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The fun is all on Twitter mate thats why we are there! You should try it sometime! Really you should And just for the record , I'm quite partial to a Cappuccino, no sweetener, I'm more than sweet enough ! Also you will have to be careful not to be spending too much time on this forum, you may miss a customer if you don't look up from your PC , just saying

Most independents who start up on their own have worked in the past for a franchised garage which means they are actual specialists in their field and tend to specialise in that model of vehicle, what is wrong with that? If there were no independents customer would not be allowed to compare different makes and models on the same pitch. Also if Franchises were as good as they say they are (not tarring everyone with the same brush) the independent would not exist as EVERY customer would go only to the franchised dealer to get the best deal and the best level of customer of service however we all know that this not necessarily the case.

Think we need to be careful that we don't tar everyone with the same brush - I have the same respect for independents as I do for other main dealers, as I do for anyone running a business, it's tough enough without people trying to trip one another up - as I said earlier, there's enough business to go round out there

Hopefully with the number of sensors on cars these days it will be easier to spot ! A friend with his own independent is running round in a flood damages written off 2008 Focus TDI. It was cheap, but has been a lot of trouble, things just keep failing ! He does tell me a story of a local character from around Woking who used to buy these, tart them up and sell them on back in the eighties. He bought a Sierra that had been up to its windows in a river. Cleaned it up and sold it on, he thought he'd done a good job until the punter brought it back to complain about the Cassette player. He couldn't get a tape in it, so he'd taken it apart assuming a tape was stuck in it. Turns out it was full of mud. He managed to bluff his way that they had stuck an old unit in it as the original hadn't been working apparently....

FANTASTIC ! As we keep saying the power of twitter ! Just hope that 'fashion' trend doesn't take off !