Conference terri::cars_uk

    
    re -1
    Does anyone know how long we shouild alow for the trip from Reading to
    Cheriton, - remembering that we will be towing and can't travel at
    Derek's normal light-speed ? :-)
    
    Elaine
    

    
    I don't know if Derek & Elaine ever got to Tom's place, but I did.
    
    I took the Marcos down there on the recommendation of this notes file
    (and also of Jane Pryce whose husband races Minis and told me that he
    was very good for setting up carbs). When I got there he was pretty
    busy (but at least he does work Saturdays unlike Phegre and he's
    cheaper although �25 won't get you much there now! :^)) with a tuned
    2-litre Capri and a in-the-throes-of-a-rebuild 1966 MGB as well as 
    someones really standard 1.3 Escort!
    
    He revved the V6 up to some horrible figure (about 6k which is high
    for a Ford V6) and then asked me what I was getting to the gallon (I
    told him about 18 which is what I reckon I got when I bought the car
    to work last Monday). He then spent about an hour fiddling with jets
    and rechecking the car and then gave it back to me and suggested I
    gave it a spin. 
    
    What a difference! The pick up is now sharp and the engine runs so
    smoothly it's hard to believe it's the same engine.
    
    Interestingly he also tunes a tweaked TVR with the Essex V6 and looks
    after two of the HSCC Volvo powered Marcos racers (which often beat the
    best of the Elans) so he knows his stuff.
    
    I'd recommend him unreservedly, as he seems a really pleasant bloke
    with a genuine interest in cars and patient enough to listen to owners
    stupid questions and remarks without rancour, as well as 'knowing his
    onions'.
    
    Mark

      About the Hermitage Peugeuot dealer.
      My Father has a 405 and he always uses the Hermitage garage.
      It's suposed to be quite good and we've got no complaints.
      Regards,
      	  	Iain

    
    	Good morning all!
    		Just wondered if anyone knew anything about a garage called
    A.C.Barnes,in Wokingham,Reading.
    		I've seen a car in there and i wondered what sort of
    service they offer.
    			Any experiences????
    		Cheers   Andy....MUFC

    
    A.C. Barnes in Wokingham has been there for years (at least 15) and has
    always been a Vauxhall Garage.
    
    So from this you can say that it has to be better than Great Western
    Motors was, as it still holds its franchise!
    
    Its also in Crowthorne, but that is an Rover garage.
    
    My father always used to get his company car serviced at A.C. Barnes,
    and he always had an average to nearly good service.
    
    Not much help I know, but at least its not damming!
    
    Steve

A.C. Barnes is a lot older than 15 years and I am *fairly* certain they have
not always been Vauxhall. I think they were a B.L. garage and maybe a 
Austin/Morris place before that...

/Dave.
P.S. They were one of the best garages around many years ago, never heard
anything bad about them, last used them about 6 years ago.

    Hello
    
    Can anyone recommend a good reliable VW garage, or even better, a GTi
    specialist in the Reading area, please.
    
    Thanks
    
    - Jonathan 

    Highly recommended to me by an owner of 2 Golf Gtis - I've used them
    and find them very professional

    I don't recommend Autovloks. They provide good service, not the
    cheepest, not the best.
    
    However, Banus Autosport is excellent.  It's a small Porsche, Audi/VW
    Specialist.  
    
    Location: The Beresford Centre, Chinham, Basingstoke. (0256) 817685
    About 20 minutes down the A33 from Reading.
    
    The owner, Bob Wise is ex Porsche works and ex VAG Workshop.  He is 
    very thorough and knowledgable.
    
    Labour rates are �20 before VAT (from memory).  It makes Autovolks 
    look like a VAG Dealer in comparison.
    
    Highly recommended.
    Robert.

    Does anyone know of a garage in Southampton called Concept in Shirley
    RD,and what their reputation is like?
    
    Tyrone
    

    I was so gobsmacked by the level of service I (my wife) received
    yesterday when we got our big Peogeot serviced, I thought y'all might
    like to here the tale..
    
