Every year 35,000 cars are MOT’d at some 21,000 MOT centres.

Thank goodness for that I say because the Government tells us that in 2010-11 44% of vehicles failed their MOT test initially and 28% of vehicles had one or more car defects that were either missed by MOT test centres or incorrectly assessed.

This matters massively because the MOT is supposed to be a safety snapshot on the day and often it’s the only one older cars get each year.

VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency) data also showed that the roadworthiness of one-in-eight cars (12.4%) was being incorrectly assessed by MOT test centres.

Minister for Transport, Justine Greening said:
“Our garages are crucial to ensuring that Britain’s roads continue to be among the safest in the world. Most are doing good work but the latest data shows that there is room for improvement.”

“I want each motorist to be confident that a visit to the garage ends with their car repaired to a high standard by reputable mechanics rather than uncertainty about cost and the quality of service.”

“Giving drivers the very best information about garage performance is absolutely key to achieving this goal. It means that responsible garages will be well placed to reap the commercial benefits of transparency. Garages where performance is not up to scratch will find themselves under pressure to do more for their customers.”

Nicely said but drivers wouldn’t need performance information at all if all garages were regulated to perform to minimum and policed standards. As things stand, bad garages can pay to join good garage schemes, thus appearing to be responsible garages, without employing qualified or accredited mechanics.

And from the female motorist’s point of view, especially one who prefers her Yellow Pages Directory to any online listing, how is she to know that a garage listed as ‘Good’ doesn’t employ qualified mechanics to fix her car? Undoubtedly she thinks it does.

One interesting footnote to today’s Press release about all this states ‘The garage sector is regulated in several ways. The sector has to comply with business laws and consumer protection legislation. The MOT scheme is regulated by VOSA, an agency of the Department for Transport.’

All well and good but sadly, in our experience, none of this stops motorists being overcharged, patronised or sold things they don’t want to buy.

So I shall be interested to see how the Government assesses ‘reputable’ mechanics when they aren’t qualified or accredited as fit to do the job before being allowed to tinker with our brakes, for example.

All in all, I’m pleased to see that there will be a spotlight on garages again but wouldn’t it be easier to have one regulation system for all garages? Not just the ones who choose to self-regulate themselves via Motor Codes because the majority of these are franchised dealerships who have been told to sign up by their manufacturers but who presumably operate to higher standards than the Motor Codes Service & Repair code in any case? Which doesn’t include MOT centres as it happens.

And how will the industry judge value for money here? The likes of moneysavingexpert website tells motorists to use local authority centres where they’ll pay full price but aren’t sold anything they don’t need. But motorists will head for the discount deals and garages that may or may not be part of a ‘reputable’ scheme.

All to avoid the inevitable which is surely a fully blown regulatory scheme that outs the bad garages for once and for all.

FOXY Steph

You can read about 2010/2011 VOSA compliance survey data here. .

Or check your car’s MOT status  and history here.

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

Would garages be any better if they had more women in them to sort out the customer service side of things? It’s a thought…

Based on everyday feedback from women drivers we know that the motor industry has many genuinely good garages in it but sadly there are quite a few bad ones out there too. Inevitably the motor industry doesn’t air its dirty washing in public and whilst the complaints continue about garages and used cars, nobody seems willing to ‘out’ the bad garages and the unscrupulous dealers we read about (or only use once).

In our experience the regulatory bodies lack the teeth to do the job here. Nice and understanding as they always seem to be, they will not name and shame offenders for ‘legal reasons’ they say. So the customer is expected to take the bad garage or dealer to Court and we suspect that few women do this in the end because it’s complicated, they’re often fed a load of lies by the business about the likely outcome and they worry it could end up costing them even more.

FOXY’s approach is different when it comes to problems that women drivers experience. We run a helpdesk for members so they know to come to us for the advantage of our practical advice. This can be important when it’s a technical matter and there’s a need to know or understand the jargon. Having given our independent opinion we then support the member to get things resolved. If it involves a female friendly approved FOXY Choice subscriber (yes it has been known…) it’s usually a case of our giving them a nudge, their resolving the problem quickly & amicably with us all learning from the experience.

Where the lady driver is a non member and FOXY doesn’t know the garage or dealer, we’ll help to check out their credentials so she knows if the garage is part of a trade organisation or complaints resolution service. She usually joins the Club at that stage, to be sure it doesn’t happen again.

