Which? slams garages
August 23rd, 2010 by Richard Aucock
WHICH? has accused car garages of ‘shocking levels of incompetence’ following a recent secret survey.
The consumer association recently conducted a big undercover investigation – which found 9 in 10 garages assessed missed a potentially dangerous fault.
It also found 39 percent of garages are charging for something that WASN’T supplied.
This has led Which? to call for secret car garage investigations as part of all codes of conduct. It is also demanding a recognised industry-wide qualification for all mechanics.
Which? has picked out headline stats that make for grim reading. It deliberately introduced 4 easy to find faults on a car. 62 garages were tested, but only 8 returned cars back fault-free.
5 garages didn’t find any of the faults, said Which?. As a whole, the report card looks bad:
• Deflated spare: 68% missed
• Brake fluid at minimum level: 48% missed
• Blown reversing bulb: 57% missed
• Nearside rear tyre pressure low: 21% missed
Damningly, Which? also introduced an honesty test by filling up the screenwash and seeing how many car garages still charged for it. 39 percent did.
Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive, Which?, said: ’This is a worrying snapshot of an industry that desperately needs to clean up its act.
‘Almost all the garages in our investigation failed to fix basic faults. This could have endangered the lives of drivers and other road users and is simply not acceptable.’
The Which? findings are going to be BIG news across the media today: what do you make of the headline stats? Share your views here…
By Richard Aucock
Tags: garage, investigation, motor codes, which
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:27 am
No surprises!!
In March I took my car to a local garage because I thought it needed new brake pads ( there is a warning system when they get low). The brakes were checked and I was told that the front pads needed replacing. The mechanic replaced them and adjusted the rear brakes for no extra cost.
In June I took the car to a different garage for a full service and MOT (at a special price for the two). I had a phone call telling me that the car had passed the MOT but needed over £600 worth of work on it. Alarm bells rang then! How could it pass a MOT test if all that work needed doing? I was lucky because the main problem was that it needed new front pads and discs. The pads had been replaced 3 months earlier with no mention that the discs were worn (wouldn’t the first garage have wanted to take my money). Spark plugs needed replacing (not included in the service). 3 wheels needed balancing. Wheel nut missing. As I had a MOT certificate I told them that I didn’t want them to do any work and went to collect my car. The wheel nut was not missing, it had been broken while they had been doing the service (they showed it to me). I just paid for the service and MOT but found that they had replaced the spark plugs free of charge!
I called the first garage as I was very angry. I was told to take it there the next day and everything would be checked and I would be shown the results. The mechanic spent over an hour on it. I got him to check that I had new spark plugs, and I had (obviously the old ones had been disposed of before they called me). I was shown the brake discs along with badly worn discs from other cars for comparison and they didn’t need replacing. I asked them to balance the 3 wheels at their cost. Only 1 needed balancing and I was not charged. My son has replaced the wheel nut for me (99p).
I feel that I was lucky because if they had picked on anything but the brakes I might have been ripped off.
At least I know where to take my car in the future!!