    We've been using this wee garage in Edinburgh for two or three years,
    on the reccomendation of a brother-in-law.. so they know the car quite
    well.
    
    We phoned them about three weeks ago and booked it in fora 90,000 ish
    service.
    
    On arrival, the guy appologises that some of the parts he ordered in
    advance, like the cam cover gasket, hadn't arrived... I think this is a
    first for the garage trade,, ordering parts in ADVANCE!!
    
    The guy does a great job, a VERY full service including a "general
    check over" pointing out whats' going to require attention soon and
    what can wait for a while, he even points out things like cigar lighter
    not working, spot light lenses holed etc. 
    
    148 quid for a big service, and it's going back in september to get a
    strut replaced before it collapses and to get the cam cover gasket
    replaced. 
    
    
    Impressed!!
    
    Dave
    

    Welwyn Saab have treated my wife, and her 9000 CS Turbo, very well.
    
    The time that surprised me was when it went badly wrong. Gill took it
    and left with a courtesy car. They rang later in the day to say the
    head gasket had gone (35kish miles) and would be a two day job.
    
    "Keep the courtesy car and Saab are paying for everything"
    
    No arguing, no request for a share, nothing. Amazed me.
    
    Andrew

    It seems that most of the horror stories you hear are from main
    dealers, so it's nice to hear some Good ones for a change!!
    
    Dave
    

�                     -< that makes TWO good ones so far! >-
        
        Make that 2�.  Wadham Stringer at Petersfield have always
        given me excellent service (for my service). I'm currently
        on my third Peugeot and WS have worked on them all, often
        finding and fixing small faults that I hadn't even bothered to
        point out.
        
        Evidently that level of service isn't profitable - the parent 
        Wadham Kenning group closed them down last month. :-(
        
        Ian.

    Actually, the Peugeot main dealer that looks after my car, Anglia
    Garage in Ipswich, is superb. They always give me a loan car for
    services, and have lent me cars when I've needed two in the Uk for up
    to a week, for free. They're friendly and helpful, and the technical
    quality of their work appears to be excellent. I cannot fault them at
    all. My next car will be another Peugeot (806 TD).
    
    Laurie.

Yet again another "foreign " car

All Toyota garages dealt with are very good

Don't know whether it is just MR2 , but Whitley Wood Garradg (Reading) and 
Benthmsm in Warrington have always been good valus, courtesy car if reqd and at all
srvices have given full valet treatment free of charge


Alan

    
    Toyota gareges do seem to be good.  Visited half a dozen in my time,
    and never had any complaints.  Mind you the car never went wrong !
                                                             \
    Probably the best was the one at Totteridge and Whetstone (N London)
    who talked me out of having a respray at the front end and managed to
    get the colour back by a good Valet.  The paint (just at the front) had
    faded very badly - whether that was due to to much sun or some
    chemicals from one of the watering sprays outside the office i know
    not.
    
    Then there's the one in Huddersfield, who let me have a look at the engine
    with an endoscope to see the carbon build up.  Recomended i should use
    some REDEX and run it at high revs for an hour.  I then did Calais >
    Paris in 4th at about 110 (6500 revs).  Went through a tank of petrol
    well before Paris (ouch !).
    
    
    
    N. 
    

> Recomended i should use
> some REDEX and run it at high revs for an hour.

I bet that impressed your neighbours!

	I would recommend West Heath Garage at Farnborough, Hampshire.  Always
very helpfull and obliging, never had a bad job from them.  Went there for seven
years with my BXs - wish I could still use them, but they are just too far out
of the way now.  They fixed a suspension problem on one of the BXs that another
garage failed twice to fix!

	I am just starting to use Eric Whites at Ascot, little bit out of the
way, but early impressions very good - courtesy car etc.

				Malcolm.

PS. Why doesn't compose key work on this conference now?

