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

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

This is a great example of innovative and female friendly customer service designed for women drivers, organised by well qualified Dorset based garage workshop and car repairer near Poole.

Not only do they have a memorable and highly appropriate name – ooops! – to remember when you need a small car repair job done (such as wheel scuffs, windscreen chips, paint scratches or interior burns or holes) but they are equally as good at keeping in touch with previous customers and female motorist members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

We have just received their latest customer offer, inviting women drivers in Poole to a choice of Drive-In movies at Canford Arena on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th May.

Friday’s film is Grease and Saturday’s is the most popular musical movie ever, Mamma Mia; perhaps because it was written for us girls??

So if you’re reading this near Poole and fancy a foxy motoring night out with a difference, you need to phone ooops! to reserve your tickets at £13.50 in advance (pre 13 May 4pm) or pay £15 on the nights. The ticket office number is 01202 830 204.

Great idea ooops!

FOXY Steph

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