Garage of the Year shortlist announced

Automechanika Birmingham in partnership with Garage Wire has announced the shortlist of garages in the running to win the £1000 cash prize for Garage of the Year. The judging panel, James Onions, Andy Savva and Simon Albert will announce the winner on Wednesday 7 June in the Workshop Training Zone at 1.00pm at Automechanika Birmingham, NEC.

As a new initiative, the organisers were overwhelmed by the number of entries from garages and the judging panel has finalised a shortlist of 13 workshops who will go head to head for a peer vote. “The standard of entries was incredibly high as the applications showed the huge variety of garage businesses operating successfully throughout the UK by tailoring their services to meet local demand,” said James Onions, director of Garage Wire. “However, some clear common themes emerged amongst entrants too. These included first, an entrepreneurial flair to adapt to changing car and consumer technologies; second, willingness to invest – typically in premises, skills development and equipment then finally, heart-felt commitment to customer service and transparency. Thanks to all who entered and good luck to the finalists!”

The list of 13 workshops are available for public voting from now until 2nd June. The shortlist from A-Z includes;

• Anderson Clark Motor Repairs
• Bartlett Automotive Limited
• Bryan Swales Auto Repairs
• Community Motors
• Crescent Motors
• D&D Autos
• EAC Telford Ltd
• Five Star Autocentre
• Garej Bowydd Garage Ltd
• MotorServ UK Solihull
• Philips Garage Limited
• Revs Motors Ltd
• SMSI LTD (Scalloway Motors)

Automechanika Birmingham thanked DURA and Who can fix my car who are supporting the new competition by offering additional prizes to the £1000 cash prize.

Peers can vote for Garage of the Year by visiting https://www.getfeedback.com/r/YLzpIsGc and completing their one-time vote. The closing date for voting is Friday 2 June.

Simon Albert, Event director of Automechanika Birmingham said “I’d like to extend special congratulations to all of the workshops who have made the cut for the new Garage of the Year competition. We are delighted with the number of entries for the first year of this award. The response reflects that if workshop owners are serious about their business, Automechanika Birmingham is the event which will benefit the day to day running of the workshop. With many new features, this competition confirms a bigger and better offering for workshops at the 2017 event.“