Another popular forum for reviews, particularly of service and repair, is Motor Codes. Its Garage Finder service has a database of more than 140,000 ratings and is growing by 6,000 every month. All member companies are encouraged to point customers to the Motor Codes survey by using invoice stickers.

Negative feedback is monitored centrally and garages will be contacted if deemed necessary. The website works both ways, recovering money for customers when things have gone wrong, but also protecting members from false claims. A new addition to the website is a tick-box so a customer can specifically request contact from a Motor Codes adviser to discuss an issue.

Chris Mason, managing director at Motor Codes, said the organisation had resisted calls to give members a right of reply online.

“While malicious reviews are removed, we see no merit in dealers entering into an argument. We think a mixture of opinion within a volume of reviews is far more credible,” he said.