Rip-off free motoring (Lex Autocentres)

Member Name: Slim Lee

Product:	Lex Autocentres
Date:	12/08/01 (2452 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Honest and upfront, Cheap, Loads of centres around the UK

Disadvantages: Not so impressive websites

No, not the strange sci-fi programme you may have seen once on Channel 5 late at night. I’m talking about motor repairs. Yes, that bain of all drivers’ lives that comes around once a year, the dreaded MOT! You’re leaving? Ahhh, c’mon stay a while, it’ll be painless I promise (unlike most MOT experiences).


• Who are Lex Service?
(dull corporate info – skip if you’re not that interested in the background)


Lex was founded in 1928 to operate a small group of parking garages and petrol stations, which it continued to do until the 1960s. From 1949, Lex expanded through the acquisition of companies holding distribution franchises for a variety of car manufacturers. In 1958 the first Volvo cars were imported into the UK by Lex and in 1959 Lex acquired Vehicle Contracts, which became the core of Lex Vehicle Leasing. During the 1960s Lex expanded its car dealerships, while the 1970s were a period of broadening Lex’s base, with the acquisition of truck dealerships and contract hire businesses for trucks and lift trucks. Lex also had interests in hotels, transportation and electronics in the 1970s and 1980s, which were sold to enable Lex to concentrate on its core motoring and business services operations.

Lex Service PLC caters for various motoring areas throughout the UK and Europe. They’re split into three divisions:

• RAC Motoring Services: providing a range of motoring services including BSM driving schools and an independent nationwide chain of MOT, servicing and repairs centres in 956 locations in England, Wales and Scotland (the bit I’m reviewing here);

• Lex Business Services: deals with corporate customers including vehicle management, inventory management and mechanical handling;

• Vehicle Marketing: covers the vehicle importing and retailing side of the company, including the UK importer role for Hyundai Car and Isu
zu Truck, and Lex Commercials, a chain of commercial vehicle retailers.
Enough of that, I’ll get onto the Autocentres review bit before I bore you to tears.


• Lex Autocentres – the MOT experience


I’d never used Lex before, and to be perfectly honest I don’t think I’d even considered or heard of them either. So it was with a sense of trepidation that I booked the MOT. They had got a glowing recommendation from a trusted friend so I thought I’d give them a go. After all, they couldn’t be as bad as some places I’d been in the last few years.

On booking the MOT they were quite casual about the whole process and weren’t that bothered about specifying a time. Just “drop it in tomorrow morning” and that was it. They took a note of my name, address and car registration and hey presto it was booked. No tutting or sighing down the phone to try and squeeze it in (as I’d had the day before when I tried to get it booked into the local Fiat dealer). Relaxed and friendly from the off, had I really called a motor garage?

On the day, I swung the car into their rather unassuming site just off Huntingdon Street in Nottingham and parked in the back. The first apparent thing was the distinct lack of frills. The vast part of the site is taken up with the servicing garage and not the offices (as at some places). On walking into the office this snap judgement was confirmed by the sparseness of the box (office surely?!). The bloke behind the desk was as friendly off the phone as on, and took my phone number down to call me when it was done. Off into the city centre for a spot of window-shopping then.

A few hours later (and after a failed window shopping session which resulted in more DVDs being bought on the spur of the moment) I arrived back at the garage with a dark sense of dread hanging over me. Mr Visa was limbering up for a severe pounding.
You
see, normally, when you go back to the garage to assess the damage it’s quite a torrid and painful experience (severe stabbing pains in the pocket region). You turn up to see the grimace on the face of the bloke behind the desk and you think “Oh no, it’s going to be even more expensive that last time” and “What have they managed to bump onto it this time.” Ring any bells? If it doesn’t then I suspect you haven’t been driving all that long.

This time around I was immediately shocked on my return to the garage to find the bloke behind the desk smiling. I took this as a major sign of a visa-shattering bill to come. Hang on. He’s just smiling, saying something about it passing the MOT with no further work needed, and he actually seems happy at this fact. Now I’m completely thrown. This isn’t normal behaviour. They’re supposed to fleece you out of your hard earned cash! No spark plugs needing to be changed? No wheel re-balancing? Very odd indeed, I seem to have found an honest MOT garage!!

I scratch my head and try to act nonchalant about the whole thing, but it plainly isn’t working. The smiling bloke behind the desk hands me the bill. My cool, calm exterior melts instantly as I see an MOT bill (for the very first time ever) come in less than £100. In fact it came in under £50 (including VAT) and that also included an oil and filter change too! Bloke behind the desk helpfully pointed out a few bits about the car that need fixing but weren’t covered by the MOT. He didn’t even try to book me in for further work. Wow! No pushy after sales pitch.

In the end, the MOT set me back a healthy £34.00 and the oil and filter change just £13.95, which was far cheaper than it would’ve been at the Fiat dealer. Now all I was expecting was the MOT certificate, as all other garages I’d been to just give you the bit of paper. Not this place. I came out with a n
icely presented A4 gatefold style pack (even though it is bright orange it’s still okay) including all the paperwork (invoice and emissions test results), receipts, MOT certificate, free Autocar magazine, a Lex tax disc holder, a smelly tree thingy, a sample of cockpit spray and a Lex key ring! And still no plugging of their other services or their links with the RAC.

I left Lex thoroughly impressed with how friendly and honest they were all the way through the job, and would certainly recommend anyone in the Nottingham area to use this branch (0115 9504148). If the other branches around the UK are half as good then Lex Autocentres has to be the place to get your MOT done next time it’s due.


• The website(s)


www.lex.co.uk

Ah, well, this is where they’re not so good it has to be said. It’s basically just a corporate site with no great information of interest to you or me. It does tell you a few nuggets such as the latest news section. I didn’t realise they had bought out Auto Windscreens, which is now forming part of their tie-in with the RAC and will be called RAC Auto Windscreens (imaginative huh?!).

Other than that side of things the website is the usual hotchpotch of useless and irrelevant corporate information. Why companies fill their sites with this rubbish is mind-boggling. What a wasted opportunity, they could’ve filled it with far more useful stuff, such as contact list for all the Autocentres and a map. It wouldn’t have taken too much effort.

The only useful bit on it is the telephone contact information for Lex Autocentres customer care (0800 716 862) and another number to find your local branch (0800 028 0250). That’s it.

But …… there is a link to the following section of their site if you look very, very carefully

http://www.lexautocentres.co.uk

Now this one is much more useful, as it has links to f
ind your nearest centre (by either the nearest town or your postcode), just a shame that it doesn’t appear to be completely up-to-date as the one I went to in Nottingham isn’t on the list!

Another section on “Tips” is a useful checklist and there is also a section for online vouchers. Just a shame I didn’t find that before taking the MOT as I’d have saved a £5 of it!! Darn.

This separate site is far better than the corporate one, but by no means perfect. Still, worth a look before you go even if it’s just to print off the vouchers.

Summary: