Paul Miller, manager at the John Austin VW & Audi Specialists Ltd. in Marks Tey, is doing a sponsored tandem skydive with his new wife, Gemma, to raise money for charity Help for Heroes. Gemma was hoping for a lovely relaxing honeymoon somewhere exotic, but instead she’s going to be plunging through the air at 12,000 feet a minute!

Paul is looking forward to it, “I’m very excited; it really is a once in a lifetime experience and will be such an adrenaline rush. We haven’t really got a financial target, but the more sponsors we can get, the more Help for Heroes will benefit and that’s the most important thing.”

Gemma is feeling a little differently, “I’m very nervous! I’m not a daredevil at heart, but I know that we are doing it for a good cause. I’m sure when we get up there it’ll be a lot of fun.”

A tandem skydive involves two people jumping out of a plane at an altitude of about 10,000 – 12,000 feet and freefalling at 120mph. The instructor you are strapped to will deploy the parachute at around 5,000 feet to slow you down so you can take in the amazing views and land safely. Paul and Gemma will be doing their skydive in Beccles, Suffolk on Friday 27April and are hoping to raise as much money as possible for ‘Help for Heroes’. You can help raise money by visiting the website: www.helpforheroes.org.uk.

Marianne West the Help for Heroes Volunteer County Coordinator for Essex added that she was delighted that Paul and Gemma had chosen to support the charity with their skydive. One of the latest local projects to benefit from funds raised is the brand new Chavasse VC Centre in Berechurch Road, Colchester which will be officially opened on 8 May. . The build has been funded by £6Million from Help for Heroes and it will run the Recovery Centre, with the Army providing the staff required to deliver key recovery activities to serving and veteran soldiers. The Recovery Centre will provide a Support Hub, where a collection of welfare agencies and other services charities will give a ‘one stop shop’ of advice and support for serving personnel, veterans and their families – for life.

Emma Parry, CEO & co-founder, Help for Heroes said: “Help for Heroes is all about ‘doing your bit’ and this event is a wonderful example of people rallying support and having a great deal of fun while they raise money for a wonderful cause. We have been able to use the £millions raised for the charity (over £131Million in just four and a half years), to provide practical and direct support to those wounded in the current conflicts. The money you raise is needed, it is being used almost as soon as it is received, and is hugely appreciated. There is still a wish list of £66Million for future projects!”

We’re delighted to announce that we have been short-listed as one of the nine finalists in the Colchester Business Awards for Excellent Customer Service.

Speaking about the news, Marc Linch, managing director, said: “Without our loyal customers we wouldn’t have a business and we really appreciate it that many have been using the garage for years, some for decades.  We always do our very best when servicing or repairing their vehicles, but never take their custom for granted and are constantly looking at ways of giving something back and improving the whole customer experience.  To win in this category would be brilliant, but to get this far means a lot to the whole team.”

We know our customers are spoiled for choice when it comes to garages in the area; some have lower price structures than ours too, however our company ethos is based on trust, excellence and putting our customers at the heart of every development within the company.

The vast majority of our customers use us because we provide a highly professional service, at less than dealership prices – important at any time, but more especially in these straitened times.  We are able to control our costs by keeping our overheads deliberately low; we pride ourselves on providing  “skills not frills”, something we know our customers appreciate, as many have been using us for decades.  Although “we don’t do the frills” we do, of course, have a free local pick-up and delivery service and a pool of courtesy cars.

Last year we received the “Buy with Confidence” accreditation from Essex County Council Trading Standards and are one of only four garages in the Colchester area to receive the award.  We also run schemes which give our customers added value too.  For example, all returning customers receive a 5% discount on their next service and, with our loyalty scheme “Rewarding Service” they – or someone they nominate – can have a free air conditioning service.

Our referral scheme “Pass it on” gives a new customer 10% off their first service or repair with us, and the customer who recommended them receives a further 20% off their next service or repair.  Importantly the 20% discount CAN be used in conjunction with any of our promotional offers.

For customers who want to get as much performance out of their vehicle, without increasing their fuel costs, we’ve introduced a tuning service.  And, finally, we run free Pit Stop Workshops throughout the year to help motorists gain skills in basic car maintenance.

We’re looking forward to the new year when we’ve got even more planned!

Paul Miller, manager at John Austin, has done it again!

On a blustery February morning, we abandoned our Saturday morning lie-ins to attend his Pit Stop Workshop.

The Pit Stop Workshop is designed to reduce the fear of basic  maintenance through familiarity.  It gives people the confidence to know that if they are stranded with a flat tyre and the phone’s dead or there’s no signal, they can handle the situation.  As this is not covered in driving lessons, it’s a good opportunity for those learning to drive to come along and give themselves a head start.  On this occasion most of us were seasoned drivers, but we all found we had something to learn!

With the complexity of cars these days, fiddling about under the hood, unless you really know what you’re doing, is to be discouraged.  This has, inevitably, led to many of us becoming complacent about dealing with the most simple of car care basics, relying instead on the annual service.   But often it’s those simple things that we can all do something about but don’t, that can help us avoid expensive repair bills later on.

