An Honest Independent Garage... My Experience

[mk_lon]

I'm useless at car mechanics as I'm temperamental and impatient plus I have been stung by dodgy garages before and it makes my blood boil!!!!!!

So when yesterday when I had a pleasant experience at an independent garage I just had to share it!! -The members on this forum have been really helpful so perhaps I could give something back.....

Recently I bought a Lexus is250 SEL auto on a 07 plate from a trader and the next day the dreaded VSC light came on.

Posts about exhausts/ huge bills worried me so I bought an OBD reader. Found out it was a front 02 sensor, (trader said he would fit it, but I must pay for the part ). Meanwhile I started noticing a slight sluggishness and fuel consumption at 20mpg...so I ordered the part and found a garage I could trust as I thought there could be more to this.

I went to BMERCS in Barnet, North London (found out they do Lexus too). They went out of their way to calm me down and put my mind at ease!

As I had the part they only charged me for 30mins labour and checked the car over to see everything was ok. They let the engine run for a bit to see if there was anything else that could trigger the dreaded VCS light after they put the new sensor on, as when one goes sometimes the second one follows on the IS250.

The normal practice is any parts changed are given back to you (old ones), which is something I have never seen before. (Just google the reviews they have got!!)

I was impressed at how cheap they were and more importantly how honest and professional, I had to write about it!!

[steve2006]

Nice to hear your experience, so the fault is now fixed?

[mk_lon]

Hi Steve,

All fixed now :)

[Steve_M]

It's always good to 'advertise' a good repair place, there are enough rip-off merchants about so it's useful to know where the good one are.

[mk_lon]

Thanks Steve,

Glad I could help :) After hearing the horror stories about main dealers I was shocked!

[jumbojake]

Love to hear about good service, we should make a feature of this.

[mk_lon]

Thanks jumbojake,

I agree, as a first time lexus owner I didn't know where to turn