Tag Archives: Motor Codes

buying a new car

What women think of car dealers

women expect moreThe female friendly business case is a simple one in the masculine motor industry. We expect higher standards than those that men seem resigned to and we want them NOW…

This matters because the number of women drivers will soon overtake men on UK roads and busy females are increasingly looking for service levels that recognise their needs and exceed their expectations. Sadly this is not happening in many cases today.

For the time being, female perceptions seem at an all time low when it comes to car shopping, as confirmed in a recent (2014) survey of c2600 women drivers carried out by Good Housekeeping. This revealed that:

+ The majority of women think car dealerships can be more female friendly

+ 70 per cent of women had experienced car salesmen ignoring them in favour of a male companion

+ the final car buying decision about a family is usually a joint gender decision for 53 per cent

+ 43 per cent of women made the car buying decision alone

+ 49 per cent find car sales staff patronising

+ 36 per cent felt vulnerable and lacked confidence visiting car dealerships

+ Some 25% felt that the tone used by car salesmen was disrespectful

+ Only 18 per cent of women felt that the car sales staff communicated all the details they required in language they understood

Clearly the only way is up for this industry which is why the genuinely female friendly car dealers need to join forces via us to get the message out that there is a female choice of used and new car dealers where this doesn’t happen.

Genuinely female friendly dealers that meet our standards can apply to become FOXY Lady Approved and together we will help restore female trust levels. But if any dealer joins us thinking we’ll simply turn on a tap of foxy ladies they’ll be mistaken because the business needs to meet our compliance standards ie demonstrate their female friendly dealer credentials before we can reassure local women about them.

Luckily for the good guys (yes they are usually male) we are a unique and highly professional marketing service, used to marketing to women (so that’s a good start) and together we can drive up standards by sharing feedback among the willing to learn (shameless sales plug over…).

HOW FEMALES SEE DEALERS WHEN CAR SHOPPING

It’s time the industry had a good look at itself, warts and all, as female customers see them. Here are a few clues…

+ We don’t want to haggle.

+ We don’t want to read about innocent car buyers being overcharged because they walk into a new car dealership at the wrong time of the month/year and pay a higher price than they might do otherwise.

+ We don’t want to be sold extras we don’t need.

+ We don’t want to read about cheap cars being sold without service histories or handbooks (when surprise, surprise they go wrong).

+ We’re fed up with ‘holier than thou’ promises re car warranties that offer less protection than the Sale of Goods Act.

And we want competitive financial products too…
____________________________________________

What an industry! Let’s get some licensing safeguards in here as soon as possible.

Time for MotorCodes to look at the New Car Code of Practice; to make licensing compulsory for car sales staff as per the IMI’s Professional Register; to up the minimum used car sales/warranty standards to meet fussy female needs (and delight fed up beleaguered male motorists in the process).

Getting service levels right for women means upping standards for all in this industry. The time is right for doing this and I want to be involved in creating the more female friendly motor industry that women clearly want and deserve.

Rant over for now…

FOXY

buying a new car

Why you must compare used car warranties

car_warrantyWhen you read that the average price of a used car is £9000 you’d probably expect it to be in good condition for that much money.

Surely it’s only when buying cars that are much cheaper ie c£1000 or less that the customer runs the risk of buying a lemon; especially if they don’t do their mechanical homework in advance?

Not necessarily it seems, according to the thousands of used car complaints referred to Citizens Advice every year.

Clearly something isn’t quite right in terms of minimum industry standards or quality control processes when it comes to used car shopping?

Advice re buying a used car

There are ways we can minimise the risk of buying a used car lemon.

1/ We should make sure that used cars are HPI-checked so we know they are financially sound, haven’t been stolen or written off and haven’t been involved in a bodged accident repair. Where in doubt, we should pay for that check ourselves…

2/ We can now check the car’s last MOT online to see what work needs doing, even when the car has passed its MOT.

3/ We should check the car handbook to see when the last car servicing was done and what this entailed. Cars should be serviced once a year as a minimum. If mileage is very low (under 5000m pa) this probably means nothing more expensive than an oil and filter change.

4/ We should always check the condition of tyres on a used car. Tyre tread should be no less than 1.6mm ie the depth of a 20p coin rim. If less than 3mm they need changing and good tyres are expensive to replace.

But when you pay c£9000 or more for a used car it’s surely reasonable to expect a long check list to have been carried out by the dealer before putting a car on sale? Adding a used car warranty to give us peace of mind?

