How much did you say?

A number of garages expect me to start the buying process before they tell me how much my car servicing is likely to cost. But I’m foxy, remember; I’m used to comparing prices first and I have no intention of being fobbed off in this way.

If I pick something off a supermarket shelf or High Street clothes rack, for example, I expect to see the price before I buy it.

If it’s more than I want to pay I can keep looking or go elsewhere. Whether it’s a tin of beans, a car service or a fitted kitchen…

And I don’t expect to be asked for my personal details before I’m given a price. That’s enough to send me packing elsewhere…

So when my car needs servicing or repairs I want to know what my choices are and to be able to compare, like for like, what it’s going to cost for my car and model. Because otherwise it’s nigh on impossible to judge what’s best value for money for me, the car and the occasion.

As things stand…some garages publish car servicing tariffs online and others don’t.

Most dealerships and leading independent garages include car collection services whereas few national chain garages and fast-fits do…

And some garage brokers publish a price tariff and collect your car but don’t tell you which garage will be doing the work. This worries me because a low price can be a function of quality workmanship and this is an industry where garages aren’t regulated and mechanics do not have to be accredited as fit for purpose...

Yet many garage and main dealership websites expect motorists to book car servicing and MOTs via their website without confirming a price or giving an estimate for starters. And one assumes people trust them sufficiently to do this…

Well, knowing what I do about the UK’s garage industry I wouldn’t buy expensive garage services without knowing
1     who the garage is
2    whether it’s up to the job ie what are their credentials
3    what my local choices are and
4    that the price is a fair one in my circumstances (from a value for money point of view).

So my advice to all foxy lady drivers is to check the garage in question for measurable signs of quality (like ATA, BSI and OFT logos), look for a tariff (or ask for an estimate in advance) and shop around. And my advice to garages is to publish some sort of estimate before they go to someone else who does.

It’s a very competitive world when it comes to buying car servicing and/or vehicle repairs and this means that independents, dealerships, fastfits and bodyshops must each set out their wares to attract the right customer and car. Prices, customer services and amenities – not just the work they do.

Having said that, it is rarely in any motorist’s best interest to buy a used car or garage service on price alone and no-one should be fooled into buying any garage service or repair without getting a quote in advance…

Sadly too many foxy lady drivers are paying more than they need without realising this until afterwards.

To find out about your choice of garage solutions and signs of garage quality to look for, see FOXY’s Good Garage Guide. And if it’s female friendly garages you’re after, visit FOXY Choice’s website and email selected businesses direct to compare their prices and service levels first.

Finally let us know how you get on and, whilst this offer stands, we’ll thank women who give us garage feedback with a free gift of membership of FOXY Lady Drivers Club worth £23. Where we share the word about the best businesses to benefit foxy lady members and their families…

FOXY Steph

Which garage to choose - I'm confused

What a tangled web of misinformation there is for motorists to cope with when it comes to choosing the best garage for their MOT and/or car servicing.

For starters, the best kept secret in the UK motor industry is surely that the garage industry within it isn’t regulated, that garages don’t have to be licensed (so anyone can set one up at the drop of a hat), that mechanics don’t have to be qualified to repair our cars and there’s no fixed standard when it comes to the content of car services.

Trust me – this is all true.

And this disorder explains why there are so many complaints about used cars and garage services and why there’s a genuine need for FOXY to identify the businesses that sign our female friendly promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services they don’t need.’

One possible reason why the industry doesn’t want us to know this is that this is an opportunity for individual trade factions to earn out of subscription fees to their respective ‘good garage’ schemes. Or am I being too cynical?

For example, the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) promotes the recent Motor Codes Service & Repair Code which is skewed towards franchised dealerships. So the competing motor trade association in England, the RMIF (Retail Motor Industry Federation) has recently introduced another similar scheme, called Trust My Garage, which all garage members can join.

But neither scheme promotes measurable signs of quality, just that their subscribers operate to a fairly basic code of conduct. But they do promise a swift complaints handling procedure which has a self-fulfilling prophetic feel to it I suspect…

Another scheme called The Good Garage Scheme promotes subscribing garages through clever product placement in TV soaps and in adverts. But few motorists realise that this scheme is run by a US oil company and is designed to sell oils not garage credentials. Granted many of their garages probably are ‘good’ but with no benchmark to say what ‘good’ is, I’d definitely want to question that adjective in some instances.

