Garej Arwyn Cyf, Caernarfon has won The Motor Ombudsman’s regional 2024 Garage Star Award for Wales, for a second year.
The Motor Ombudsman is pleased to announce that AJ Fleetcare, an independent garage in Leeds, has been crowned the 2024 winner of the National Garage Star Award – the top prize in the Ombudsman’s annual Star Awards competition.
Now in their fifth year, the motor industry accolades allow consumers to put businesses accredited to one or more of The Motor Ombudsman’s four Codes of Practice, or individual staff members, into the spotlight, for going the extra mile to deliver an exceptional level of service. This can be at the point when customers buy a car, have it maintained, or during the process of making a purchase or a claim on a warranty.
The family-owned business in Yorkshire was amongst the 3,262 online nominations that were submitted by motorists up and down the UK in the latest contest – the highest ever volume of submissions received.
According to pre-defined criteria, these entries were then whittled down by The Motor Ombudsman to form the final 30. These were made up of 24 nominations across eight UK regions for the Garage Star Awards – applicable to accredited independent garages and franchise dealers, and six nominations for the Customer Service Star Awards, covering vehicle manufacturers and extended warranty providers that are committed to The Motor Ombudsman’s New Car and Vehicle Warranty Product Codes respectively.
These final contenders – an achievement in itself to reach this stage of the competition, were then passed to this year’s Star Awards judging panel of industry experts to jointly determine the names of the winners for 2024, and the two highly commended entries in each category.
For the eight regional trophy holders that were named across the country in the Garage Star category, four were bestowed to individual team members from franchise car dealerships. The remainder were claimed by four independent garages, which saw Garej Arwyn Cyf in Wales win a Star Award for the second consecutive year.
Furthermore, after seeing off stiff competition from the other two contenders earmarked for the regional Garage Star trophy for the North, AJ Fleetcare emerged triumphant, with judges commending the business for their caring and altruistic support of a customer who was facing challenging circumstances looking after a relative, which saw the garage fix the individual’s vehicle at very short notice, whilst they also paid for a taxi fare at no extra charge to minimise inconvenience and keep the customer mobile. This was coupled with a thoughtful gift on the handover of the repaired vehicle, alongside words of reassurance.
On being named the winner of the National Garage Star Award, Alan and Jeanette Landale, the husband and wife owners of AJ Fleetcare, said, “We are absolutely delighted to have won the top prize.”
Bill Fennell, Chief Ombudsman and Managing Director of The Motor Ombudsman, added, “We would like to congratulate all of this year’s trophy winners and highly commended entries on their fantastic achievement, and AJ Fleetcare in particular, on claiming the highest honour, from the thousands of entries that we received.”
Bill went on, “We would like to thank the customers of Motor Ombudsman-accredited businesses who took the time to nominate organisations and staff members across the UK. Without them and the hard work and kind-natured gestures shown by businesses, we would not have the great standard of entries and the industry awards that we have.”
DVSA’s Head of Vehicle Policy and Engineering, Neil Barlow – a judge for the 2024 Star Awards, said, “Excellent customer service is a priority for DVSA, and for the wider industry. Providing a quality service builds trust with motorists and makes it easier for them to keep their vehicles safe. The 30 finalists in this year’s Star Awards should be very proud of the great service they continue to offer customers.”
