We have just been discussing her choice of new cars with a member near Harrow who was looking at a new MiTo Alfa Romeo among other models on her shopping short list. She liked it when we told her that the name was a combination of the two northern Italian cities Milano and Torino, which explains a lot…

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

I see that the Brighton Argus has picked up on this long standing industry concern – that in 2010  car manufacturers might be able to use EU legislation to actively prevent independent garages from access to the technical information that is readily available to franchised dealerships, under the guise of ‘safety reasons’.

This is important because independent garages would be unable to compete effectively and they charge less than main dealers. Whilst everyone should have the choice to pick which ever garage solution suits them best at MOT, car servicing or repair time, motorists including women drivers (FOXY’s main interest) deserve to save c £30 per hour on labour rates alone, where they can.

I am a great believer in competition as the customer is the winner in the end. But I am unhappy at the thought that one type of garage or dealership might fare better than another in this way, unless that favour is based on quality standards or female friendly credentials.

FOXY supports the Right to Repair campaign and has written about this and similarly bizarre industry discrepancies in a Garage Services Guide.

Some time ago there was a furore about the possibility that our annual MOT regime might become an every other year regime. This didn’t happen, despite the fact that many motorists might have supported this idea for cost reasons – it didn’t happen for safety consequences, of course, as well as the economic multiplier effect concerning the survival of so many motoring businesses.

Interestingly, there is a fairly new Motor Industry Code for garages and dealerships but many more dealerships are subscribers to it than independent garages (because the manufacturers insisted their dealers signed up) so the garage choice for UK motorists is skewed here, to the more expensive solution.  Thankfully this is an OFT supervised scheme whic is yet to be approved so we can be sure that the need for consumer choice will be addressed, particularly when many garage industry complaints are about being ripped off and charged for services that weren’t wanted or needed.

I’ll be interested to see how the Right To Repair campaign proceeds in similar territory and where the strategic might and foresight of the manufacturers is far greater than the voice of the independents.

FOXY will be quick to lobby if we see any signs of this initiative reducing customer choice and the opportunity to choose a good quality value for money garage solution to suit the car or budget in question. If I am very honest I can’t see this happening but I’d hate to do nothing and be proved wrong!

FOXY Steph

“The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.”  Edmund Burke