In FOXY’s book, there are three quality logos that distinguish measurably superior and genuine garage quality. These are ATA (Automotive Technician Accreditation), BSI Kitemark and the OFT Code of Practice. To us, each of them means that the business or employee in question has gone that extra mile to invest in being better than the rest.

Then it’s up to the motorist to choose, and we certainly don’t tell women drivers whether they want a dealership or an independent garage to look after their car. Providing they do their shopping homework first and know their choices; it’s their car and their money.

One thing we do feel strongly about however is that a cheap price from a garage you don’t know or haven’t checked (or who hasn’t signed the female friendly FOXY Promise) isn’t worth the risk of saving a few bob on the bill total knowing that shoddy garage workmanship can ultimately cost lives.

But in the absence of industry regulation and recognising that few garages are ATA, BSI Kitemark or OFT logo enabled, we all tend to look for garage testimonials from our friends. This is where it gets really hard for motorists to distinguish the good guys from the pretenders. Because we don’t know who to trust for honest and impartial advice…

And let’s face it, garages are one of the least popular places for women to visit for fear of being ripped off or patronised; if we can delay going or get someone else to do it for us, that’s usually a result. But mightn’t be a foxy decision in the long run.

You might think the Which? Consumer association would want to lead in this area and promote the same signs of garage quality as us. But they prefer member feedback within their Local website. The problem with garage feedback is that it’s often based on an impression formed by a friendly welcome and convenient customer services. Both very important factors of course but it’s workmanship and ethical standards behind the scenes that matter most in my opinion.

Honest John supports the Motor Codes scheme which is dealership skewed and he provides good garage feedback too. As honest as he undoubtedly is <I’m a Telegraph reader> his main interest is clearly cars not garages…

And whilst word of mouth is powerful, testimonials can be rigged to favour or damn. When these appear on a business’ website, for example, with no names and bland/devastating quotes, how reliable can they be?

Finally, and interestingly where this blog started from in the first place… when leading websites that motorists trust, like confused.com, provide ill-informed and ultimately misleading information about garage choices words ultimately fail me.

And so I remain…

…yours confused

FOXY Steph

PS: FOXY is a female brand meaning shrewd, canny and astute which is what we believe women have to be in the garage industry today. Since our daughter’s bad garage experience in the early 2000s I have made it my business to become an expert in this field, on behalf of other women drivers. Which may explain why FOXY Choice is the only website to explain and promote the different measurable signs of quality, judging ATA, BSI Kitemark and OFT fully approved code logos as the pinnacle of garage standards.

Yes I’d love to see the industry regulated so the bad garages would be put out of business. But the industry needs to realise this and after 70 years of trying to regulate itself and failing, we are still where we were and it just isn’t good enough!

Ooops.net is a FOXY Choice approved female friendly garage providing highly specialist bodywork services for cars in need of TLC and within driving distance of Poole.

Ooops! also uses a very foxy and unique tripleO formula designed to protect, enhance and preserve your family car.

In fact, whatever the make, model, age or condition of your car, the Ooops! promise is to have it back to gleaming showroom standard after treatment. And the best bonus of all is that busy women in Dorset can forget all about having to wax that car ever again!

For over 25 years the unique tripleO paint protection system was a closely guarded military secret. But we think it’s time that women drivers in Poole in particular should know about this service and the full protection offered by a nano technology which achieves a perfectly smooth and deep glossy surface shine to be really proud of.

To find out more about their services and the tripleO treatment, Ooops is holding a Open Day on Saturday 14 May. To book a place for you and a partner just call 01202 355 640 or visit www.ooops.net.

FOXY Steph

According to carsite.co.uk website the following tactics can either cost or win you hundreds of pounds when you come to buying or selling a car in 2010. It’s all in the eye of the beholder of course.

