Parts of the motor trade have a very poor reputation, on the whole ( Independent Garages )some justified, some not but regular media coverage of 'rip-off garage's' and a general lack of trust between garages and customers helps to generate many horror stories.

This new code of practice, supposed to have been developed by the industry itself, was launched to encourage garages to raise their standards and the general image of the trade, and to rebuild customer confidence by helping consumers identify the better garages.

The initial idea for the code of practice followed a damning report by the National Consumer Council claiming that 'shoddy repair work was costing the consumer £4billion a year' and calling for the industry to obtain full Office of Fair Trading (OFT) approval or be subject to legislation by the government.

The new code is run by Motor Codes Limited, ( A Money Making, Profit Making Business ) which is a subsidiary of the SMMT.

The Purpose of the code of practice is designed to help car owners identify good garages which will deal with their car properly and provide a better service than that of the garages that have not subscribed.

Garages which sign up to the scheme agree to provide an honest and fair service, clear pricing, repairs/service as agreed with the customer, repair costs which match the initial quote, staff who are well trained and keen to do a good job properly.

A scheme that most independent garages are weary of, and many see this scheme as just another money making excersise, which in my oppinion is open to abuse by some very skilfull customers. At the moment Motor Codes Limited has over 5,000 members which the vast majority are main dealers.

Heres a guy that came to us yesterday with his Audi A2 that went into his local dealer a ( Motor Codes Subscribed Member ) for a rattle on his engine, after parting with £103.42 for there checks he was told that he needed a complete new exhaust cost £900. He came away and ended up at ours. We checked his exhaust, the problem was a loose heatshield, after fitting a jubilee clip to secure the rattling heatshield he went away with a bill for under a fiver.

What can I say, the scheme doesn't mean a thing to me. The customer is going to complain to Motor Codes. But I would like to bet that nothing will ever come of it.

Watch this space.

Keith