White Heather - a garage you can trust (Independent Garages)

Member Name: depurple2

Product:	Independent Garages
Date:	04/10/06 (427 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly staff, well qualified technicians, cheaper than a main dealer

Disadvantages: Waiting area isn't very luxurious.

White Heather Garage is a small independent garage located in a small village called Dorney, near Windsor. It is quite an unusual looking garage, in that it is built in tudor style. There is an old tudor house, and a wood-framed workshop, and a little wood framed office/waiting area.

Don't be fooled though - the workshop is full of the latest diagnostic equipment and all of the staff are well qualified - you can tell this from all the certificates hanging on the wall in the waiting room.

I have been taking my car there since I learned to drive - my parents have always taken their cars their too. My partner now takes his car there, and he is pleased at getting much lower bills than he had been used to.

The garage is a Bosch service centre, which apparently means that at least one of the technicians has been trained to a high standard to work on Bosch products, which are fitted on most cars. It also means that they have all the correct diagnostic and testing equipment to find problems on these products.

The owner and head technician is called Tom, and his wife Elizabeth does the paperwork. He also has some other technicians who help him with the cars. They are all very friendly, and if you are local they will usually either pick your car up and deliver it back, or give you a lift home and pick you up.

I have seen all makes of cars being worked on there - I have a VW, but I have seen everything from old classic cars to new Porsches parked on the forecourt.

The garage offers the following services:
MOTs
Servicing
Diagnostic work
Air conditioning
Mechanical repairs
ABS brakes

They can also arrange to have bodywork fixed quite cheaply - as I found out when I had a small oops a couple of years ago!


Good things about White Heather Garage

The prices are much cheaper than main dealers. A while ago I rang round some other garages to see if I was being charged the right price, and some of them were more than twice as expensive!
As Tom owns the garage, he really cares about his customers, and if you have a question he will come out and explain the answer in a simple way - even I can understand it!
They are honest - I've never been ripped off there, and I haven't spoken to anyone who has. I've always found the work they have done on my car to be fine.
The personal service - the staff really go out of their way to help.
They will do things like pump up my tyres and check my oil for free - I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know how to do it myself.


Bad things about White Heather Garage

The waiting area isn't very pretty, and doesn't have a TV and tea/coffee like some garages - just chairs and magazines. But then I suppose you aren't paying for it either.
It is a small garage, so you sometimes have to book a bit in advance for long jobs. If it is a small thing they have usually fitted me in at short notice though.



I don't think I will ever change garages - I certainly wouldn't take my car to a main dealer, and not just because they are extortionately expensive. I know someone who took her car to Ford, and they forgot to do the wheel nuts up after they had done her brakes. I also know someone who was charged £400 by Volkswagen when all they did was tell her that they didn't know what the problem was and couldn't fix it.

I did a day's temping myself at a local Audi garage. I was appalled by the way they spoke about their customers, especially behind their backs. I was working on reception, and my job seemed to be to not pass the customer through to who they wanted to speak to. No thanks - I'll stick with a garage where I can actually speak to the person who does the work!

Summary: If you want your car fixed properly at a fair price, I would recommend this garage.