Conserve Car Care, Redditch

I have been using this garage since I started working at Aldi in 1996 opposite where the garage used to be based in Millesborough house. I left Aldi in 1998 but still took my car to Conserve. Since those days the original owner sold the business to the Mechanics who worked for him and to this day they still own/ work in the business but a few years ago they relocated the Garage to Clive Road, off prospect Hill which from a customer point of view has lots of accessible parking and no further to walk into town. The phone number is still the same, though you sometimes have to be patient when ringing as the do not have a receptionist and have to attend to the phone around their workload. I have had to go to other garages due to circumstances from time to time, but they never hold it against me when I 'dump' my car back on them. This time my car wouldn't start when I had returned to it after doing a Supermarket shop on Saturday evening. The RAC man who came to me, said the starter motor had gone, he got the engine started through a little trick he said sometimes works, but said I needed to take it straight to a garage as if I turned the engine off it probably wouldn't start again. So I left my car on Conserve forecourt on Saturday evening and left a note through their door with details of where I'd put the car key and that I wanted a new starter motor. To be honest I wasn't expecting the work to get done on Monday as I hadn't booked it in and realised they may have to order the Starter Motor. However I got a call at 4.20pm today saying the work had been completed (though it had started every time for them before changing the starter motor). The price I paid which included Parts, Labour and VAT was at the lower end of the pricing bracket of £100-£500. They had put a reconditioned starter motor in, but said it should work for longer than the car would have died through other causes, else a NEW New starter Motor would have cost a lot more and was unnecessary. I have recommended this garage to others over the years and not felt they have ever told me things need doing when they don't and on the times I have 'tested' their honesty on what needs to be done they have never failed my tests. They do open Saturday mornings usually. Though currently at the time of writing this they aren't open Saturdays due to unforeseen circumstances, but they are open Mon - Fri 8.30am - 5.30pm. It's a short walk up hill into Redditch Town Centre or level walk to Abbey Retail Park (Sainsbury's, Argos and B&M), so a good chance to make use of FREE parking and hit the shops whilst they work on your car

This is a small privately-owned garage I have used twice. First time was in 2010 for the MOT of a 1971 VW Beetle of which I wasn't confident at all about as the brakes and steering are not up to modern standards and it can be difficullt to find a garage that understands these old vehicles. It passed the MOT ok with an advisory note about the red tail lights being faded to orange. The garage owner suggested buying red coloured bulbs to correct this and even gave me the name of a local stockist to get them from. I duly bought the bulbs and fitted them and I was most grateful for the helpful advice. The later visit was for MOT of a 2006 Ford Mondeo which failed on a headlight bulb which involved removing the headlight assembly to change (not uncommon on some modern cars). The garage proprietor had already done this when I collected the car and still charged less than the normal MOT fee to pass the MOT. I have full confidence in taking other cars to this man for servicing, repairs or MOT.