Recommended Garage - Car Doctor, Medway, Kent

Hi Guys,

Well, this is a little later than I planned to get it posted, but I want to let you guys know of my recent experiences with these guys, and why I am happy to recommend them!

First off, they are indie based on the Medway City Estate, between Gillingham and Strood. A local firm who I have so far noticed are fantastic guys. Very friendly / approachable, honest, and hard working. I have had them do a few jobs for me before the mondeo and they were always great, but recently they have done more work with my Mondeo and I think they absolutely deserve the recognition.

Aggi (the chap who owns the place) is a great guy, honest, good with guessing figures (not like these garages who say a price, only to get you in the door, then multiply it!), A few months ago, Aggi's guys (Mick I think his name was?) did a job on the mondy, I bought brake pads and disks for all four corners at £100 off ebay. The guys fitted them for a very reasonable £70 and had the job done within a couple of hours. It was suggested I visited the cafe round the corner, which I did for about ten minutes, and I found myself back at the office to see how it was going. Only to find myself peaking around the corner in the garage at a project Aggi had (I wont say what it is, as I don't think he would want me to, but lets just say, it reunited me with my childhood and reignited a dwindling passion!)

Anyway, they did a great job there, and I went back to them last week. My car hit 124k miles, and Ford wanted to charge me £1480 to get the timing belts etc changed for the 125k service. Whilst I was getting my brakes done a few months ago, I asked Aggi what his price would be for changing the belts and chains, he guessed around £600 - £700 quid, just on the very vague info I gave him. I After Ford quoted me £1400, and I picked myself off the chair, I called back to ask what parts they were fitting, got the list and went back to Aggi with the details, he duly got the car booked in (I think he had about a 3 day wait to accommodate me dropping the car off, getting the parts in etc, which I thought was very reasonable!). Anyway, I dropped him a list of all the parts Ford where to replace, and he took note, ordered them all in.

I dropped the car off last Thursday with him, and as he didn't have a courtesy car available, got collected by Enterprise rent a car, and had a spare set of wheels for a few days). Unfortunately when I asked Aggi on Friday how things where going and when the car would be ready, he did have some bad news, the Cassette chain he ordered from Ford came but was faulty, and it would be ready most likely on Saturday. True to his word, it was!

When I had my car in for its service with Ford, they had a load of highly recommended repairs, saying the Sump Pan needed doing, and this that and the other (along with bushings) and the prices were seriously high. I nodded, "agreed" and left.

Having had the car dropped into a few other garages before (there was some knocking I had looked into) I found that a lot of them saw cash in work that didn't need to be done (Kwik Fit being a laughable example).

Anyway (there is a point to this!), when I took my car to Aggi, I knew I wouldn't be fobbed off with jobs that didnt exist, if the jobs Ford and others claimed truly needed doing, I am sure he would have mentioned them, but not a single other thing was mentioned to me. They did the work that needed doing and that was that. When they did the brake pads and disks, I asked them about the bushings, they took a quick look and said sure, they looked like they were faded, but they weren't anywhere near an MOT failure! I knew that if there was work to be done, he would tell me, but these guys are not in the game of staying afloat by ripping off their customers, they are a genuine business, and after some recent examples of "customer experience" I have had with other local... erm.... con artists should we say! its always reassuring to know that the work required will be done, no more, no less!

Anyway, back to the timing job, Aggi told me he only uses high quality parts, and I must admit, I just expected high quality aftermarket parts, and I was more than happy with that, but by the sounds of it, they were all Ford ordered parts! Had the job all gone smoothly, it would have been done within 2 days, but I got it back on day 3, and I was still more than happy! If it had been another garage I have had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with, I suspect the old cassette chain would have gone back and the car returned quickly as "completed".

I kept in touch with Aggi for the few days via text, and he was happy to reply with updates rather quickly.

All in all, for all the timing belt, chain cassette, pulleys, seals etc that Ford wanted £1480 for, Aggi got the job done for £770, which given all the extra parts he had ordered, and the fact he used high quality and ordered from ford, was very reasonable and close to his estimate.

They are a great local trader, and I am working with Steve and James M here to try get them an approved trader status here on the forum, they do allsorts and will turn their hand to anything it would seem. overall I have had a fantastic experience with them, and if it wasnt for the fact that I like to do a good few repairs myself, and I have the service plan with Ford for its yearly checkup, I would take it to Aggi for every job, but, I know who my first port of call has been recently and will continue to be.

The guys do all the usual that you would expect from a local indie, and a bit more. from MOTs and Servicing, to Gearboxes and bigger jobs. They also do a tuning service, though I don't fully understand it, I don't believe its a remap, but more so a mechanical fine tune, and I believe he said the price of that was £60 and you get a bit more out the car. Though its not on his website, I may inquire further with him and if he gets signed up here, he could explain a bit more.

Also, he is very approachable, and when I went in representing the forum for the big kill with a cheeky question - would you offer a discount for our forum members.... He was only too happy to offer a 10% discount to members with a discount code of DOC2000 (better double check my papers when I get home and make sure that is right!)

Honestly though, I love to sing the praises of indies, they all have a hard enough time trying to battle those well established, the dealerships and the fleet garages, and I can honestly say, Car Doctor was great for me, and I hope (with a cheeky discount) he can be great for a good few more of you. I highly recommend them as a local in the Medway area, and if you want to know more, get in touch with them.

Their website is:

http://www.cardoctormedway.co.uk/index.html