Car Maintenance. Buying Locally Makes a Lot of Sense
Nobody enjoys having to deal with car maintenance issues such as replacing car tyres, exhausts, and batteries. Unfortunately, these are parts of your car that will wear down over time, and maintaining your vehicle is part and parcel of ownership. In order to ensure your vehicle is safe to drive and functioning at its best, it is essential that you maintain and replace these parts from time-to-time.
There are a vast number of different places that you can go when buying any consumable replacement parts such as car tyres, exhausts, and car batteries. However, knowing where to turn to get your parts repaired or replaced can be difficult. You need to know that you are going to be getting the best selection of parts available for your vehicle, and at the best price.
More importantly, you will want to know that you are getting good quality, honest customer service. This is often especially a worry to motorists who are less confident about what they are actually buying, particularly if they feel as though they have been taken advantage previously by garages or dealers.
Seeking Out Honest Advice
When looking for somewhere to buy your replacement parts, getting good advice is vital. There may be major chains out there that you may gravitate towards because you recognize the name. You might opt to buy online from one of these big-name brands, or you may go into a store and buy what you need. But do you know what you are buying? You might find the right size tyre for your car, but with several choices on offer, how do you know you are getting the best type?
Of course, you may be able to get advice from a team member. But can you be sure that you are getting the best or most honest advice? Many major companies will require teams to push certain lines because of a deal that they have in place with their suppliers. On occasion, there may also a tendency to go for profit over genuine service. Team knowledge might also be a factor that prevents you from getting the best advice when you are buying your tyres, batteries, and other spare parts for a major retailer.
Buying local often means that you will be met with genuine advice. While all businesses have to make money, it is generally true that local firms will be much more reliant on repeat trade than a large chain. It is, therefore, more likely that you will find upfront and honest service.
Are you ready to replace your tyres?
We all worry about legal tread limits, as well as ensuring we have adequate traction on our tyres. Some motorists may consider getting tyres replaced to ensure that they are getting the maximum benefit with regards to fuel consumption. Often, we can become quite sensitive to these issues, and rush to replace tyres that might have a considerable amount of mileage remaining in them. Some chains may just replace perfectly good tyres which will result in you spending money unnecessarily.
If you are considering the need for replacement tyres, heading to your trusted local garage will mean that you can get these fully checked over before buying new ones. While many mechanics may be able to assess the wear and tear to tyres to a reasonable degree of accuracy using just a visual inspection, having your tyres scanned to measure the tread depth will provide a more definitive readout of how the tyres are lasting.
By having tyres fully checked over by an experienced mechanic, you can get an honest appraisal on whether you should be replacing them yet. In the long run, it is service like this that will save you money.
Repair or replace?
Very often maintenance issues can be dealt with very easily by carrying out simple repairs. Take for example a puncture. Taking your punctured tyre to a local specialist will mean that if it can be repaired, then it will be. You may not find the same solution offered everywhere else though, and you might find salespeople or technicians leading you towards buying a replacement tyre instead.
Buying Locally means less distance to travel
If you have a problem with your exhaust, or you are driving on a spacer tyre while you have a puncture, the last thing that you will want to be doing is driving your vehicle too far. Driving your car too far when you know you have an emerging issue is not only likely to cause the vehicle to breakdown entirely, but more importantly, it is a major safety concern. Spacer tyres, in particular, should only be driven for short distances, and even then, the maximum speed that you should drive is 50 mph (and even lower in poor driving conditions).
Find a local garage that can help you to deal with your specific problem. Keeping your vehicle local will mean that you won’t have far to come back for it if you need to leave it in the garage for repairs.
Word of mouth and testimonials
Many local garages are reliant on word of mouth to generate their trade. While it is true that they may occasionally pick up the odd passing motorist who needs help, many garages will value repeat visitors.
Due to the nature of a local garage, developing that word of mouth and gaining honest testimonials means that they need to deliver the best service that they can, demonstrating integrity while taking their time to do the job well. And, if you find that you get a great experience, you will be much more inclined to recommend that garage to local friends and family who are looking for somewhere to go for their tyres, batteries, and exhausts.
Buying from an independent business is good for the local economy
In addition to the personalised customer service that you will experience when buying your car tyres, batteries, exhausts, and other spares from a business closer to home, you will also be helping the local economy.