Automotive industry regulator Motor Codes has released a top 10 list of regional winners in its Golden Garages competition – garages picked out from the thousands across Britain by motorists prepared to share the secret of where best to take your car.
Voting closed this week in the Motor Codes campaign – something that has become an annual initiative helping point motorists to a network of trustworthy car service and repair centres – and the top 10 now face a grilling from an expert judging panel, before the overall Golden Garage is announced in April.
Motor Codes Managing Director, Chris Mason, explains the idea behind the contest, “Fighting back against the negative image often unfairly associated with garages, Golden Garages is there to champion examples of good service. It allows motorists to tell fellow drivers about the safe havens – garages that give top customer service.”
Complementing the Golden Garages competition, Motor Codes runs a garage finder on its website www.motorcodes.co.uk that points people to local garages that subscribe to its customer service guidelines. Each garage has a profile page, complete with ratings generated by customers.
“It’s this word of mouth recommendation that’s so important”, adds Chris. “Our feedback shows us that people will drive some distance to get the service they know and trust or that friends have told them about. Golden Garages will help spread the word about the good guys.”
The overall Golden Garages winner will be revealed next month, after an extensive judging session by a panel of judges, including TV personality Mike Brewer, What Car? Editor-in-Chief Steve Fowler, Emma Butcher, Editor of Car and Accessory Trader and Motor Codes Managing Director, Chris Mason. In addition, each nominated top 10 garage will be independently assessed by the RAC, to monitor quality of service, value for money and overall customer satisfaction.
Golden Garages top 10, 2011:
- Roy Tolley, Colchester – Citroën (East of England)
- Crescent Motoring Services, Burton upon Trent – Independent (Midlands)
- Paul Robbie Motor Services, Hexham – Independent (North East)
- ABP Motorsport, Crewe – Independent (North West)
- SERE SEAT, Lisburn – SEAT (Northern Ireland)
- W Livingstone, Uddingston, Glasgow – SEAT (Scotland)
- Anglo Continental Cars, Bletchley, Milton Keynes – Independent (South East)
- Clive Woolford Motor Engineers, Tewkesbury – Independent (South West)
- A1 Motorcare, Rumney, Cardiff – Independent (Wales)
- Reynolds of Selby, Selby – Independent (Yorkshire)
Motor Codes operates a self-regulatory code of practice for garages across the country, ensuring that motorists receive consistently high standards of service. Supported by consumer groups and government, including the Department for Transport, Motor Codes raises standards across the industry and the Golden Garages competition forms an important part of this process.
Motorists are able to search for garages that subscribe to Motor Codes via its online Garage Finder tool – www.motorcodes.co.uk/garagefinder – and can make an informed decision on where to take their car, based on the feedback of other garage customers. Ratings are viewable on garage profile pages and current statistics show that over 95% of Motor Codes customers would recommend their garage to friends and family.
The Golden Garages competition can be followed online at www.goldengarages.co.uk, as well as on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GoldenGarages.
The UK’s top 10 garages will each receive £200 of experience vouchers from Unipart, £650 of Snap-On Tools vouchers, a year’s free subscription to Motor Codes and credit to spend on Motor Codes marketing materials.
The Golden Garage will receive all of the prizes from the top 10 stage, plus a further prize haul. This consists of £2,250 of Snap-On Tools vouchers, three years’ free subscription to Motor Codes and additional credit to spend in the Motor Codes shop.
