The article was sent to me by one of our sponsors (thank you)

Just shows that the motor trade is just not capable of policing itself, one scheme after another devised by companies that have their own agenda

As talked about on this forum many times, a Government (trading standards) backed licencing scheme is the only way forward........how long before someone sits up in government and takes notice

1, February 2006
What Car? Press Release

What Car? Reveals Garages Don’t Care and Won’t Change

Just three of 25,000 workshops join Kitemark scheme
Fewer than 100 applications in five months
Industry failing to improve standards

Motorists looking for trustworthy garages have just three accredited workshops to choose from, five months after the start of a British Kitemark scheme.

The British Standards Institute says it has received fewer than 100 applications from the UK's 25,000 garages for the Automotive Kitemark it launched last September, and will only send out the first three licences later this week.

The slow response from service and repair workshops is the latest disappointment in decades of attempts by the multi-billion pound industry to get its house in order and give motorists a better deal.

Strings of mystery shops all show motorists are routinely overcharged, told they need unnecessary work or left with cars in a dangerous, unroadworthy condition.

Steve Fowler, group editor of What Car? said: 'Enough is enough. With just three out of 25,000 workshops getting approval from the BSI in five months, and fewer than 0.5% even bothering to apply, it's clear that servicing and repair workshops are treating motorists with arrogant disdain.

'There seems to be no appetite to change the industry and little effort from workshops to put their shoddy, second-rate and, at times, dangerous past behind them.'

The National Consumer Council (NCC) last summer set a deadline of the end of March this year for lead trade association the Retail Motor Industry Federation to win approval for a code of conduct from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Since the Retail Motor Industry Federation has already abandoned one code and made clear that it will not submit another to the OFT, the NCC says it is now looking to the BSI Kitemark, and another programme being developed by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, to drive up standards.

The NCC has the power to lodge a 'super complaint' with the OFT, which could help to force regulation through, but is likely to extend its deadline to give the Kitemark and SMMT schemes a chance to win support.

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