I'll second .1's vote for Welwyn Saab.  They arranged an out-of-warranty 
auto gearbox replacement at no cost for my first 9000 because "... it 
really shouldn't fail after only 18 months/50K miles Sir", free courtesy 
cars are the norm, they always clean the car at each service point and 
they repaired some minor crash damage to my wife's 9000 ahead of the 
original estimate and returned it looking good as new after a full 
external/internal valet.  Oh, and they put a complimentary Saab golf 
umbrella in the back of my new 9000!

Mike

    Re.8 and compose keys
    
    	I'd guess you've gone from OpenVMS 5.5 to 5.5.2 or higher. So
    instead of Compose+space, you just need Compose.
    
    	Rik -always-happy-with-Honda-garages

Can anyone recommend a good Vauxhall garage for Omegas?

My previous experience with Vauxhall dealers is that the larger they are the less capable.

AC Barnes, in Wokingham, is virtually next door to me. Anyone have experience of their service?

Rupert

ps Does this count as supplier deformation Royston? Only kidding!  8^)

    I have an inbuilt distrust of all dealerships and have heard numerous
    horror stories about all the Vauxhall dealers in this area apart from
    AC Barnes. I have gone there 3 times. The first 2 times went OK. The
    most recent one was a recall for my Frontera and when I picked the car
    up they had not done the actual work the recall specified, though they
    had fitted new brake hoses (not specified in the recall although the
    recall did state other components may be upgraded at the same time). I
    don't know if is my imagination but since then the brakes feel spongier
    than before plus my old wheel balance problem seems to be back.
    
    I would never spend my own money there. I always use Ralph's who are
    just unbeatable, but of course for warranty and recall work you have
    to go to a dealer. I'd go back to AC Barnes but only because I've heard far
    worse about J Davy and Wadham Kenning. 
    
    The worst thing I saw there was a guy behind the service desk telling a
    bloke his car wasn't ready (after the chap had left work early because
    he'd been told it would be ready). After the car owner left very irate,
    the guy behind the counter tried to have a joke with the next customer
    about how bad tempered the previous bloke was. Very unprofessional.
    
    Tony

re: .85
>just unbeatable, but of course for warranty and recall work you have
>to go to a dealer.

When my cavalier had its recall, I took it to Ralph's (it was due a service)
and they took it to Davy's (I think) for the recall work to be done.  I.e.
I never had to deal with anyone but Ralph's

nick

I'm based at Winnersh. Is Ralphs outside the area? I assume they are a non-Vauxhall franchise.

Anyone got their number?

Rupert

    
Resubmitted (and suitably reworded) due to failing the censor's scrutiny!
    
    On Vauxhalls again...
    
    I took my Frontera back to Wadham Kenning because the steering pulled
    to the left. Picked it up that night and was told it had been fixed and
    road tested. No way! The steering still pulled EXACTLY the same as
    before. If it had been touched at all it would have pulled either more
    or less. Not the same! It appeared to me that it had not been touched. 
    Certainly it hadn't been fixed.
    
    This was guarantee work. I can well imagine that certain garages probably
    measure certain individuals on avoiding doing 'free' work (i.e. under
    guarantee. This, of course, may not be the case here. 
    
    
    Richard

    re .87 >Ralphs
    
    Ralphs is in Basingstoke, their number is 01256 464204. 
    They are just down the road from the CSC and virtually opposite
    to The Crescent.
    
    They are an independant garage that are LeasePlan/Hertz/PHH approved
    and carry out servicing/repairs and accident repairs.
    I cannot recommend them high enough for quality of service and 
    reasonable pricing. I have had my company cars serviced there for
    several years and had work done on my wifes car with no probs at all.
    
    Royston

Spratleys of Mortimer are ok but I doubt that they would want to collect from
Winnersh.

Dave.

Just gave Ralphs a ring - yes they sound like a "garage". In other words they fix problems not 
replace parts. I've a couple of thousand mile to go, but I think I'll try them out.

Thanks for the tip.

Rupert

    Having read the earlier noters re vauxhall - perhaps thats why they
    came bottom in th JD Power/Top Gear satisfaction table each time!!
    
    
    
    Brian