Finding a good, trustworthy garage that’ll charge you a fair price is crucial to keeping your car roadworthy and your bills in check. Finding one that specializes in the MX5 is even harder as I discovered.
I asked members for recommendations and searched online for reviews, bearing in mind reviews or testimonials on line are unlikely to give a balanced view. I thought I would go with my gut feeling and drove to Cleverley Repaired Cars who are specialists in service, repair and modification of the Mazda MX-5 sports car.
I wanted my wheel alignment done, having bought new rims and tyres. My car has only done 11.600 miles, but I wanted peace of mind.
I arrived at 08:55hrs and was met by Michael with a friendly smile and an instant offer of a cuppa. He proceeded to ask me what I wanted out of my visit, gave my car the “once over” and then explained how it was going to happen.
The really nice thing at this point was that I was not ushered off to some far corner of the garage or made to feel awkward about asking any questions no matter how simple they were. This for me was important because like many on this forum he was working on my “pride and joy” so I needed to ask.
Michael did point out to me that the equipment was all new and I was the first person to use it.
The first thing Michael addressed was putting my tyres the right way around, hence the second cuppa in the photo as I had not noticed that this also needed to be done!!!
Michael pointed out that his “new toy” can also do MOT’s. As you can see this is all in the ramp. I have never seen this before as any garage I have previously visited has had them on the floor.
If you look at the wheels Michael has attached the Snap on 3D wheel alignment kit The machine/computer uses high definition cameras to each wheel. I forgot! to take a photo of the camera arm that is infront of the car and can be lined up regardless of the ramp height.
Now the fun part…. The computer identifies each wheel (I took the photo before all 4 were lined up) which shows on the right rear. Michael did explain everything to me, but I forgot my notebook so all I will say is that the machine is the “dog`s thingies”…….
When Michael had finished he asked me to take it for a drive, having told me that my car was not bad at all. All I can say is “wow”, the short three mile ride around the bends nearby was so different. I would recommend having this check done on your MX5 to any member as it changes the handling so dramatically. Anyway back to garage.
I have booked my car in at Cleverley Repaired Cars for some other work I fancy having done to my MX5 and here is the reason why:
(a) Telephone manner when booking the visit was not rushed and I was asked lots of questions, some of which I had not even considered.
(b) Meet and greet was very personal, which for me made all the difference. The “no bull” direct and friendly manner helped me understand more about my “pride and joy”
© Fair price for a great job and because he specializes in MX5 keeping my car roadworthy is going to be easy knowing I can trust this garage.
That final comment says it all I think.
Link: http://www.mx5expert.com
John