National repairer register

[cabriolet]

Hi,
I think one of the biggest issues with owning a classic car is finding a garage/welder that understands the type of vehicle, works to a high standard and is reasonable on costs.
JEC now apparently have 15000 members, so there is a lot of knowledge out there with experience of good and bad workmanship. Is it possible to have a register that is only accessible by members where they can log down good experiences with a local repairer. I do not think it would be a good idea to note poor repairers as it is not easy to assess the background to using them and unfair to them as they cannot reply to the comments.
The compilation of this register can be done by the member by stating in one column the company name, another the town/city location, another being a brief description of work. This would encourage people to log on and get involved, as it is in their interest in the future to get good service. This could be mentioned in the monthly magazine to get the ball rolling.
Alan

[BigCatXJS]

Good idea... I thought that we had something similar already but I can't find any reference currently. The Merc club produce a quarterly Club directory of garage services and their website allows members to comment on favourable work/experiences.

[cabriolet]

I had a difficult job around York to find a welding Company that takes on classic cars + do not hype the cost of the cost of the repair. My XJS needed to have a rear valance panel replaced and I found quite a few companies around York that did not want to take on this job. The ones that did give me a quote the cost was extremely high. I do have a really good garage (Big Cat garage in Elvington) that does the servicing on my car but do not do cosmetic bodywork. They recommended Motor Body cosmetics in Elvington, so I asked them to do the work. They are a small company and I was extremely satisfied with their approach and completion of the repair. The difficulty of finding this company is that they do not advertise much as they are always busy with work being passed to the them by recommendation. Also to my surprise the cost of repair was half of other quotes I received. I believe a JEC register of Companies hopefully would take out a lot of legwork to finding these little gems to do your work.

[ChrisDixon]

There was a discussion a few months back:
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=12135&p=65849&hili ... ges#p65849
But I agree it is difficult to find good "old school" garages, and many of them are tucked away, don't advertise and keep busy. The demise of local pubs doesn't help, usually someone knew someone .....

[cabriolet]

Hi Chris,
I have read the previous post about this subject done in 2017 and I can understand some of the points made in it. What I look for from an organisation is to read other members reviews on their experiences with getting their vehicle repaired. Surely this is better than just taking a punt with a garage. On a previous post on this subject a member states that a Mercedes club site gives the opportunity for members to give their experiences with garages so surely JEC could do something similar.