Where there is no evidence of ANY commitment to quality and the garage doesn’t have a website, it’s hard to understand why any female motorist would buy from them in the first place. The reason this happens is because it is reasonable for motorists to expect garages to be licensed (they aren’t) and mechanics to be qualified (which they don’t have to be). So they trust a garage because they can’t imagine a garage wouldn’t be licensed or their staff unqualified. Which is a secret the garage industry can be truly ashamed of.

In a nutshell few motorists realise the risk they run, choosing a garage on the basis of price too many times, but without doing any homework first.

Sadly there is no one independent body above all others (that would be called regulation which FOXY would welcome tomorrow) to either explain and rate the many competing quality schemes or check if the garage is actually a member of the scheme it claims to be.

Our experience is that many garages tick quality boxes when they apply to join our female friendly approved garage network not realising we’ll check this; we don’t list quality logos until we can prove eligibility.

Sadly I can’t see this situation getting any better because the many competing good garage schemes are merely adding to the total confusion in motorists’ minds.

Our approach is to give offending garages and dealers the benefit of the doubt for a reasonable period of time to sort things out. If they don’t show any interest in doing this, we then spread the word among women drivers within the Club. Few garages and used car showrooms like to think of local foxy ladies hearing of their unscrupulous antics so it’s that sort of subtle approach that means FOXY usually get things sorted out in the end .

FOXY Steph

Find out about other support services FOXY Lady Drivers Club offers women drivers and their families.

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!

A FOXY Choice approved female friendly dealership in Worthing

If a garage says it’s ‘good’ can women drivers trust it?

I have just visited a national dealership group’s website where it says they are members of a garage scheme which requires them to sell a particular brand of motor oil products. This surprised me because I couldn’t imagine that their franchised contracts with manufacturers would allow this.

And lo and behold, after checking, I find they aren’t listed in this scheme.

Of course they might be listed tomorrow OR perhaps they were listed yesterday but they aren’t listed today…

The fact that their website says they are members of this scheme just might tip the balance here for wary women drivers who are out shopping for a better garage experience.

I am sure this is a genuine mistake and that it will be rectified pdq but who knows how many less well intentioned garages are passing off membership of organisations, codes of practice and/or qualifications that are out of date.

I’d like to think that someone is checking this sort of thing for all motorists.

But unless it’s a business listed as a FOXY Choice approved, female friendly garage, I don’t think anyone else is that fussy. Or as independent.

FOXY Steph

shopping for good value garage services

Women shopping for good garages to carry out MOT’s, servicing and repair work for family cars should put ATA at the top of their ideal shopping list. But what does it mean I can hear you ask?

ATA stands for Automotive Technician Accreditation and is a voluntary scheme to test the practical skills and supporting theory of individuals working in the motor industry.

The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) is the governing body responsible for maintaining the ATA register of individuals and issuing their photo ID cards.

I am often told by old hands in the industry that they have a previous qualification (going back a bit perhaps…)  but that they know what they are dong because of their daily experience repairing and servicing cars. Yes, a qualification is a proof of learning but ATA is about PROVING CURRENT COMPETENCE at a given time and then keeping up to date in the fast moving motor industry. ATA cardholders are also required to renew this accreditation every five years.

Not only is this a badge to illustrate fitness to repair and service ALL makes of cars but he/she has also signed up to the following ethical Code of Conduct; which is what FOXY likes most about ATA, truth be told.

• Uphold the standing of the profession and conduct themselves in such a manner as not to bring the profession into disrepute
• At all times be strictly professional in their approach to the public, business colleagues and all those whom they meet in their day to day business activities
• Maintain professional competence and skills in respect of all developments and legislation applicable to this profession (CPD)
• Perform their duties and observe their responsibilities to their employers, staff and the public with integrity, courtesy and consideration
• Take all reasonable steps to ensure that work undertaken by staff under their control is performed with integrity, courtesy and consideration
• Not incur personal gain through abuse of their professional position
• Work within the framework of the law at all times, particularly relating to the operation of the organisation with which they are connected
• Respect the confidentiality of any information given by customers, employers, staff and suppliers
• Not directly, indirectly or unfairly injure the reputation of another accredited technician
• Encourage staff under their control to raise their educational standards and skill through training and development (CPD)

If any ATA technician behaves badly after signing up to this standard they will be reprimanded and may even lose their ATA status depending on the circumstances and remedy.

This commitment makes a real difference for me in an industry with so many complaints ranging from cutting costs to the extent of charging for services they don’t deliver and patronising behaviour towards women. Were ATA a compulsory accreditation scheme before garages were licensed to trade, then we’d have an industry to be proud of!

But in the meantime, FOXY Choice’s advice for wary women keen to favour one of the best good garages near them is to ask for evidence of ATA in the garage and/or dealership. Alternatively look for the ATA logo at the FOXY Choice female friendly garage website and you can also check that ATA claims or logo use are up to date at the ATA register.

Finally, if you get the same answer as I often do – ‘we are qualified (going back a while…) and have loads of experience’ please suggest to the business in question that it makes good sense for them to become ATA registered to prove their competence to do the job.  And make your own mind up whether to favour ATA technicians in future.

FOXY Steph

FOXY Choice welcomes any evidence of quality standards in garages that benefit motorists. Car mechanics who are prepared to enter rigorous trade awards like this one clearly see themselves as good enough to win. We think this should be celebrated in an industry where mechanics don’t have to be qualified to repair our cars or accredited as fit for purpose.

How else can women check that their local garage is one of the best when it comes to trusting them with their car’s safety?

As things stand complaint levels are too high and all motorists find it nigh on impossible to single out the measurably best garages from a sea of confusing acronyms. Trade associations have a vested interest in their trade members goodwill and other garage schemes are merely there to sell their sponsors goods and services. There is no one independent body to help motorists understand their choices -  although there wouldn’t need to be one if the industry was regulated…

Congratulations are therefore due to the following car mechanics who have gone that extra mile and passed the online test before having to prove their technical skills in rigorous practical tests; en route to deciding who is to be Top Technician 2011.

ENGLAND

Essex
Matthew Eeles of Saffron Autos
John Tinham of John Tinham Motor Engineers
Steve Smith of Hills Toyota

Lancashire
Lee Collins of the Kwik Fit Group, Manchester
Rafal Rosielewski at Crewe Volkswagen

Norfolk
Glyn Morgan of Breckland Auto Services
Clive Atthowe of Clive Atthowe Tuning

West Sussex
Paul Gutsell of Guy Salmon Jaguar
David Harney at Queensway Garage

Yorkshire
Keith Windle of Skipton Ford and Mazda
Sean Wright at Benfield Ford, Leeds

Other areas…
John French of Grovebury Cars, Bedfordshire
Jamie Virdee at FIAT UK, Berkshire
Peter Jones at Pete Jones Auto, Chester, Cheshire
Matthew Booth at the Village Garage, Hampshire
Jason Evans at Cotswold BMW, Herefordshire
Andrew Gilbrook at Jemca Toyota, Kent
Mark Waby of MWT Automotive Services, Lincoln
Stuart White at Complete Car Maintenance, Surrey
Simon Harris of Pebley Beach Hyundai, Wiltshire

SCOTLAND
Conrad Omand at CS Omand Garage, Orkney
Duncan Ronaldson of Western Saab, Perth

WALES
Gareth Edwards at Gwyndaf Evans Motors, Gwynedd
Craig Stephens at Kwik Fit, Rhondda

Oh that all mechanics were required to go through this process and/or be ATA accredited with the ethical commitment we like so much…

We tell women drivers to look for garages that are ATA employers, hold a BSI Kitemark and/or operate to an OFT fully approved code. This is a clear sign they are better than most of the competition. We also like garages that employ females – that’s a great start towards showing they understand our needs.

Well done chaps.

FOXY Steph

Find out which garages are FOXY approved ie have signed up to our female friendly FOXY Promise AND have measurable quality schemes for service and repair work.

Swot up here about the confusion of  good garage quality signs motorists are expected to get their heads round before making their choice.

I’ve just written to a Mr Richard Cox to say thank you on behalf of a charming Scottish lady called Anne Campbell who asked for our help when she’d clearly dealt with one dodgy garage too many and was at her wits end.

We didn’t have a local garage on her doorstep so we referred her to the nearest female friendly FOXY approved garage which was MTH Autoservices who we like and rate in Falkirk.  She wasn’t a member so we didn’t expect to hear back from her but we did, a few weeks later when she phoned to join the Club.

Her story was that her cherished car, a Nissan Primera, T reg, had a steering problem and broke down. After using her breakdown service to tow her to a garage she was quoted £600 for the work yet her car is not worth much more, hence her despair. She contacted us after many years of very expensive garage bills and disappointing service levels – this was clearly the last straw.

But before heading off to Falkirk as suggested in the circumstances she decided to contact a local garage called Crowhill Motors in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow and her call afterwards was to tell us they had been magnificent.

