Brownhills Motorhomes

I am awarding a 1-star review based strictly on the lack of executive accountability, the five required trips to the dealership for this warranty claim alone, and a warranty repair that remains fundamentally incomplete.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a factual account of my ongoing experience with Brownhills (Newark) and their approved repairer, SMC, regarding my motorhome which I bought brand new just over two years ago.
From day one of ownership, the factory paintwork on the Fiat chassis has been actively degrading. Despite reporting this early, no remedial action was taken by the dealership following their assessment until I bypassed them to contact Fiat directly, who then applied pressure on Brownhills to respond.

Furthermore, Brownhills explicitly stated to me twice verbally and once in writing that the roof had been inspected. This later turned out not to be true, and I felt the need to take the vehicle to an independent Fiat dealer for a proper full assessment. Brownhills also claimed that I had signed a job card restricting their and the SMC inspection strictly to the bonnet; however, a subsequent UK GDPR Right of Access request revealed that the job card did not contain this wording.

The photographs posted are the original paint defects as they appeared before the repair attempts.

Here is the timeline of what has happened since:

• The SMC Repair: Brownhills appointed SMC to carry out the repair. The vehicle was left with them for 15 days in June. Given a quoted turnaround time of four weeks (potentially longer), my warranty expiring and the summer approaching, I felt I had no choice but to accept this. Unfortunately, the repair remains fundamentally incomplete.
• Failed Follow-ups: Brownhills called a joint inspection meeting (myself, my wife, Brownhills, and SMC) to document the remaining faults. A subsequent two-day repair session was scheduled and carried out based on Brownhills’ own minutes from that meeting. This second repair attempt was inspected jointly with Brownhills, yet issues remain.
• The Current Status: Brownhills have accepted that there are outstanding issues and have now given me a choice: either a third repair attempt, or a goodwill compensation amount of 1.4% (£1,000 on this £69,000 purchase) to accept the vehicle as it currently stands. I have not yet accepted either option, as my priority remains getting the brand-new vehicle repaired fully and properly.
• The Inconvenience: To date, I have had to present the motorhome at Newark five times for this warranty claim alone. This included one 100-mile round trip solely for them to take additional photographs for Fiat because the originals taken by them were deemed unsuitable. These five visits are in addition to many other separate warranty claim visits, two of which required additional visits to rectify properly.
• Executive Communication: Multiple emails have been exchanged with senior management, including the CEO and customer services. The CEO is fully aware of the situation, yet my repeated requests to speak with or meet the CEO directly and in person—including twice last Wednesday—have been declined.

This reflects my direct, documented experience with Brownhills and their ongoing repair process. I'm incredibly disappointed with the lack of executive accountability after a premium purchase.

It leaves me wondering: is this just poor aftersales service, declining standards across the industry, or are my expectations simply too high?

Has anyone else experienced similar chassis paint issues on a recent Fiat base? More importantly, how have others successfully dealt with a dealership over incomplete or failed warranty repairs?


I would be very grateful to hear how you resolved it, what legal or ombudsman routes worked best for you, and how you finally got the job done properly.

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Beware when purchasing from Brownhills ,their warranty is with a firm called carcare who will go out of their way to wriggle out of a claim and have many exclusions . I bought my last van from Newark and had a couple of issues , first one a faulty grill (a normal problem on a motorhome) which was done by a fitter local to me and paid for by Brownhills however after that i had a problem with the fridge with both front and rear circuit boards blowing , A phone call to carcare and they tell me in a very abrupt manner that it does not cover the circuit boards .Cost me over £300 to replace but decided due to the negative attitude of the warranty company i would not bother at all with the warranty and as Newark is a couple of hours from me and would be a problem to take it back to them to do the repairs i wish now i had bought locally.

Thought I'd share a rather worrying post on another forum clearly stating the Brownhills were looking to charge £90 per hour to inspect and prepare a report on a potential warranty claim on an for water ingress on an Itineo less than 2 years old. Some fields below had to be completed so marked as I saw fit.