Service & Repairs
Don't let your MG Rover go to the grave-yard
The real true specialists are here.
Bidford car care specialist leads MG Rover service revival.
A Bidford-on-Avon business has emerged as a prime mover in a European network of independent garages that are offering specialist MG Rover servicing to local car owners who feared they had been left high and dry by the car manufacturer’s collapse last year.
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The One Stop Car Shop in Waterloo Road has taken a frontline position in the launch of a new international car care network which includes dedicated MG Rover Specialist facilities.
According to Service Manager Derri Hamer, the move safeguards the specialist services, skills and technical resources that were threatened with extinction when the original MG Rover dealer network found itself cut adrift overnight.
Since MG Rover’s collapse and the subsequent closure of former Stratford dealer Edwards, Mr Hamer and the new garage’s proprietor Roger Smith have been working behind the scenes with MG Rover’s former parts contractor XPart on plans to launch a network of XPart AutoService centres that include specialist MG Rover workshops.
This week, they officially open the new One Stop Car Shop XPart AutoService centre for all makes of car, complete with MG Rover Specialist facilities that will offer owners technical diagnostics, factory-quality repairs, genuine parts and expert advice, as well as ‘fast-fit’ services.
Crucially for local owners, the garage also has authorised access to the original vehicle manufacture technical data that will unlock individual vehicles’ electronics for MG or Rover owners who have lost their ‘plip’ keys or whose car radio codes have been erased.
Mr Hamer says: “Despite the closure of MG Rover, the technology and the necessary resources still existed, and there was clearly a pressing local need among former customers. The opening of our MG Rover Specialist operation means that they can continue to get the kind of expert advice and assistance that they have been used to.
“Our technicians, Peter Sinicola and Julian Barnard have both been MG Rover specialists for 17 years. As before, they are working with the original tools and equipment, using the same quality of genuine parts that the original MG Rover dealers used to, but we can now work faster and more cost-effectively for our customers.”
Mr Hamer says the company put its money behind XPart’s plan to create a new network of MG Rover Specialist facilities because of the many local owners who voiced concern for the future care of their cars and where they could get help in the wake of the company’s demise.
The new company’s investment has included the purchase and installation of two of the last MG Rover ‘TestBook’ factory diagnostic systems, secured in a direct deal with MG Rover’s former technical services contractors. He says: “It enables us to detect and diagnose even complex electronic and electrical faults in all models of MG and Rover cars.”
“As official MG Rover Specialists linked to XPart, we now have direct access to the training, the factory know-how and the data links that are essential to keep all MG and Rover cars performing to the maximum. Equally importantly, our XPart links mean that we can get all the genuine MG Rover parts we need in as little as an hour.”
All four men worked for Stratford’s former MG Rover dealer Edwards before its closure after MG Rover’s collapse in April last year. Mr Hamer says: “We still have the same enthusiasm for the cars and the determination to bring the best possible service to local owners.”
John Parkinson, chairman of XPart, which was MG Rover’s worldwide in-house parts operation before it was bought out of the MG Rover group by the global Caterpillar corporation 14 months ago, said: “The BDM team’s obvious determination to re-establish a top quality service centre for MG and Rover owners in and around Stratford made them a natural choice for a key place in the XPart AutoService network. We’re genuinely delighted to be working with Roger, Derri, Peter and Julian once again.”
XPart acted to help the UK’s two million owners of MG and Rover cars in the early days after MG Rover’s closure, first by launching its own 12-month warranty for genuine parts and then by paving the way for a replacement car warranty scheme.
In addition, it led negotiations with MG Rover’s administrators to protect the interests of owners in the UK, mainland Europe and in world markets on issues ranging from technical data to dealing with any future vehicle recalls. It has since invested in a multi-million pound MG Rover body panels manufacturing plant in the Midlands and maintains a permanent minimum £40 million stockholding of new genuine MG Rover parts at its global headquarters in Leicestershire.
John Parkinson said: “There is still a widespread public perception that MG and Rover cars are at the end of the road because there’s nobody to look after them and the parts aren't available. People like the One Stop Car Shop team are helping to dispel that notion once and for all. Parts, top quality servicing and repairs for the cars will be available for as long as there are MG or Rover cars on the road, and so will the people to look after them.”