A warranty that reflected the rigour of the dealer’s checklist I’d have thought.

Used car warranty standards

The used car industry standard seems to be a minimum three month warranty in the UK but some dealers do a lot better.

For example, a Ford Approved used car comes with a 12-24 month warranty.

And an Approved BMW comes with a 12 month warranty.

And when it comes to independent used car dealers Safe and Sound ones include a minimum 6 month warranty.

Yet if you buy a used car from RAC Cars, including a ‘used car guarantee’, you may only get a one month warranty?

So obviously you must always compare used car warranties in terms of their length and cover; even when buying from a motoring brand we think we know well, like the RAC.

What happens if the warranty doesn’t cover your claim?

Few motorists know that there is a new Trading Standards Code of Practice for Vehicle Warranty Products, run by Motor Codes. This means that, assuming the warranty provider/product subscribes to this scheme, you can then use Motor Codes’ free conciliation service to check your options if you are unhappy with a decision to turn down a seemingly reasonable claim.

Other information about car warranties…

a/ The Sale of Goods Act is valid for six months after car purchase and may provide cover should you need this, in addition to any shorter dealer warranty.

b/ You have few rights (other than transferable warranties in some cases) when buying from an individual seller rather than a known car dealer.

c/ If you choose a FOXY Lady Approved ie female friendly car dealer you can be sure of a minimum three month warranty. Some offer more.

d/ You could offer to pay extra to upgrade to a 6 or 12 month warranty depending on the value of the car. If the dealer won’t quote reasonable terms to do this, be suspicious!

Clearly no car dealer is going to include a longer warranty than he needs to, but to sell a used car with as little as a one month warranty suggests that the dealer has little faith in the longer term viability of that vehicle!

And where that may be the case, can I please suggest that you look elsewhere and buy on the basis of a well documented ‘approved used car check’ and one of the best dealer warranty products?

FOXY

PS: By all means email me, info@foxyladydrivers.com, with your experience of used car warranties. We are compiling a FOXY feedback file to identify/recognise those warranty providers that are getting service levels right for Club members. And not all are it seems!

garage services

More females than ever fix garage visits for family cars

Which garage can I trust?
Which garage can I trust?
A growing number of women are conquering their concerns about being ripped off by garages, confirms whocanfixmycar.com a site which helps car owners find mechanics in their local area.
 
Their findings are that more women than ever are taking to the roads in their own cars. Vehicle licensing statistics state that in 2012, about 40 per cent of privately registered cars had a female keeper with this proportion increasing by 70 per cent since 1994.
 
This motoring independence also coincides with a steady increase in women living alone. In 1996, there were 3.9 million females living alone, a figure that rose to 4.1 million by 2012. According to the Office for National Statistics, a further two million single occupancy households are predicted by 2020.
 
Ian Griffiths, CEO of Whocanfixmycar.com, said: “We’ve noticed that many more women are now taking charge of their vehicles and liaising directly with garages, rather than asking their partners to handle the work.
 
“For some women, a visit to their local car garage can traditionally be quite a daunting experience, with many dubious about the prices they’re quoted for repairs and services. We’re hopeful that the tide is starting to turn. The mechanics on our site work hard to promote themselves as female friendly garages and some are running courses for women to help them learn more about the mechanics of their cars. Others have a high concentration of female staff members on board.”

This is good to hear and reflects our business stance. To be FOXY Lady Approved by sister business, FOXY Choice and promoted as female friendly to women drivers, garages need to demonstrate their quality credentials (usually ATA/Professional Register and/or TSI approved Motor Codes) and sign the FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women anything they don’t need.’ We then monitor their quality, value for money, cleanliness, welcome and genuinely female feedback in a biennial compliance visit so we can be as certain as possible that they are delivering to our standards.

Genuinely good garages that organise women’s evenings can contact us to promote a specific event at the FOXY Lady Drivers Club website.

Mobile mechanics are also welcome to join the FOXY Lady Approved scheme providing they are members of the IMI’s Professional Register and are subject to rigorous reference follow ups.

FOXY

 

garage services

Garages we really, really want to win…

spice-girlsThese are the garages we really, really want to win…

The shortlist for the Motor Codes Garage of the Year Awards has just been announced with voting open online until noon on Sunday 24 March.

We’d like to nominate the following ten businesses because they are all FOXY Lady Approved ie genuinely female friendly garages and they therefore deserve the female vote as a minimum.

