City Electric Vehicles ( CEVE ) Avis 

I had a windscreen replaced by another business, after there were a few issues with my vehicle. It was clear that a wire had been cut during the windscreen replacement process based on some research on my car. The windscreen business is not an electrician and recommended that I go to a garage who can fix the electrical problem.

My appointment was at their opening time of 9am, my car was not taken until 9:30am, a business should stick to their appointment time especially when they had 5 days notice. I received a call later that my car was only booked in for an hour (I was told it could take all day and was not made aware the booking was an hour) they offered to work on it for an extra hour… Keeping it for over a week they worked on the car for 5 hours, and could not find the problem. They recommended that it would be too expensive to keep working on the car and that the wire cut would’ve been far too small to notice or maybe water damage. Over the phone, the price was told to be £400 and that was with a discount that they had added. I went to the business to retrieve my car and the price was £480. I had to go get cash for the price to be lowered to £400.

After hearing I was charged £400 and nothing was fixed the windscreen business offered to come take a look because this didn’t sound right.
After reading my invoice
(plug in diagnostics and report, remove and refit: headlining to inspect windscreen aperture and antenna electrical terminals, remove and refit: A-Pillars to inspect windscreen aperture and wiringl, remove and refit: Windscreen wipers, scuttle panel and under bonnet trim to access the lower windscreen aperture to check wiring., remove and refit: Rear fog light to check wiring bulb and bulb holder, checked fuse boxes for rear fog light fuse and relay, continuity test carried out on wire from fog light to fuse box, body control module inspected for water ingress - no visible signs of water ingress / witness marks)
the windscreen business decided to remove my windscreen entirely to see if they could find anything by the dashboard that would not have been visible without the windscreen removed. After removing the windscreen the headline dropped (previously removed by CEVE) and the cut wire was found in minutes and was very obvious.

I went back to CEVE and I stood in reception and listened to them criticising me for not getting the windscreen guy to fix it in the first place (they were unaware that I was standing there for a minute). It was very tense and I felt very uncomfortable because as a customer I just wanted to sort out this issue. I showed them the photos of the cut wire they said that they had checked behind the headlining carefully and they did not find anything so the wire that the windscreen business found must’ve been hidden or trapped within the windscreen and therefore CEVE would not have been able to find it… However when CEVE showed me their photos of my vehicle, after lightly increasing the exposure in a photo you can see that the wire was not trapped and was exposed after taking out the headlining. CEVE seemed apprehensive to believe that was the wire that was cut. I’m no car expert but based on the colour and position of the wire in the photos from the garage and the windscreen business, simply comparing the both of them you can clearly see it was that wire. They still deny that they missed this wiring and claims that the windscreen would’ve needed to be removed entirely… despite the fact that the photos show that the wire could’ve been easily accessed and fixed because it was behind the headlining that they had already removed. Perhaps it would’ve been easier to see the wire with the windscreen removed, but the wire was still accessible and clearly was not checked thoroughly.
A non-electrician found the problem and fixed it in under 5 minutes, they removed the windscreen because they believed that maybe the damage was hidden but then saw an obviously cut wire with the headlining dropped and so CEVE should have spotted this problem. I understand that the money is for the labour worked on the car, however if properly inspected, this problem should’ve been found in under an hour which would’ve cost me around £80/£100.

Context: I’m 21 years old, I was not able to get to my job for over a week because of this issue. This situation was very stressful and I did cry because I was losing my job, I paid £400 for seemingly nothing and I was told my car was worth scrapping because it would be too expensive to continue working on. “Screaming” is a very highly exaggerated description that CEVE tried to describe me as having in a previous review that I took down to reword after talking with the business.

Reply: the windscreen did not need to be taken off to fix the issue- pictures on my Google review prove this the cut wire is visible and accessible in a photo they took!!

I didn’t have direct dealings with this company, but my daughter was unfortunate enough to have booked her vehicle with them.

There was an issue with the windscreen and some electrical wiring. They had the vehicle for a week and worked on it for 6 hours without finding a fault eventually advising that the vehicle was best being scrapped. We had the guy who fixed the windscreen find the fault within 40 mins. The issue was obvious and should have been easy to see (it did not require removal of the windscreen).

I had to phone them myself on a few occasions and they never returned calls, I always had to chase.

have subsequently contacted them to make a complaint and they (unsurprisingly) have failed to respond. They were unhelpful and unprofessional throughout and I would not recommend
Their services.

There appear to be some great reviews on here. My advice would be don’t risk it and choose any other specialist

Just had my whole front steering replaced by Mase & Dean.
Absolutely fantastic service! In and out the same day.
Would highly recommend to anyone in need of work done to their vehicle especially the cab trade. 10/10

Excellent garage, this team is even ready to pick up my cab from my home in coventry and return to do a serviice on it...thanks

Chuq

Always been 5 * for me. Recommend, knowledgeable, trustworthy and fair. The overnight pick up and return for my EV Taxi for servicing is innovative too.

Had a fault with my car, managed to get a speedy appointment with ceve, arrived there with my car, was met with a professional welcome from the lady behind the desk, after a short while they plugged my car in and did a full diagnostic reading with thier machine, found the fault, gave me some pricing options, i needed my car for work reasons and much to my surprise they even managed to get the part the same day !!! Very fairly priced and car has been faultless since, thank you very much CEVE, highly recommend 👍🏼 , Allan

Down to earth and their vehicle knowledge is impeccable. Will use again.

Great people, had the problem diagnosed and fixed extremely quickly, they clearly know their stuff, highly recommend!

Great people. Know their EV stuff.

They recently had one of our EVs in to diagnose a fault. They had it for an hour and were going to take on the fault repair but circumstances changed meaning we could get the fault repaired by the manufacturer outside of warranty at no cost. We advised City Electric Vehicle Engineering we were not in need of their services and was quite prepared to pay for the diagnostic session. They waived this. No questions.

Another one of our EVs was diagnosed and repaired (electrical issues on an extremely high mileage e208). Cost to repair with OEM parts was a low price and we came away feeling we’ve found a genuine EV specialist who did not rip us off.

Genuine, friendly people.

I was looking to get some work done under warranty, after three visits and several phone calls CEVE finally managed to diagnose the problem but then did not book my vehicle in for the fault repair despite my chasing on several occasions.
Now looking at paying out £1K+ out of my own pocket at another garage as my warranty has expired.

Came here for a car service. Was quick, well priced and the staff were friendly and professional. Free coffee and free wifi was available 👍 Would recommend.