I can still hear her delighted voice and charming accent – ‘they were SO pleasant’ and this was ‘SO unusual’. Apparently Mr Cox offered to come to her house and tow it if necessary for no extra. His price was for sealant and came to £40 but if a part was needed it would be nearer £200 not £600+.

He realised that Mrs Campbell didn’t want to spend any more than she needed to and he made her very happy. As a result she has asked us to spread the word hence this blog.

We have also written to invite Crowhill Motors to join our network because they obviously qualify as a genuinely female friendly garage and one with a heart. It’s SO reassuring to hear good news like this rather than the bad which seems to be more common some days…

FOXY Steph

Like turkeys saying no to Christmas, the UK motor industry cannot police itself effectively because it has a vested interest in preserving or favouring the status quo.

Yet it is surely Consumer Direct’s biggest customer, looking after all the complaints their garages, fastfits, car dealers and franchised dealerships are responsible for.

Can you imagine M&S or Waitrose promoting a ‘straightforward and swift complaints service’ to their customers? I’d be looking for faults straight away and that very awareness could become a self-fulfilling prophecy…

However this is exactly what happens in the motor industry where complaints are endemic, the industry clearly cannot police itself and businesses might as well resign themselves to dealing with complaints it seems.

For example, one in five used car sales results in a complaint that reaches Consumer Direct each year. There were 65k used car complaints recorded in 2009 (50k from independent car dealers and 15k from franchised car dealerships) and the stats are up by 18% for the first six months in 2010. Plus c11k complaints during 6 months in 2010 to date about independent garages (can’t find the dealership numbers here as not in Top Ten complaint listing).

Can you imagine the scale of this and how many people are needed simply to handle these complaints (Citizens Advice Bureau, small claims court, lawyers, conciliation experts and many more, in addition to manufacturer complaints departments and OFT managed Consumer Direct) let alone the money that motorists who give up or whose complaint fails are expected to shell out to put things right…

Yet no-one ever tells the motorists who the genuinely good and bad garages, fastfits, dealers and dealerships are. For ‘legal reasons’ we’re told by Trading Standards.

Clearly the UK’s garage industry is in dire straits despite the fact, as always, that there are many measurably better garages and dealerships to be found – but you need to know what are the genuine signs of quality in a good garage guide. Like the saying ‘not all that glisters is gold…’ not all garages that say they are ‘good’ are truly good enough.

Remember that the UK industry isn’t licensed and mechanics don’t have to be qualified to repair your car. Choose a bad garage by accident and you could end up with a car that isn’t safe without you realising it. Or paying for work that hasn’t been done.

The more the industry promotes its complaints services the more it promotes its complaint levels and the motorists get uneasy, suspicious and likely to find fault…

Wouldn’t it be better to regulate the industry and have done with it once and for all? Safer cars, qualified mechanics, minimum inspection standards for used cars, all garages up to scratch, inspected regularly, the bad ones weeded out and a better industry image?

Instead of caveat emptor motorists?

I can see a compelling business case but I can also understand why motor industry trade associations aren’t the right people to be policing their own industry. After 60 years and some 12 previous attempts at industry regulation, they must surely realise they aren’t independent or unbiased; they have too much to lose.

As I see it, it’s like turkeys voting for Christmas – too many businesses know what their fate will be. And as long as HM Government postpones regulation, the industry doesn’t have to pull its socks up for as long as motorists are coughing up and putting up with inferior standards of workmanship and lacklustre customer service.

FOXY Steph

Pregnant women drivers are offered this motoring advice from the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) so they can drive safely and comfortably.

Thinking they are protecting their unborn child many motoring mums to be wear their seatbelt across the centre of their bump which is not, apparently, the right thing to do.

According to the IAM and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) motoring mums should

• Wear the lap strap below your bump, as low as possible, from hip-bone to hip-bone
• Keep the diagonal strap between your breasts, moving the strap around the side of your bump
• Adjust the fit to be as snug as comfortably possible
• You can push the seat back, as long as you adjust your mirrors accordingly and can reach the brake, accelerator and clutch. NB:You can buy pedal extenders for this purpose. Being an extra three inches away from the steering wheel makes a lot of difference in an accident.

Professor Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said “Correct use of seatbelts by pregnant women is important, as incorrect use can cause harm to the fetus and fail to protect the woman in the case of an accident. Pregnant women should use three-point seatbelts above and below the bump, not over it.”

Women drivers can find out about motoring safety advice from FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

Motoring mums concerned about the competence of the garages in their area can find out more from the Good Garage Guide before singling out female friendly garages and dealerships from FOXY Choice.

FOXY Steph