Autotest is offering a great deal where customers purchasing brake discs and pads for their vehicle get the pads for free.This offer covers most popular vehicles on the road today.
In these straitened times, many of us will be looking to reduce our outgoings as much as possible unless we’re the former boss of RBS, of course.
There are some good reasons for trying to reduce the costs of motoring, which are mainly to save money and also to help the environment.
There are a number of ways you can cut down on your motoring costs and help the environment at the same time – some of these are obvious, some less so.
Firstly, you’ll need to ensure your car is running as smoothly as possible, and that means keeping up to date with your service intervals. A car that is out of tune will not only lose performance, but will also run less economically – costing you money and adding to CO2 emissions.
Do you have a roof rack? How often do you use it? Is it on your car? You may not know that an empty roof rack increases your fuel consumption by around 10%. That means if you drive around the average annual mileage of 12,000, and your car should normally return, say, 30 miles per gallon, you will be burning your way through an additional 180 litres of fuel – with no benefit. That’s around £14 to £15 per month!
Have you checked your tyres recently? Wrongly inflated tyres are not only dangerous but will also adversely affect your fuel consumption
Did you know the legal limit for tyre tread is 1.6mm across 75% of the tyre?
We all leave things in the car we shouldn’t – spare tools, perhaps a fuel can, shopping bags, sports equipment and lots of other things besides. Carrying these around will also increase your fuel consumption.
How you drive will affect your fuel economy more than anything else. Try to drive smoothly, minimising the amount of slowing down and accelerating you need to do, as these will all waste fuel.
Use the appropriate gear for your speed and the road conditions. If you slow down using the gears in your car, you’ll be using less fuel than if you put it in neutral or put your foot on the clutch as you brake. This because modern engines actually shut off the fuel supply when the throttle is not open.
Don’t stay in low gear longer than necessary – those ”boy racer” starts away from the lights are costing you in fuel consumption.
Don’t leave your vehicle idling more than necessary. If you expect to be stopped for more than half a minute or so, switch off your engine.
We won’t get into the argument that still rages over whether global warming is man-made or not. However, it seems sensible that we should all do our best to reduce carbon emissions and there is much debate about the best way to do this. If you need to use a car, what’s the best car for the environment? Many will immediately say it’s the Toyota Prius or another “hybrid” car that stores energy from braking as electricity to assist the petrol engine, thus reducing fuel consumption. Not all will agree however – in a recent test (by the Times) the Toyota Prius actually used more fuel on a long journey than a BMW 520 diesel.
There are also those who say that the manufacturing and recycling costs of the Prius actually mean it has a worse effect on the environment than a large 4×4. The Prius needs a lot of nickel for its batteries and it’s manufactured in plants all round the world, necessitating a great deal of fuel consumption before it’s even built. Allegedly.
It’s quite likely that the most friendly thing you can do for the environment is to keep an old car going as long as possible – that way the energy used in building and scrapping the cars you drive will be kept to a minimum.
Autotest aims to provide better service to its customers, and our customers recognise this. But don’t just take our word for it – we are a Bosch Car Service garage, which means that we have to at least meet Bosch’s very high standards and work to their levels of quality and performance.
All Bosch Car Service garages are required to comply with the Bosch code of conduct and fulfil all relevant statutory and legal requirements, in particular those relating to Trading Standards, Health and Safety, Environmental Protection and Employment.
All Bosch Car Service garages aim to offer an outstanding level of care and attention, as well as the highest standards of workmanship. The Code explains the operational standards and procedures that Bosch Car Service garages will employ to ensure customers receive a proficient level of care and attention.
It describes how the Bosch Car Service garage will handle important legal and commercial measures in order to give further support to its customers.
You can read more about this at: www.boschcarservice.co.uk/osCare.asp
Thank you to everyone who took part in our recent customer survey, run for us by market research company, Shape the Future.
350 of you took part and we were delighted by the results, which clearly show that our efforts to provide good service and value are being recognised. Many of our customers come back to us time and time again and we’re very pleased that our philosophy of providing the best service and the best value is clearly popular.
Around ¾ of those who took part in our survey usually or never use any other garage or workshop.
39% of those in the survey first heard about us because they were recommended to us.
You told us that the things that are important to you in choosing where to have your car maintained are the quality of service, the way you’re looked after, previous experience and the reputation of the company, as well as being nice people to deal with and competitive prices. The single most important factor is quality of workmanship.
We are delighted to report that 93% of you were quite or completely satisfied with our service. 90% of you told us you’d recommend us to a friend or relative and 93% will use us again.
While these figures are extremely gratifying and we’re very pleased, we think there’s still room for improvement – we’d like 100% of our customers to be completely satisfied and to feel they can recommend us. While that may be a tall order, it’s certainly what we’ll be aiming for.
Autotest believes that your car deserves the best care possible after all, you need it to get you to work, to get to the shops and to transport you and your family while keeping you all as safe as possible.
At Autotest's premises in Ewell, we work to be better better than our competitors, better than main dealers and better than you expect.
We know what we do best looking after your car and looking after you while you are our customer but we’re always striving to do it better and to be the best for car and van servicing in Surrey.
To book your car or van in for a service or MOT click here.
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