted to me that half the dashboard now looked completely dry, grainy, and mismatched compared to the rest. A minor scratch had been turned into a massive, permanent eyesore. Furthermore, despite returning their courtesy car spotless, Cotswold returned my car unwashed and filthy, later claiming they "didn't want to touch anything else."

The Management U-Turn:
I took the car to another independent, authorized BMW dealership for an objective inspection. They stated the botched repair could not be blended and the only true remedy was a full dashboard replacement, quoting £2,500.

When I passed this quote to Chris Wakefield, he rejected it, stating it would be a "loss for the dealership." Instead, Chris proposed a clean solution: they would buy the car back, refunding exactly what I paid minus my fuel cost. I agreed.

However, after consulting his upper management, Chris pulled a shocking U-turn. He called back to retract the offer, stating that because it was "just a cosmetic issue," they would now only buy it back at current market trade price. Expecting a customer to take a massive financial hit because the dealership's own team permanently ruined the interior is deceptive and unethical.

Conclusion:
This back-and-forth dragged on for a couple of months. Because I have a demanding job and a family, the constant games and avoidance tactics from Cotswold's sales management began severely impacting my mental health. I eventually had to capitulate and keep the car just to end the nightmare.

To add final insult to injury, when I called Zaid Parekh to ask for the simple paint stick he had promised, he hid behind corporate policy, saying "it wasn't written in the contract."

Cotswold Cheltenham BMW used exhausting delay tactics until I was too drained to fight them. They ruined a premium vehicle, went back on their management-level financial agreements, and failed on the simplest verbal promises. Avoid this dealership at all costs.

I have bought BMW cars from Cotswold for 30 years and wanted to buy a new car this week. The display of new cars is clearly now limited to “special editions” and sports editions etc and has no “ordinary” cars on display. I walked over to the sales are but none of the sales staff even looked up. They all appeared to be dealing with administrative jobs. I then went to reception and asked to speak to a sales person. She asked me what I wanted to see a sales person for!! I said I wanted to buy a car!!! She then asked - what car? I said I didn’t know which was why I wanted to speak to someone!! After taking my name she wandered off and I never saw her again. I was at Cotswold for an hour and no one could be interested enough to see me. Having walked out I thought maybe someone would contact me by phone as they had my name and full details on file ( I have a car and my wife has a Cotswold Mini) but no one has. Clearly they are far too big to provide customer care any more. Sad bu I now have to go elsewhere.

My visit felt like navigating a desolate digital landscape 🏞️, cars silently waiting, their prices obscured by a digital haze. QR codes led to emptiness. Not a single attendant's presence graced my path. My search for an X5 will surely flourish elsewhere. 🥀👻