Be it for an MOT, service or even a repair, at some point you’ll have to take your car to the garage to have it seen to in some way or another. This provides you with a choice: do you go to the big commercial chain garage, or the smaller independent and local one? In this month’s article, we’ll be looking at the benefits you’ll get from choosing to go independent when booking your car into a garage.
1. Convenience/Locality
When you need to book your car into the garage, ideally you’ll need the most convenient and local garage around, especially if your car has a fault with it or if you need to leave it in for a few hours and would prefer to head home while you wait. A local independent garage is therefore the best choice available to you. Independent garages will aim to fit you in at a time that is convenient for you, and their close proximity in your town will mean that you won’t have to worry about getting your faulty car there.
2.Personalised Services
If you go to a branded garage, the service you’ll receive will be tailored for use on a mass scale instead of towards your individual needs. An independent garage, however, will work around your needs. Moreover, the staff of a branded garage is more likely to be larger and subject to more changes, meaning on one visit you may have one mechanic and on your next you could have an entirely new one, unfamiliar with your vehicle or the previous work carried out on it. In an independent garage, staff retention is likely to be higher, meaning you can get to know the person working on your car, and they can get to know you and your car too.
3.Reliability
The personalised service you can expect from an independent garage also means that an independent garage is more reliable than a branded one. They will work hard to provide you with a great service in the hope that not only will you return to them in the future when your car needs work carrying out on it, but that you will also recommend them to your friends. To do this, they will strive to be more reliable than a branded garage.
4.Competitive Pricing
Higher overheads at larger garages can mean you’re paying higher fees for the brand and not much else. You will be funding the chain at large, rather than the individual garage itself.
At an independent garage, however, you will find that the prices are likely to be cheaper than at a branded garage. There will be a reduced cost in overheads, leading to a cheaper but more personalised and efficient service than you could expect from a branded garage. Furthermore, an independent garage will rely on repeated custom, and therefore will not rip you off for the work they carry out in order to keep your loyalty.
5.Support Your Local Community
If you go to your local independent garage, you’ll actually help to support your community. This is because money the garage earns will ultimately be reinvested in the community through investment in the business, investing in other businesses and strengthening entrepreneurial ties in the community, and through wages paid to staff at the garage who will then spend that money elsewhere in the local area. Overall, this means that your area will become more prosperous as a result.
Citroen-Peugeot Specialists Ltd offer professional, high quality MOTs and car services at an affordable price for those in the North London area from our centrally located garage in Finchley. We also carry out all manner of repairs and maintenance ranging from air conditioning to clutch repairs, tyre fittings to wheel balancing. To book your vehicle in with us, contact our friendly team today.