Garage of the year -Introduction

Our annual Garage of the Year survey is upon us now and we have four very interesting finalists.

Although the shops are in different parts of the country, one in Quebec, one in Central Ontario, one in Western Ontario and one in British Columbia, they all share common traits. They put the customer at the head of their business priority. All of the centres are active in their local communities, supporting local teams and charities. All have invested in management and technician training, and on investing in their shop future with new technologies and the Internet.

We received many e-mailed and faxed nominations this year, and had quite a task to whittle down the many nominations we received to the four finalists we are presenting in the pages of SSGM Magazine. Each submission was carefully studied and categorized. We could have easily come up with a much larger number of nominees but then that would be shirking our responsibility of presenting to you, our readers, what we feel is a short list of the most outstanding service centres in Canada.

These four shops should be an inspiration to all shops, to achieve a higher degree of technical prowess and excellent customer service. All four shops are modern, clean, with plenty of perks for customers.

So please, read the reviews of the nominees carefully and send us your opinions as to which of these four service centres deserves the title of the Garage of the Year. You might find, in the reviews some aspect of their operation that you have tried yourself with success or you think could be successfully applied to your own shop. Send these thoughts in with your vote as well.

Like with all the original nominations, we will read and seriously consider your opinions and present them in the December issue of SSGM. Tom Venetis, Editor

tom@ssgm.com