Only 58% of independent garages currently run a website for their business the Retail Motor Industry Federation’s (RMI) Independent Garage Association (IGA) has found.

The IGA website provision report shows that while independent garages are beginning to adopt the use of websites, progress is still slow.

As a result, the IGA is now offering to build websites for independent garages as part of its member package, with the additional cost for the hosting of the page and the website address which they will remain the owners of.

Stuart James, IGA director, is urging independents to catch up with the industry in order to stay competitive against franchised dealers.

The report surveyed over 2,000 IGA members. When reviewing those with websites by region:

• The region with the highest percentage of members with websites is Northern Ireland at 80%.
• The region with the lowest percentage of members with websites is Wales at 39.5%

When reviewing website provision by county, those with the highest percentage of garages with company websites were:

• Buckinghamshire at 85%
• Berkshire at 77%
• Hampshire at 75%
• Surrey at 74%
• Warwickshire at 74%

When reviewing website provision by county, the counties with the lowest percentage of garages with company websites were:

• Mid Glamorgan at 20%
• West Glamorgan at 22%
• Denbighshire at 33%
• Cleveland at 38%
• Cumbria at 38%