NB: They meet our fussy standards…

The North East

Lowfield Garage, Malton

The Midlands

iAuto UK Coventry

Sturgess Jaguar Leicester

The North West

Thistlethwaite Tyre & Exhausts Bolton

Barry and Wilkinson Tyre and Exhausts Winsford

Village Motor Company, Wallasey

The South East

Micheldever Tyre and Auto Services Micheldever

The South West

Central Garage Exeter

Holders SEAT, Congresbury

Wales

Harris Bros, Fforestfach

To find out more, just click on the garage links on the page.

The_final_countdown_by_maria_marsbarCongratulations to you all and here’s wishing you the very best during the voting period.

Even if you don’t all win this time WE FOXY LADIES THINK YOU REALLY REALLY DESERVE TO…

FOXY

garage services

When car repairs for Bee cost more than she’s worth

Yesterday I spoke to Club member Fiona following her visit to a manufacturer approved Nissan repairer in the Midlands last week. I won’t mention their name at this stage in case they can put matters right here, but if they don’t (and I have my doubts), I will add it later.

The offending garage in question isn’t a member of our FOXY Choice network but they are signed up to the Motor Codes scheme so we have referred her to them for advice.

The car we’re discussing is an 02 reg Nissan Primera called Bee. Whilst it is undoubtedly an elderly car it has never failed an MOT and Fiona has never bought other than Nissan since passing her driving test. In short she loves and cares for this car.

FOXY’s recommended garage for members is a dealership some way across town for Fiona so we understand why she opted for a nearer but Nissan-approved independent repairer on this occasion to diagnose a mysterious light on Bee’s dashboard.

This garage identified the fault as a dodgy sensor and quoted £266 to replace and rectify the matter, all in. With the benefit of hindsight, we’d say this was on the expensive side but we weren’t involved then. The problem is that this didn’t fix the dashboard light so the work would appear to have been done to no avail.

The verdict? “We think it may be the cambelt now; this will take the bill over £1000…” their technician said. Which would have exceeded the likely value of Bee of course…

But he wasn’t at all nice about this, made Fiona feel the car was too old to be worth bothering with, nobody apologised to her and the final straw was when he suggested it’d be best to explain this to her husband – as if her ‘pretty little head’ couldn’t take all this in.

Needless to say, Fiona’s husband wasn’t overly sympathetic about this and was quick to point out that they had failed to diagnose the problem correctly so why was there a bill? An impasse was reached and even the Manager seemed unable to come up with a solution of any sort.

It’s too soon for us to know where we go from here until Motor Codes gives us their advice.

Certainly Fiona will now go to our ‘female friendly approved’ dealership and we know she’ll be looked after there. But the tricky thing is always when motorists are expected to pay these offending bills before collecting their car, even when the bill seems unreasonable. Perhaps the work wasn’t needed, or done in the first place? Our experience suggests that many garages get paid for unnecessary work in similar and often more expensive situations and then the motorist has no option but to take his or her car elsewhere to remedy the situation, paying again and unsure of how to get the initial party to cough up.

As a result of some to-ing and fro-ing here, possibly at the mention of the second car dealership involvement, we had understood that the Nissan approved repairer had dropped the bill to c£90. That sounded better than the initial £266 of course but it’s still important to remember that the garage hadn’t fixed the problem and may well have replaced a perfectly good car part unnecessarily. In fact the Service Manager said that the new parts were removed, so how can Fiona be sure that the work was ever done?

But when her husband went to collect Bee he was charged £288 so not only did they exceed the original quote by £22 but they also seem to have ignored the fact that this has achieved nothing for the customer. So was the work done or not? The second car dealership should be able to confirm this or otherwise and we’ll be looking at this invoice and breakdown of their charges later.

But the lesson is surely that they could have saved face by being upfront and honest about the problem, realistic about the value of the car they were working on and more knowledgeable overall. Aren’t they supposed to know what’s wrong with a car, not just say ‘we don’t know’ which is how they’ve left things for Fiona. We certainly thought a manufacturer approved repairer should know. But being an authorised Nissan repairer doesn’t count for a lot really when the person representing this brand is rude, patronising and uncaring.

We’re in this for the long haul of course because Fiona is a member. If we don’t get the right outcome for her in a reasonable period of time we’ll be spreading the word about this repairer within the Club. Otherwise how else can female motorists single out the best and steer clear of the rest in future. That’s what FOXY is all about.

Watch this space.

FOXY