Spending an evening with 500 car dealers is, I accept, not everyone’s idea of fun, but this is the world in which I operate.
I was at a black tie function in central London last week, the annual dinner of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF).
From a journalist’s perspective, the most interesting element was the announcement of a new initiative called Trust My Garage. But when the big cheeses started talking about it, my heart dropped. Why? Because it’s another code of conduct for dealers and garages to sign up to, pledging they won’t rip motorists off, adhere to set standards, clean the customer toilets occasionally, serve decent coffee, etc, etc.
There are loads of these things; Motor Codes, the Office of Fair Trading’s Consumer Code, the Good Garage Scheme and Honest John’s HAT awards to name the main ones. And then there’s a host of other web- based initiatives where happy customers recommend a garage to fellow drivers.
I’ve said this before and I’m sure I will say it again. To my mind, the automotive industry does not need another accreditation scheme.
All it does is confuse the public because they don’t know which one to trust. What we need – and I wasn’t the only person at my table to think this – is for the entire industry to get behind a single scheme.
Motor Codes seemed to be doing a good job on that score, and what’s bizarre is that the RMIF says it supports Motor Codes. Hmmm. But not enough to prevent it launching a rival scheme. I despair.
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