1. Poor colour choice (lose or gain £200-500 on the sales price)
   The message is to buy and sell cars in popular colours – like black, grey even or silver. Yes they might be boring, but you’ll be maximising your sales audience – much more than if you buy a Barbie-like pink car, for example…
2. Scratched or tarnished alloys (lose or gain £50-100 per alloy on the sales price)
   Look out for a SMART car repairer to take care of these small but important details – see FOXY Choice website, for example. You’ll pay remarkably little to put these right.
3. Body dents and scratches (lose or gain as much as £200-300 per panel for worst examples)
   Same as per 2 – get an estimate for body repairs from a qualified bodyshop that knows what they are doing – independents will be cheaper than franchised dealerships. Google for dent removal then do your homework about that business in case they haven’t got all the appropriate equipment to do this well.
4. Cracked or chipped windscreen (£250-300)
   Easy to put right – call in a mobile service or ask a good bodyshop that does SMART and cosmetic body repairs.
5. Poorly maintained trims and upholstery (Up to £500 in some instances)
   As per 2 – see the likes of the female friendly car repairer ooops.net in Poole then see who is doing something similar in an area near you.
6. Messy interior (£300-400)
   This is a no-brainer of course but if you can afford to lose this amount of money then don’t bother cleaning your car before you take it to trade in at a dealership…
7. Undesirable specifications (Dependent on model)
   This is commonsense. More women than men buy automatics and more men than women look for vroom performance although it seems as if we are all looking for fuel performance now; other than the Top Gear boys that is!  And there are many other instances of features that please some but not others.
8. Incomplete service book and vehicle history (£300-400 or refusal to trade)
   I cannot emphasise this enough – don’t buy a cheap car that hasn’t been serviced regularly. If it hasn’t been looked after it WILL become very expensive to run after you buy it. If it seems too cheap there will be a downside – remember the saying ‘there is no such thing as a cheap lunch…’ and in the case of a poorly maintained car the bills can be huge…
9. Balding or near-limit tyres (£100-150 per tyre)
   To quote Homer Simpson ‘dohh…’. Even he wouldn’t be so silly, surely?
10. Short MOT (£200-300)
    This is likely more to do with the fleet cars carsite.co.uk buy but where there is a short MOT, get the car checked by a good local garage before you buy it. If you are a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club you can claim one of your quarterly car fitness checks for free – this will likely tell you if you are about to buy a shocker…

*Figures based on a 3-year old/30,000 mile family-sized car from a mainstream manufacturer.

Finally let me add some foxy motoring advice – ALWAYS buy a HPI check or equivalent for any car you want to buy before you part with your ready cash. Too many cars for sale are not what they seem and if you buy a used car from an individual you have no comeback in law where caveat emptor is the rule.

<buyer departs with car and seller wipes hands with glee>.

Whereas if you buy from a reputable dealer (NB: all dealers say they are reputable of course…) you should ask and find that they have done the HPI check to be sure the car is what it claims to be. You then have 6 months protection in law if anything unreasonable were to develop when you take the car home so this should be the minimum period of any warranty.

FOXY Steph

It’s an ill wind that has been blowing car repairers good business this winter.  Snow and black ice last December has meant 40% more insurance claims from women drivers as well as men. But some motorists display a distinct lack of Christmas goodwill according to AA Insurance…

As if it isn’t bad enough for women drivers to have to abandon their car in snow or icy conditions, many motorists then find that their vehicles have been damaged by other cars sliding into them or that they have been broken in to by thieves.

“There’s no worse Christmas gift than finding someone has left a dent or scrape on your car and not left a note to admit it,” says Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance who then asks motorists to please leave a note with their contact details on the windscreen of the ‘innocent’ car.

But few will I suspect if the stories of folk who leave their cars running, unattended, whilst they warm up are anything to go by. Leaving the house to drive off, many find their car (usually a posh one) has been stolen off their front drive. Who are these dreadful people? I hope the penalties are tough when they are found out…

But this is a salutary message re women’s car insurance to the rest of us because insurers almost always reject these claims because theft of an unattended vehicle left open and with the keys in it is specifically excluded from policies.

As an aside, I’d remind any female motorist to consult her insurance policy in all cases before relying on insurers to carry out repairs for their car. In most cases you do not have to use the insurer’s repairers; you could use a female friendly variety and cherry pick one from FOXY Choice with the best qualifications and recommendations. This could be done more cheaply and quickly too – time is the factor that seems to cause many women drivers stress especially when any courtesy car facility is withdrawn before the car’s repair is complete. Outside the motorists reasonable control as well.

Happy New Year.

FOXY Steph

In a study by the US Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association, nearly 9 out of 10 female motorists are involved in their household’s car maintenance and repairs.

This shouldn’t surprise me really as we speak to women drivers about this on a daily basis yet I wouldn’t have said 90% in the UK yet.  I think this might be because women are financially more foxy than men and are out to save money in this recession. And where the US goes we surely follow…

According to a recent US survey of more than 500 women, almost half  incorrectly assumed that if you switched from conventional engine oil to synthetic oil you would do more miles between oil changes and save money.

Yes it’s true that if you use a quality motor oil in the right grade you’ll optimise fuel economy, and help save money by preventing costly engine damage BUT if you choose any old oil that doesn’t meet industry standards or the vehicle manufacturer’s requirements and it is possible that women and men drivers alike could damage their car engine or even compromise any manufacturer warranty.

