"Good garage scheme"

[michael1703]

Has anybody used a garage that has "good garage scheme" above the door?

 

If you have, we're you pushed to buy or did you find that you had been billed for fuel/engine additives?

 

The scheme is owned by Forte, the company that makes the diesel treatments etc, to join the scheme you also have to buy a display stand with £300 of stock of popular additives

 

Just wondering if anyone had similar dealings

[panhard65]

I used to be in it. You have to pay them £30 a month just to be in it. They also insist that you use their products on every service and will check your paperwork to make sure. It is a rip off basically. You don't actually have to be a "good" garage all you have to do is sell their snake oil and pay them for the privilege. I stuck with it after buying the business for about a year then dumped it as there were no benefits at all. I will still use engine flush but not the Forte one as it is too expensive. All the other cleaners never seem to work for me so I don't bother any more. If you don't use their products on every service and they find out by checking your invoices they will remove you from the scheme as by not using them you are no longer a "good" garage.

[colino]

As above, the "good garages" are those willing to pay for marketing under its umbrella and to regularly put on spoof "reviews" of how wonderful they are.  They are a product of the online age and instead of people getting human recommendations from real people, often people search online and believe what these product selling websites are telling them.

The snake oil selling is powerful, even the taxi boys around here (known for their short arms and deep pockets) swear by the forte diesel service pack.

[Des]

Those Forte products are rather good mind.

If you're an engine rebuilder.

[worldofceri]

Fairly sure my local place is in a Good Garage Scheme. I haven't noticed any display stand or been billed for anything spurious. I need to pop in to book an mot soon so might have a nosy.

[scruff]

Small cup of petrol in the full tank of an old school diesel does the job just as well. 

[Bren]

A lot of mechanics actually rate the stuff.

[Coprolalia]

My local guy in Cardiff is a good garage scheme-r.

Never had him pushing any snake oil.

Doesn't charge me for work that only takes him five minutes.

Generally a nice bloke with an interest in old shite without ECUs where you had to be a proper mechanic.

 

Don't believe the hype. I think he has it as it sets him apart from the hundreds of other back street mechanics round here.

[Lord Sterling]

Mahmoud is or was in the "Good Garage" scheme for a while. Last time I went there I noticed some of the signs were not there, though I don't know if this is because the wind or if he has left the scheme.

 

I honestly didn't know that about the "Good Garage" scheme until I read the above.

[brickwall]

I also heard bad reviews are not allowed; it's only the good reviews that get through.

 

The government's  own scheme and the ISO version had very little uptake (surprise, surprise) as the garages would have to conform to the usual ISO and BS stuff. Indeed, The GG scheme has had the worst write ups from undercover tests, with Bosch coming  way, way out in front of all the others.

[Jim Bell]

There should be a Shite Garage scheme where participating businesses don't charge for getting 20p out of hand brake mechanisms or for hammering slightly smaller sockets over things.

[sierraman]

How can a garage with a vested interest in selling some additive that may or most likely not improve the engine, be classed as good? Do they go the extra mile and grease the brake pipes on a service? Or more likely are they that pushed for time they are just having a look through the caliper window to check the pads?

[michael1703]

Well I wasn't intending to join the scheme, I thought it sounded too dodgy.

 

Despite running a garage for 5 years I'd never been approached by any company apart from penrite, I'm off the beaten track and off the radar but since I started doing MOT's I thought I'd try and get some business by submitting my details to one of those websites that list MOT centres and as soon as I did, that's when I started getting contacted

[alf892]

How can a garage with a vested interest in selling some additive that may or most likely not improve the engine, be classed as good? Do they go the extra mile and grease the brake pipes on a service? Or more likely are they that pushed for time they are just having a look through the wheel to check the pads?

EFA