Bill Britt Motors

Tips before you bring your car into be serviced here:
1. Check your windshield wipers for tears before you go in. Mechanics there (at least in the past) used to tear them at the ends on purpose to ensure you would buy new ones when your car’s state safety inspection was due.
2. Make sure you monitor how long it is between services. Another trick they used to do (I don’t know if they still do) is to tell you that your transmission is due for service, regardless of whether it was really due or not.
3. If you are really set on buying a car there, IMHO you should not mention your brand of religion if it isn’t the same as theirs.
4. If you have to bring your car back more than twice for the same repair, quickly escalate it above the dealer level. This will ensure you get priority as it hurts their customer satisfaction rating.
5. Pricing on parts can be somewhat arbitrary. The guys at the counter have some discretion. The parts manager has quite a bit more. If they tell you the price is the price, they are lying.

Let me start off by saying I’m not some punk kid with a street racing car. I am in my late 20s, and have a mechanical engineering degree with a respectable job in that field. Cars are also my hobby, so I am intimately familiar with how they work, and do way more to maintain them than most anyone I know.
That said, I had a Mazdaspeed3 (an entry level performance car) that suffered a broken driver side motor mount bolt, slightly dropping that side of the engine down and separating the inner CV joint from its transmission housing. This happened at 5mph as I was leaving for work, so no big deal, no major damage. I suspect the cause was years of rough and potholed roads in the Norfolk area when I lived there, coupled with a tragically poor design from Mazda itself. Anyway, I took the car to Bill Brit (as the closest Mazda dealership), since I just moved to Fredericksburg and had no knowledge of any other reputable shops in the area. They fixed it for about $ 600, which was fair, and I carried on. About a week later, I pull out from a gas station on Rt301, accelerate up to the speed limit, and BANG. Not good. I pull the car over, and sure enough the engine is back on the ground the same way as before. Only this time it happened at 55mph and dropped the engine with enough force to crack the transmission case as it pulled all the mounting bolts out of the mount. I then had to tow the car an hour back to Bill Brit (assuming they were going to fix their mistake) at a cost of $ 100 through AAA. This is where it gets really interesting. Not only did they tell me I had to replace both the engine and transmission at a cost of $ 14k, but that the cause was because I was «driving it too hard,» and that they would not cover any of it. On top of that, I STILL had to pay another $ 100 just for the diagnosis. I was furious. The service writer actually had one of their techs come out (who was close to yelling at me the whole time) and explain how I was driving the car «too hard» and pointed to the performance exhaust and intake (WHICH ARE MAZDA FACTORY OPTION PARTS! IT CAME THAT WAY FROM THE FACTORY!) as proof. At this point, all I could do was buy another car so that I could still make it to work (I had just started and had no ability to take time off) and get a lawyer to see what my options were. More bad news: lawyer said that these cases are difficult in that I would have to prove negligence, and that I couldn’t recover lawyer fees (estimated at $ 2−3k) which would negate most all of anything I would get from them. I did have a master tech (decades of repair experience) from a reputable shop I had worked at over the summers during school to give me a quick second opinion. One look at the repair work and he started laughing. I won’t go into the technical details, but let’s just say they obviously messed up, at least to a trained tech. At last some good news! But no, not to last. My apartment complex had a rule about non-​working cars in their parking lot, and it had to move or get towed at great expense. Self storage places will not touch broken cars, and I had no accommodating friends in the area. My only option was to sell the car. A car that was worth $ 10k in present condition/​mileage, was barely worth even $ 3 broken… So here I am now, $ 7k out of equity, $ 800 in cash, and $ 20k in debt for a new car (A Subaru, which I like much better, I do suggest you look into them).
I pray you head this cautionary tale of woe, and avoid their service department like the plague. I still give them the finger every time I drive by…

I just purchased another car from Bill Britt and I was just as pleased with the service and the prices as I was with the previous car we bought from them.
Everyone was helpful and knowledgable and I liked that they actually meant no-​hassle pricing. The car was used so there was a part missing and they worked hard to find the part and replace it for no additional cost. They gave me a great price on a hitch installation and everything was done how and when they said it would be.
We visited several other dealerships and looked at other cars. We weren’t impressed with the salesman, their prices or their approach at the other dealers and eventually came back to Bill Britt to work with Don and get our new vehicle.
I’m a pretty picky consumer and I appreciate quality service. This was a great experience and the process was swift and the staff was attentive. After telling the salesman that I was ready to buy, I think I was done in less than an hour.
I have good credit, so I also checked with two of the banks I do business with on rates, including a credit union and both were higher than what the dealership was able to find for me with a national bank.
I was happy all the way around.

This is the third car that I purchased from Andrew at Bill Britt VW. He does a fantastic job at making sure that I get the car I want at the price that I need. I always get top dollar for my trade and the best interest rate with Andrew. Andrew gives me excellent customer service every time that I go to visit. Great job Andrew, keep up the good work.

Fantastic dealership. We really enjoyed working with Mike but everyone I talked to was kind, knowledgeable and didn’t ever give off that stereotypical «car salesman» vibe I’ve experience both in the past and recently in NoVa. We drove down three times from NoVa in rush hour traffic just to shop there and it was so worth it– found an awesome car at a great price. Great experience all around!

This was the best and easiest car buying experience. The first time we visited the dealership, we were amazed by the fact that the salesmen were not pushy and did not try to convince us to buy a car that day. We were genuinely impressed. I went online to do more research and talked to others who had purchased from Bill Britt. Everything I read and every review I received were completely positive. When we returned to the dealership two days later (over a holiday weekend) the salesman we spoke with before (Don) remembered us and the exact car we were interested in. They gave me a fair price for both the new car and my trade-​in (completely hassle-​free). They were also very thorough about going over all the paperwork and owner’s manuals. I am a North Carolina resident who just happened to be visiting my brother when I chose to purchase a new car. I would seriously consider driving back to Fredericksburg to purchase from Bill Britt Motors in the future.

I bought a used car there this past week. Although I love my car, my experience was not the best. I arrived right when they opened. I knew what car I wanted and had all my paper work ready to go. it took them about 4 hours to get my paper work processed. There were only a few other people that came in. My sales person would just disappear for 15 to 20 minutes without letting me know what was going on. I do understand it takes time to purchase a car but 4 hours and the inattentive service seemed unacceptable.

Purchased a Mazda 2 at a good price with no hassle, after have a bad experience with a northern virginia Mazda dealer. Made them the same offer i made in NoVa — well above the USAA buying service price that dealers in MD would give me (+650), and they beat it slightly. I took the VRE train to fredricksburg and they picked me up at the train station. had the car in an hour and was done. Great people great atitude. And a good way to beat northern virginia prices. I might even take a day trip with my wife — train is right near town center, and it is a cute little town.