Motor Codes has launched a national competition called Golden Garages to find the UK’s best local service and repair centre to help counter act the bad reputation of the repair industry.

The competition has been launched after Motor Codes sent out a survey to 1,194 motorists across the UK to reveal high levels of dissatisfaction among drivers taking their car for repair.

All garages can follow the competition on the Golden Garages micro site (www.goldengarages.co.uk) as well as on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GoldenGarages.

Survey results – highlights

• Almost half of UK motorists (45%) feel they have been ripped off by garages.
• Young drivers hit hardest: 41% of 17-24 year olds feel ripped off by local garages on anything between £51 - £150 (compared to 31% of 25-34 year olds).
• Nearly two thirds of over 55s are satisfied with their local garage.
• Over a quarter of motorists who feel ripped off by garages think they've lost out by between £51 and £150.
• 5% of motorists felt they had been ripped off on amounts higher than £300. Those who felt more than £500 out of pocket claimed to be on average £1,408 worse off following their latest service.
• Motorists in the East of England felt the most ripped off between £51 - 150, with a third claiming to have been short changed, compared to just 17% of motorists in Northern Ireland.

Chris Mason, Motor Codes director, said: "The service and repair sector historically has a bad reputation when it comes to cost.

"Despite there being many very good UK garages, the public’s bad experiences with some has brought about a lack of trust. There are over 6,200 garages that subscribe to Motor Codes across the country and these businesses buck the disappointed motorist trend."

Motor Codes operates a self regulatory code of practice for garages across the country ensuring that motorists receive consistently high standards of service and believes the Golden Garages competition will play an important part in raises in helping raise the reputation of the industry.