Motor Codes has announced the top 20 garages in the UK.
As part of its Garage of the Year competition Motor Codes asked consumers to vote for their favourite garages. From all over the UK nominations flooded in, leading to the top 100 being announced some weeks ago.
Now the best from each region have been whittled down to leave two businesses in each area, separated into large and small garages.
The full list of regional winners is given below, but there are some notable achievements including an appearance by three time CAT Garage of the Year award winners ABP Motorsport in Crewe.
ABP Manager Chris Meredith was understandably elated: “We are delighted to have made it through to the finals once more. After falling short of the judged final hurdle in the previous two years we are all hoping this year that the result may go our way and we finally get to the winning post first.â€
The twenty regional finalists will now have their votes and customer feedback analysed by a panel of motoring experts including The Sun’s Motors editor, Ken Gibson, Emma Butcher, consumer editor at What Car? magazine, John Jackson of Havoline and CAT’s Peter Lawton.
In addition, each regional winner will be independently assessed by the RAC, to monitor quality of service, value for money and overall customer satisfaction.
A winner in both the small and large business categories will then be announced.
Motor Codes Managing Director Chris Mason said: “It’s clear to see from the tremendous level of support for the competition – we received double the number of votes compared to last year – that motorists value simple, good old fashioned customer service.
The car service and repair business is a two-way relationship, with word of mouth important for garages and consumer confidence. Garage of the Year gives people a formal way of showing their appreciation, at the same time as letting other motorists know where to find the garage good guys.â€
Garage of the Year regional winners:
Small business category
| Region | Garage |
| East of England | Kings of Witcham, Ely |
| Midlands | Church Road Garage, Baschurch |
| North East | Cavendish Motor Company, Ashington |
| North West | ABP Motorsport, Shavington |
| Northern Ireland | The Motor Gym, Bangor |
| Scotland | Firstdrive Cars, Stonehaven |
| South East | MOT City, Winnersh |
| South West | Car Care Tetbury, Tetbury |
| Wales | A1 Motorcare, Cardiff |
| Yorkshire | Lowfield Garage, Malton |
Large business category
| Region | Garage |
| East of England | Roy Tolley Citroen, Colchester |
| Midlands | Independent Automotive, Coventry |
| North East | Sherwoods Vauxhall, Stockton-on-Tees |
| North West | Polar Ford, St Helens |
| Northern Ireland | SERE SEAT, Lisburn |
| Scotland | Helensburgh Toyota, Helensurgh |
| South East | The Test Centre, Deptford |
| South West | Brunel Ford, Weston-Super-Mare |
| Wales | FRF Toyota, Swansea |
| Yorkshire | Reynolds of Selby, Selby |
All of us here at ABP are overjoyed at this our 3rd consecutive Motorcodes Garage of the Year final. When you consider this contest has 7,500 entries to get through to the 2nd round and final 100 garages is a massive achievement but winning the North West region and making the final 20 is incredible! Lets see if we can go one better than the last 2 years and take the overall National title this year.
Just waiting for the RAC mystery shop & compliance check and then its all down to the judges…
Yours overjoyed,
Chris Meredith
ABP Motorsport
Well we’ve had our RAC compliance check carried out this morning and it was very thorough indeed! Full check of all booking, estimating, terms & conditions, waiting area, MotorCodes compliance and then two cars that had been wprked on today were randomly picked and every item worked on was checked in precise detail. Tyre pressures, wheel nut torques, parts used, invoices etc etc….
You’ll be pleased to know that we passed all of these stringent checks and the inspector could find no faults whatsover with the cars checked or our general policies & procedures – RESULT!
Now its all down to the judges to decide……
Chris Meredith