According to the Office of Fair Trading, the average price charged by an independent garage comes in at nearly half of the price charged by an official franchised dealer, without the need to compromise when it comes to quality. The good news for motorists is that they no longer have to pay the high prices that dealers charge in order to keep their warranty in place, as they can now choose an independent garage without the risk of invalidating the warranty.

European legislation that came into play in October 2003 has given drivers far more freedom and flexibility when it comes to getting their cars serviced or repaired. This legislation, which is known as BER or “Block Exemption Regulations 144/2002” means that motorists are no longer forced to pay a higher price for servicing and can make their own decisions with regards to getting their vehicles looked after. Prior to this time, most motorists struggled to get their vehicles serviced at any garage other than an official deals because otherwise they ran the risk of invalidating the manufacturer warranty.

Fortunately, this is no longer the case and you can now select the garage of your choice in order to carrying our repairs and servicing on your vehicle without the worry of the warranty becoming invalid. You no longer have to put up with having to take your vehicle to a particular, official dealer in order to get this work done, which means that you no longer have to struggle with hiked up prices. Providing the garage you take the vehicle to uses high quality matching parts, your warranty will still be in place.

For more information please visit www.adf.org.uk

Note:This notice is intended to introduce interested parties to the topic of BER. It should not be taken as a full definition of the law or proposed laws