Services leave cars 'death traps'

THREE in four garages are failing to service cars correctly, with an alarming number missing major faults.

One vehicle came out of its service with imminent brake failure. The findings are published today by the Trading Standards Institute, which is demanding a new policing regime.

Many of the culprits were apparently respectable firms, members of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) and the Scottish Motor Trade Association (SMTA). The shoddy work would have been bad enough in itself, but it often came with rip-off charges.

Ron Gainsford, chief executive of the TSI, said the performance was 'dreadful' and could lead to fatal accidents. The Government has been under pressure to clean-up the industry.

It gave garages the option of setting up a voluntary code but the plan ran into problems when the two trade bodies failed to agree its wording with the Office of Fair Trading. They are now proposing their own scheme.

The TSI's spokesman on the motor industry, Peter Stratton, said it may now be time to go for a licensing regime. 'Time after time over the years we have carried out surveys that have shown the sorry state of car servicing standards,' he said. 'There has been no improvement, even among those garages that are members of reputable associations.

'This survey should serve as a final warning that if decisive action is not taken immediately then we will call on the Government to adequately regulate this field of business. This could even mean garages that continually do a bad job could be struck off.'

The survey involved 88 cars sent for servicing by trading stanards services across the country. Deliberate faults were set up covering tyre pressures, fluid levels, air and oil filters, loosened wheel nuts, blown fuses and defective brake light bulbs.

Only 21 were serviced correctly. Forty-three were found to have minor errors and 24 had major errors, including imminent brake failure and defects in lighting.

A separate survey in four areas looked at 20 cars sent for MoT tests. Mistakes were made in seven of these. In some cases, garages apparently invented problems to generate work and bills for customers.

The TSI has not named the offending garages. Some of them have been sent official warnings, while others face prosecution. Matthew Carrington, chief executive of the RMI, said: 'We take the findings very seriously and we will work with trading standards to fully investigate these claims.'

'The RMI is developing with its members a rigorous code of practice which will address the standards issue while at the same time enable consumers to distinguish which garages they can trust.'