From booking to collection
The six steps
This is what you experience, from the outside.
Book by phone, by form, or just turn up
The diary is real and Elena keeps it honestly. If we cannot do it today we will tell you the actual day rather than a hopeful one.
Drop off, or use the key box
Early drop-off from 7:30 am, or leave it overnight in the lot behind the building and post the key through the secure box at the gate.
The free inspection happens first
Whatever you came in for, the car goes on a lift and gets looked at properly before we price anything.
The estimate reaches your phone
Photographs, line items, prices, and a plain-English note on which of it is urgent and which is not.
Work starts only once you have replied
Approve the lines you want. Silence is not approval and never has been.
Road test, then collection
Anything involving brakes, steering, suspension or tires gets road tested before it is handed back. You collect, or we return it to you if you are within three miles.
What happens to the car
What is actually happening to the vehicle
The same six steps, from the car's side of it rather than yours.
You tell us what the car is doing
Not what you think is wrong — what it is actually doing, when, and since when. A noise that only happens cold on the first left turn is worth more to a technician than a guess at the part.
We look before we quote
Every car that comes in gets put on a lift and given a documented inspection, whatever you booked it for. It takes twenty minutes and it is free.
You get photographs and a line-by-line price
Sent to your phone. Each item is marked as needs doing now, needs doing soon, or worth knowing about. Nothing is bundled and every line has a price of its own.
You decide, item by item
Approve all of it, some of it, or none of it. Declining a line does not get you a lecture, and it does not get you a different price on the lines you did approve.
We do the work and stop if it changes
If we open something up and find more, work stops and you get a second estimate before anyone picks a tool back up. You will never collect a car and meet a number you have not already seen.
You get the car back clean, with the old parts
Seat and steering wheel covered, floor mat protected, and whatever we took off in a box in the trunk if you asked for it. The invoice matches the estimate.
Why we do it this way
Nothing moves until you have replied
The two lists above describe the same visit twice because they answer different questions. The first tells you when to expect a phone call. The second tells you why the number in that call is the number on the invoice, and not a starting offer.
The hinge between them is the inspection. Every car goes on a lift before anything is priced, whatever it came in for, and that inspection is free whether or not you go ahead with anything it finds. It is the only way to write an estimate that survives contact with the actual car instead of a phone description of it.
Before you call
How to get the most out of booking
Five minutes of preparation gets you a more accurate price over the phone and less time in the building.
Have the year, make and model to hand
And the mileage if you know it. Those four things let us price most jobs accurately over the phone rather than approximately.
Tell us the symptom, not the diagnosis
"It grinds when I brake going downhill" is more useful than "I need pads". You may well need pads. You may also need something we would rather find now than in a month.
Say when you need the car back
If it has to be back by three because of the school run, tell us at booking. We plan the day around it. Telling us at noon is much harder.
Ask about a loan car when you book
There are four and they go quickly. They are $25 a day, free if we have kept your car overnight on a job over $500, and free for Service Plan members.
Clear the footwells and take the valuables
We cover the seat and the wheel, but we would rather not move your things at all. Anything left is your risk, though nothing has gone missing in twenty-one years.
Read more
The detail behind each stage
What it will cost
Real out-the-door prices for the common jobs. See the price list.
What the warranty covers
Twenty-four months or 24,000 miles, and how a claim actually runs. Our warranty.
Loan cars and collection
What is free, what costs extra, and the three-mile collection radius. Ask when you book.
Questions we get asked most
Cost, marques, appointments and everything in between. Read the FAQ.
A written estimate with photographs, before any work
Book your car in
Every car that comes in goes on a lift and gets a documented inspection before anything is priced, and that inspection is free. You get photographs of what we found and a line-by-line estimate on your phone, and nothing happens until you reply.