HIGH LOCAL STANDARDS ARE VITAL FOR UPSTANDING LOCAL BUSINESSES
Concentrating on ALL aspects of trade, from construction to foodstuffs, sourcing to manufacturing, to wholesale and retail goods, WYTSS has a monumental task to carry out, in one of the larger counties of England, possessing a growing population. One of its key areas of responsibility is tending and monitoring the quality of services and the methods employed by the motor trade. So specific are they that the organisation operates a Motor Trade Partnership scheme (MTP) with the morally upstanding and most viable members of the local motor retail business scene.
Says Robin Luscombe, “We are members of the MTP and display the logo on our showroom windows. No vehicle will ever be sold by Luscombe Motors unless it passes our stringent regime, which more than mirrors that of the MTP.”
Last year, West Yorkshire Trading Standards was engaged in a week-long action within the motor trade, intended to weed out questionable and illegal practices. The results were announced recently and highlight the many dangers that consumers face, when dealing, sometimes inadvertently, with non-reputable dealers and garages.
From its files, poor and dangerous accident repairs carried out on a 2010 Ford Focus, an out-of-alignment repair carried out on a 2014 BMW X3 and a 2016 Audi A6 that had endured deformed structural panels, added to a tally of one-in-three cars that were mechanically inspected in the county, which were deemed unsafe to drive. The examples noted were all on retail sale.
However, the week-long programme also revealed that one-in-four cars checked possessed phoney records. Aspects as disturbing as a Land Rover Discovery that had been written-off by its insurer, or a VW Golf that promised a ‘full service history’, even though a gap of four years existed in the paperwork, highlight that some of the less savoury deals are still out there and unaware customers are not only losing money but could lose a whole lot more.
WYTSS urges people to check the details, avoid spur-of-the-moment decisions, despite sales pressures being applied, and to do business safely, securely and confidently with members of the local MTP scheme displaying the MTP logo. Those persons misleading and creating compromising situations for others will be banged to rights in the concerted efforts by WYTSS to make the county-wide trading situation more honest, wholesome and pleasurable.
