No matter if your Alfa is a Giulia, a Spider or a modern MiTo, your personal photo can be added to Alfa Romeo’s centenary mosaic which has been designed to celebrate this milestone birthday.

“Many of the images capture those special memories or magical moments which bring all Alfa owners together; from the special birthday cake to the son helping to clean his dads car for the first time,” says Damien Dally UK Brand Communications Manager for Alfa Romeo.

If FOXY was writing this, read Mums and Daughters of course because, as the photo confirms, women drivers love and drive Alfas too…

Any Motoring Juliets who do this before June 18 will also be included in a prize draw to win an exclusive Alfa Romeo goodie bag and a pair of VIP tickets to the Goodwood Festival of Speed (2 – 4 July).

To submit your photo before July 5th please visit www.alfacentenary.co.uk.

To find out about genuinely good and female friendly garages who can service or repair your Alfa Romeo, have a look at the FOXY Choice website or join FOXY Lady Drivers Club to get a 1:1 recommendation near you.

FOXY Steph

“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”  Coco Chanel

They are now the first winner of the motor industry’s Golden Garage award 2010, as a 5-entry dealership subscriber to Motor Code’s service and repair scheme.

What we like about them is that this is a family run business with father, son and daughter involved, and whilst there will be some (envious) independent garages that can undercut their prices, they clearly do care about customer service, have some impressive customer feedback to report and, we assume, will easily meet FOXY Choice’s female friendly standards with Keith’s daughter a potential Female Business Ambassador of course…

It goes to show that it isn’t just the lowest price that matters when you publish a clear servicing price menu so everyone can see exactly what it costs and what you get.

Well done Kinghams.

FOXY Steph

Find out about other female friendly FOXY Choice garages in the UK…

If she buys new she will have a warranty of course and we discussed the whys and wherefores of getting this serviced at a manufacturers dealership and we made sure she understood her choices here. Despite the excellent work done by the Right To Repair campaign many women drivers still think they have to have this work done by a main dealer which is not the case.

In reality sometimes the female motorist chooses the dealership because she wants to take it back to the business she bought it from and, rightly or wrongly, she might decide to pay a bit more for this thinking that it might add value to the resale value of her car when she came to sell it. Which it doesn’t but that’s up to her to decide.

This is anathema to the ears of Eddy Mann who runs Alfaman Services in Harrow opposite Rayners Lane Underground station. Alfaman specialises in Alfas (which can be tricky for some) but services and repairs all makes by the way. One thing that Eddy hates is the reputation the motor industry has for being unfriendly and, too often for either of us, for charging women drivers more for doing less. Perhaps offending businesses think we won’t know any better and clearly some women do retire hurt from these garages, suspecting they have been ripped off some way.

But Eddy is well known for putting the motorist first – for saying what needs doing, what doesn’t need doing yet and what can be fixed cheaply but safely. Alfaman Services is in effect an honest garage in Harrow who has signed the female friendly FOXY Promise and is a FOXY Choice subscriber because of this -  which is how we know him.

Which is where this blog started because having talked about Alfas and then finding that the member lives in Harrow she happens to have a readymade garage solution on her doorstep which can save her money in the long term if she decides to buy Alfa.

As always, the choice is hers and we don’t try to tell anyone what to do of course. If any woman driver wants to know where the female friendly garages are and what the membership deals are, she can now ask FOXY Lady Drivers Club and visit FOXY Choice, that’s all.

FOXY Steph

We play a game called spot the new cars and it helps while away car journeys with young travellers in particular.

One of the 09 plates I spotted, close to the office, was an Alfa Romeo MiTo which is a new model. I liked it a lot.

And just in case you didn’t know where the name came from – it’s an amalgamation of two Northern cities in Italy – Milano and Torino.

Look out for it – I think it’s a very pretty car and one that women drivers will want to buy.

I MUST get round to test driving it soon then I’ll tell you more.

FOXY Steph

Find out more at http://tiny.cc/mito

I hope it loads quicker than it did for me tonight…