Trouble with garage reviews is that unlike say, hotels, getting an accurate picture is much more difficult. 

My wife used to use a small local independent.  He had several good things going for him, polite, clean and, provided the problem wasn't too complex, he could fix it and often did quickly and without too much over charging.  But when I took a Jaguar problem to him I nearly ended up paying for a cylinder head gasket replacement (yeah, I know I should have done it myself) when what was actually required was a radiator change. 

The local main dealer correctly diagnosed the problem (kudos) saved the head gasket change but still charged an astronomical amount to change the rad.  I found subsequently one of the lower mounting lugs hadn't been fitted correctly and this led to a leak on the ATF cooling line.  Which, as we know, are unobtainable.

Now, I think I know a bit about Jags having done my own work on them for the last 25 years and I can tell when I'm being given a load of dingo's kidneys, but can you trust everyone else out there to do the same and to accurately diagnose their own cars?  And how would you score these two garages?  Cheap and cheerful but sometimes wrong? Expensive and experienced but still capable of making mistakes?

I'm not sure what you are searching for Roly but one of my neighbours has a sticker in her car for this http://www.goodgaragescheme.co.uk/. Are you finally going to find someone local you can trust?

I think I mentioned this somewhere else on here not so long ago, but it is important.

I cannot remember the reason why, but I decided to entrust a new front disc and pad change to my local garage. These people had been doing the odd job for me over the years and generally provide a good all-round level of service.

On this occasion when I went to collect the car it was fairly obvious that instead of doing the job properly all they had done to remove the old discs was to split the brake callipers (I would never have done it or allowed it to be done that way if I’d known). On my way home it was also obvious they had not bleed the hydraulics and a few days later it was obvious they had not reassembled the wheel bearing properly. It collapsed on my way to work and I needed to be recovered. I was not happy.

Yes in this instance it came down to a fairly obnoxious newish employee of the company who clearly didn’t know what he was doing or indeed the consequences of some of the bodges he metered out on my car . Problems is these are circumstances outside of our reasonable control.

Would I make this experience public with details of the Company, probably not. I have nothing against passing on good practice and service but in truth there is a minefield of litigation and recrimination out there. Be careful be warned.

Happy Days
Nick