Cos I just left our old girl into the usually very busy local reputable independent I use.
Employes a recptionist & 3 or 4 mechanics plus still on the tools himself.
It was EMPTY, except for our car
So I asked, yes virtually no work on, he considers himself lucky that he has a paint oven because bodywork is all he is getting.
And the rest of the garages incl the franchised ones in the area are apparently the same.
J. says modern cars are simply TOO reliable, that plus the extended service intervals.
So has the Scrappage scheme here in Ni put all the older high maintenance girls off the road.
jat
M
Edited by dieseldogg on 26/11/2009 at 11:01
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My local indie's main interest is in working on race cars - he travels all over, including the near continent, to work in the pits. So he is often not there on Monday or Friday. But the season is now over, so he will have to do more bread-and-butter work. I have been there a couple of times recently, and there have been signs of non-racing work, but it looked fairly quiet.
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I wonder if the time of year is also adding to the underlying recession / skint populace problem. It is tempting, with Christmas around the corner, to put off servicing or other non-immediate jobs until the new year.
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Indeed, he did mention that this would traditionally be a quieter time of the year.
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>>So has the Scrappage scheme here in Ni put all the older high maintenance girls off the >>road.
Not only that from what I read this morning - the mini-bonanza produced via scrappage has largely gone abroad & that money that was spent on cars couldn't be spent elsewhere in the economy, i.e. it robbed from Peter to pay Paulo/Paulus.
The net result (Guardian financial pages, today) was a greater than forecast contraction in the last 3 months in GDP.
Moreover, that 'exported' economic activity is just that - exported - it's not like the usual
merry-go-round effect of buying a loaf of bread in Wigan which pays wages to buy another loaf of bread Huddersfield. That money will be helping JonnyF to buy croissants, brot & rice.
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The town indy I use has a manager, one in reception/office, a workshop tech then 5 mechanics. They have one of the mechanics full time on MOTs and the others share out tyre bay work as needed.
Pleased to say they are flat out almost every week and often behind due to unexpected bookings/breakdowns arriving.
Perhaps it's due to the mixed age/type of vehicles run in our rural area??
Edited by M.M on 26/11/2009 at 13:17
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A couple of local reputable garages around here have gone over to selling cars rather than repairing them, they seem to think that sort of trade is more reliable even with the traditional slump periods.
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My neighbour owns 2 garages and he's busy enough, but then Cornwall is one of the poorest regions in Europe so there are a high number of older vehicles that need servicing etc.
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I suppose in any business like that you're almost totally at the mercy of people picking up the 'phone, I remember talking to a self employed domestic appliance repairer and his total workload visibilty was about 2 days.
I don't know about indie's, but I've always thought my local MB dealer seemed very quiet. And they've definitely got rid of people recently. Last time I was there it took an absurd 40mins to book the car in and no-one else arrived in that time. Yet they still don't return calls.
Yet I tried to get a "waiting" appointment in the Honda dealer we use and they couldn't fit us in for 2 wks.
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"Moreover, that 'exported' economic activity is just that - exported - it's not like the usual
merry-go-round effect of buying a loaf of bread in Wigan which pays wages to buy another loaf of bread Huddersfield. That money will be helping JonnyF to buy croissants, brot & rice."
A rather parochial view of trade perhaps. The products your "Jonny F" buys will result in further trading and thus it goes on. Whether in the UK or not doesn't really matter.
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400,000 cars off the road to be replaced with new has to have an affect
however its only jobs business rates vat that this govt has lost to help a few boys in the CLUB so no loss really for the yummy mummies and daddies got a porsche...........
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A rather parochial view of trade perhaps. The products your "Jonny F" buys will result in further trading and thus it goes on. Whether in the UK or not doesn't really matter.
Hmmm.. depends how big the 'parish' is ultimately. The scrappage scheme was meant to be
parochial, i.e. generate GDP & jobs within our own borders.
The main objective of the scrappage scheme was to generate quick local trade - not wait for a general pick-up in world trade to get us going again. Buying imports (as it turned out) wasn't the best way to do that - as evinced by the larger than expected drop in GDP.
The scheme worked well in economies that make & buy alot of their own home produced cars, e.g. America & Germany & those far eastern producers of small cars that didn't have a top heavy banking system to subsidise.
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My local indie seems to be very quiet. When I phoned up in August to book an MoT for the following week, they were able to offer me a slot next day. When SWMBO's exhaust parted company with the car a fortnight ago they did it first thing next morning.
Both times the other bays were empty when I ran the cars in and picked them up, and this is at a normally very busy dealers.
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