Our reliance on breakdown services means we could sit on the side of the road for hours with a flat tyre too waiting for help which, if it was a lovely sunny day might not be so bad.  But if it was like a day like today, you’d want to be able to do something about it, and we all felt after two hours’ ‘training’ we could.

Not only did we all gain knowledge and insight, but we were able to relax and chat about our experiences afterwards over coffee and cake at The Food Company next door.

The team at John Austin have three more Pit Stop Workshops lined up this year:  Saturday 12^thMay, Saturday 11^th August and Saturday 17^th November.  If you’d like to come along or have a question, call Paul on 01206 211483 or email .

As of 1^st January 2012, the MOT test has been changed to comply with the revised European testing directive.  The new test will reflect the growing electronical complexity of modern cars.

You can see all of the new test criteria below – it’s a pretty substantial list!

Instead of getting a ‘fail’ straight away with these new criteria, you will get an ‘advisory’ notice up until the end of March 2012, so you have a bit of time to get them fixed.  But if your MOT isn’t due until this April, then your car will immediately be classed as a ‘fail’ if any it doesn’t pass all of the criteria below:

List of New Testable Components

• Headlamp levelling and cleaning devices when fitted for HID or LED headlamps
• Main beam ‘tell-tale’
• Battery (including batteries for electric or hybrid vehicles)
• Electrical wiring and connectors
• Trailer electrical socket security and damage
• Operation of 13-pin trailer electrical sockets using an approved trailer socket tester
• Operation of the steering lock (where fitted) including that malfunction warning is not displayed for an electronic steering lock
• Electronic power steering malfunction warning indicating a fault
• Electronic parking brake control and malfunction indicator lamp
• Electronic Stability Control (ESC) components, including the switch (if fitted) and malfunction warning
• Brake fluid warning lamp illuminated or inoperative
• Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS)
• Supplementary Restraint System (SRS) components including airbags, seat belt pre-tensioners, seat belt load limiters and SRS malfunction warning lamp
• Engine mountings
• Speedometer
• Indirect vision devices (where they replace obligatory mirrors)

For Class 5 vehicles, there are also the following new components:

• Electronic Braking System warning device
• Entrance/exit steps and doors
• Door remote and emergency controls
• Door open warning devices
• Stairs
• Emergency exit signs, windows and ‘break glass’ hammers

For more detail on the new test criteria, visit the VOSA website at:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/repository/Special%20Notice%2009-11.pdf

Paul Miller, manager, John Austin VW & Audi Specialists, has been taking a deeper look at car safety, with surprising results.

Road safety awareness has come a long way in recent times and whereas previously we may have bought a car because of its style, speed, functionality and perhaps even its pulling power,  now safety has become a major consideration when making that all important purchase. For this reason car manufacturers are constantly striving to improve their safety systems and come up with the latest innovations to get ahead of the pack.

Considering that it was a Volvo engineer who first invented the seat belt back in 1959 it is no wonder we’ve come to regard Volvo as synonymous with safety. For many years they have focused their marketing campaigns on the safety features of their cars and promoted themselves as making ‘the safest cars in the world’. However last year Toyota successfully took them to court and it was ruled that these claims were ‘misleading and lacked supporting evidence’. So have we been hoodwinked?

Let’s take a look at the evidence.  The most widely recognised safety testing is performed by Euro NCAP. They perform independent assessments of cars sold within Europe and award stars based on the safety of their performance in crash test situations.

In a press release Euro NCAP disclosed their top five overall achievers; Volvo didn’t put in an appearance until ‘joint 5^th place’ receiving only three out of a potential five stars. Volvo was preceded by VW Golf, Honda Insight Hybrid, Toyota Prius, Hyundai i20. So it does seem that the public perception of Volvo may be somewhat misguided.

The tests cover all aspects of a car’s safety performance from frontal impact and side impact to child, driver and pedestrian protection. They are considered exhaustive by most; however some believe that other more unusual factors also come into play.

Believe it or not there have been several studies carried out worldwide to try to establish the safest colour car to drive! So does colour play a part in how safe a car is? Well according to the various experiments conducted it absolutely does.

It is apparent time and time again that silver is safest. In almost every study silver cars come out as least likely to be involved in an accident.  The reason for this (here’s the science bit) is because silver has highly reflective qualities and is not a colour that occurs naturally in the environment.  It therefore easily attracts our attention and stands out against the black roads or at night time, reducing its chances of being involved in a collision. The same can be said of white and other light coloured vehicles. Darker colours such as black, dark blue and bottle green cars are all thought to be at a greatly increased risk of being involved in more serious accidents.

It does appear that there is more to consider when buying a car than air bags and NCAP stars, although perhaps the most important safety feature is the one ‘behind’ the wheel.

Useful links:
 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2469859/posts
 http://www.euroncap.com/Content-Web-Article/4a35be7b-bc49-4272-b628-b745829f70fd/euro-ncaps-top-five-achievers-of-2009.aspx
 http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4504-silver-cars-are-the-safest-on-the-road.html
 http://www.drivers.com/article/707/