Member Comments

I believe the best auto workshop is what your friends and workmates recommend, not what the ads and AA tell you. Ask around and you find out what these places are REALLY like and when you find a good one, stick with them. In most cases a workshop is as good (or bad) as the head mechanic or boss.

I don't think specifics of individual workshops is terribly relevant in this article as sometimes you could get a good and bad service at the same workshop as there will be some aspects of quality that fall upon the individual mechanic doing the job. One or two random jobs per small random sample of workshops don't really prove anything.

The point of the article is to highlight the overall quality of the work performed on a cross section of the car repair industry.

It clearly shows that since the average quality of servicing seems to be fairly mediocre, then everyone, no matter where you take your car to, should perhaps research their choice of mechanic and seek advice from others on who they should use.

We have done car servicing checks in Auckland in the past , and will consider checking Auckland workshops next time we do a test like this. But there is no possibility that we could include every one in Auckland - there are just far too many.
Hamish Wilson
Research and Testing Manager

Could you please compare AK workshops? I have experienced a few dodgy ones in the past and haven't found a trustworthy one in the past few years. One retired owner even admitted that his mechanic was a real cowboy.

Any chance of comparing workshops in the Auckland Region where most of your consumer customers actually live?

Apart from the oil level and belt check all the items you recomend to be checked are checked every 6 months in a WOF check for about $40