A survey by UK garage directory website WhoCanFixMyCar.com has found that independent garages still offer a big price advantage over franchise dealers when it comes to servicing and repair, but also that price is not generally the key deciding factor in a customer’s choice.

The survey drew on the experiences of some 5,000 WCFMC garage members and around 50,000 completed jobs. It found on average UK Franchised Dealer quotes were 18% higher than independents. However, the price gap is closing and the franchise sector is becoming more competitive, especially on servicing.

However, when it comes to more labour intensive repairs such as engine, clutch and brakes, the independent’s price advantage rises to as much as 40-60%.

WCFMC points out that price is not always the key factor and that response time is often vital. It has previously found that garages that respond within two hours of an enquiry are 3.6 times more likely to win work than one that takes a day or more. Dealers are generally better on this score, being some 15% faster at getting back to customers than independents. 

Perhaps most interesting of all, the survey found that the cheapest of multiple quotes only secured that work 37% of the time. This indicates that on nearly two thirds of jobs price was not the most important factor with customer preferring to make their choice based on quality of work, speed of turnaround and customer service.