Tag Archives: MOT

A New Year car safety MOT check

Think of it as your car’s motoring fitness check and even though it’s simply a safety snapshot on the day, it’s good to have the MOT milestone done and dusted for the year ahead. And to know that you can have it done a month earlier than its expiry date without the garage altering its 12 month validity.

I’ve just received a reminder from SB Motors in Hove that the Citroen’s MOT is due. I had hoped we’d have exchanged this car for a younger one by now but it has never faltered, has the 2.0HDi engine which gives us 60+ mpg on combined motorway and urban use and so we haven’t got round to it yet. At least it’ll have a fresh MOT when we do. We’ve acquired a second Citroen, an XM, in the meantime but goodness knows what the plan is for that other than a quirky mechanical challenge for the helpdesk team!

We are seeing some fantastic motoring offers for Club members but where these are for garage services, how can non member women drivers tell who the best and therefore safest garages are?

Well I’m likely biased as far as SB Motors is concerned because we’ve been working with them from FOXY’s very early days and they are now a FOXY approved female friendly garage in Hove and listed at FOXY Choice. Another factor that matters is that they are a Unipart Car Care Centre which means a no quibble 12 month parts guarantee should any repair fail and you’re travelling the country or on holiday. You can count on Unipart even if it’s better known in the trade than by women.

But if you want to know what your quality garage choices are, I suggest you read our Good Garage Guide although it’s a far too complicated choice I’m afraid. Or join the Club and we’ll help you on a 1:1 basis.

Just for the record, if you are in Hove, here are SB Motors’ latest offers which all include 20% VAT of course.

  • Half price MOT with any service
  • MOT for just £35 – RRP £54.85
  • Low mileage minor service for £70
  • Air con and regas £39
  • Free fitting of wiper blades and most bulbs

All in all we’ve a great selection of deals like these, for members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club to share with their family knowing their motoring and female friendly garage choices can be trusted and relied upon.

FOXY

Female friendly garage in Cheadle

Sometimes you get a lot more for your money than you might realise at first glance. When looking for a garage in Cheadle for example. To begin with, you might think that AA Silencers was a fairly standard garage in Staffordshire selling and fitting silencers only, but you’d be wrong. For starters it’s listed as a female friendly garage in Cheadle and is part of the FOXY Choice UK network.

It is also an Automotive Technician Accreditation (ATA) registered employer, qualified to carry out MOTs, car servicing and most vehicle repairs too.

And if you’re female, members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club can ask AA Silencers for the latest discounts and local foxy ladies in Cheadle who aren’t members yet may well be able to claim gift membership (worth £23) – just pop in and ask Adam if that offer still stands ;-).

But we were surprised to find that they also run a company called Matrix Ice in Cheadle, adding sales and fitting services of all sorts of car entertainment, safety devices, hands free Bluetooth enabled mobile gadgets, parking aids, towbars and satnavs.

All in all a great convenience for local women drivers who’d like the job done without any fear of being overcharged, patronised or sold products and services they didn’t want to buy.

That’s what the female friendly FOXY Promise stands for and after the recent Kwik-Fit mauling by BBC Watchdog, that is a reassuring reason for women to shop at AA Silencers as a FOXY Choice listed business.

FOXY

“When one door closes, another door opens.”
Alexander Graham Bell

Bishop Auckland garage gets female friendly vote

Many garage websites show photos of the exterior of their garage and let’s face it, few are memorable for that reason ;-).

Yet a photo, so they say, speaks a thousand words… which is why the one from Auckside Garage in Bishop Auckland, County Durham for their female friendly FOXY Choice entry is spot on for local women drivers doing their garage homework.

Yet if you simply google on garages in Bishop Auckland, looking for an MOT, car servicing or repairs for example, all you get is a list without any way of knowing who are better than the rest (remember that garages don’t have to be licensed or mechanics qualified in this industry) and which are genuinely female friendly.

Bearing in mind that we women place a lot of importance in how things look (and we’re quite fussy being expert shoppers ;-)) then the exterior of a used car lot, a garage forecourt or a me-too car glasshouse dealership isn’t necessarily the best photo for a business that wants to be memorable for its female friendly customer service.

Instead, a photo of a smiling staff team in clean overalls or a smart, well organised, clean looking, neat and tidy office team conveys the right sort of image to women who can then imagine the business behind the friendly image.

Quite obviously from their photo Auckside Motors is an honest, hardworking and friendly garage, a member of the Good Garage scheme to boot and a female friendly FOXY Choice subscriber so they have signed the FOXY Promise© to ‘never knowingly overcharge, patronise or sell women services they neither need nor want’. As a result of all this, they also get a listing at the new website www.femalefriendlyapproved.com and are a foxy choice for women drivers in and near Bishop Auckland in Durham when it comes to MOT, car servicing and garage repair work.

Why would any woman settle for second best when she can have a female friendly business to look after her best motoring interests for a change?

FOXY