Which is another reason why FOXY Car Fitness Checks are so important because this allows FOXY approved female friendly garage professionals to look over your car on a regular basis and tell you what needs doing. There’s no cost for members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club and you’ll normally get a small discount on the likes of a MOT or car servicing too.

Why not try a female friendly garage to check out your car maintenance on a regular basis? It’s not a sexist thing – FOXY sets quality standards high so if there’s a garage listed near you at FOXY Choice it’ll be one of the very best for men too.

But it is about time we women started to get more involved in this area – we’ve delegated the job to men for too long and see what’s happened; no wonder the industry is so male oriented and few understand what we REALLY REALLY want…

FOXY Steph

Just like buses, off we go on our travels then two of them turn up at once. No not buses… keep up in the back.

I am talking about female friendly businesses I know and like who are both celebrating their 15th birthdays in 2009 -  in today’s economy, getting to any business birthday is really something special.

Business number one is female friendly garage car repairer ooops.net in Poole, Dorset. I’ve mentioned them before because they do creative things like invite female motorists and their family to drive-in movies and summer fetes. This time business founder Paul Booker is starting his own ooops blog so I wanted to give him a foxy plug on behalf of the many women drivers in Poole who know they can trust their car to this business.

The second business is actually related to business number one in that they specialise in designing social networking solutions like the ones ooops.net offers their customers – they are creative agency Preview based in Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex and their design work is some of the best I’ve seen  – and I’ve seen a lot, trust me . This agency was founded by Nick Broom FCIM who I know from my CIM Sussex committee work.

I’d also add that both Paul and Nick recognise that social networking needs to add value and provide advice and information to become regarded and trusted by women in particular, in their different fields.

Here’s to the next 15 years guys… and let’s all look forward to meeting the 25% of our customers we don’t know yet as we travel the next 15 years in business!

FOXY Steph

www.ooops.net/blog

Some businesses are more capable of thinking outside the box than others and that  makes them more appealing and memorable to local women drivers. Certainly it singles them out from so many who are not investing in marketing to future customers during this downturn – the business I am talking to is one of FOXY Choice’s female friendly subscribers in Poole.

After trialling this in May, female friendly car repairer in Poole called ooops! is once more sponsoring the Drive-In Movies at Canford Arena this weekend.

It’s a trip back to the 80s this time including a timely but sad tribute to the dancing talent of Patrick Swayze on Friday.

For tickets to see The Goonies (Thursday 24 Sep), Dirty Dancing (Friday 25 September) or to get into the swing with Mamma Mia (Saturday 26 September) you can pre-book a car for £15 (+ £1.50 booking fee) by ringing 01202 830204.

Gates will open at 7pm each night, with the film starting at 8.30pm.

Well done ooops! If you were closer we’d be there for Friday and Saturday nights!!

FOXY Steph

Until recently I hadn’t a clue what SMART car repairs were.

I now understand that they are specialist car repairs to put right minor damage caused to car exteriors and interiors. This skill is different to major bodywork repairs after a car accident, for example.

Apparently some 70% of all cars on the road today have a requirement for at least one SMART repair costing an average of £70 per repair.

Good to know this when your insurance excess is in the £00s or where you could lose your no claims bonus for want of some knowledge here.

And reassuring to know that someone can make our cars look nearly new again without costing a fortune, adding to the reselling price we’d hope.

How many of us know that there are industry professionals who specialise in repairing the following and for relatively little money…

• vinyl, plastic and leather upholstery
• dashboards
• door and trim panels
• roof linings
• alloy wheels
• in-car cigarette burns
• windscreen chips
• unused telephone holes
• minor bodywork scuffs and scratches
• paintwork dents

For a gender with an appreciation for aesthetics (and an occasional tendency to suffer car park, shopping trolley and kerb bashes) I can see that women drivers would be glad to have a tried and tested local specialist in their address book.

As always, the important thing is to find a business/individual with the skills and the knowledge to do this for you. Visit  FOXY Choice for a good female friendly repairer for starters.

Otherwise, try googling for ‘smart car repairs’ (and ignore out the ones selling Smart cars).  Signs of reassurance are if the garage repairer is a member of trade associations MVRA or VBRA, tells you that their technician is Thatcham trained or if they hold the BSI Kitemark in Bodywork Repairs.

By all means add your experience or expertise to help others.

FOXY Steph