A warm welcome
26 September 2022 
If you head to that green space at the edge of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, you will find the village of Warmington. If you look a little harder, you will find what looks like a small aircraft hanger. If you have, that means you’ve found The Garage Warmington.
Including owner Adrian Smith, The Garage Warmington has three staff, and serves a largely rural customer base, seeing all sorts of vehicles of every age and type. Adrian started by explaining the unique building: “It is an army surplus shed. It came from the army camp about a mile down the road. There used to be a lot around here, but there are very few left. I was talking to a chap a few days ago who was involved in the shed being moved in the early 1960s, and he said there was four of them in the area at one point. Now, this is the only one left standing.”
Let’s consider what goes on inside the curved workshop: “We have one two-post lift. We can only get one car in at a time really, as it is quite tight. We are normally one-in-one-out, but we can work outside when the weather is reasonable.”
The business was started by Adrian’s father, with his business partner in 1974. “I started coming in on a regular basis to help out when I was about eight, in 1980 and obviously fell in love with mending motor vehicles. After school, I did an apprenticeship, but I did it at another garage, basically, because I’ve heard a lot of fathers and sons don’t get on much in their apprenticeships.
“My father’s partner passed away in 1994. My dad took on somebody else initially, but later he offered me the job. That was in 1996. I’ve been here ever since. I’ve had one employee who has been here almost as long as me. People sometimes want to mend their own cars, and he would come in to do that. Later I took him on, on a part-time basis. He went permanent about nine years ago. He was supposed to retire yesterday, but I’ve managed to persuade to do two days a week. I had to furlough him in the pandemic.”
Adrian’s other team member is his son, as you might expect from a family business, but this was not initially part of the plan: “My son was working for another company, and in March 2020 he was furloughed. He came to help out for a couple of weeks. That was March 2020 and he is still here. He’s always liked motor cars, but not working on other people’s vehicles so much. However, he came in and he really enjoyed it. I took him on as an apprentice in September. So, the good thing is that we have got three generations, which is what I like.” An accidental dynasty then.
Adrian and the guys are also taking on some of the diagnostic burden in their area: “I do like my diagnostic work. We’re trying to get more into that. A couple of other garages send some of their diagnostic work to me. These are some of the older guys who do not want to get clued up on that stuff, and feel like they have done their time.” On his tools of choice, Adrian said: “I’ve got an Autel, and I recently bought one from TOPDON.”
Being a rural garage, Adrian and the guys see a lot of different stuff. “You see a real mix,” he confirmed. “Just in the yard right now, I’ve got two VW T25s from 1988, I’ve got a couple of Smart cars, I’ve got a Mazda MX5 and a 1983 Series 3 Land Rover. There are also a few more modern vehicles, like a 2006 Toyota Hilux.”
When you are seeing a range of vehicles that diverse, training and access to data must be absolutely vital. Adrian agreed: “We do a lot of training. We are using Our Virtual Academy through The Good Garage Scheme, which we belong to. On the hybrid and electric front, we belong to HEVRA as well and do EV training through that. However, it is still quiet on the EV and hybrid side. I’m picking up a few now and then.”
On how the garage attracts new customers, Adrian said that the old ways work the best for the business. “A lot of it is word-of-mouth. We do take adverts in the local magazines and newsletters, but this is partly to give a little back to the community. I won a free advert in one of the big local magazines in a competition, but funnily enough we didn’t get any extra work out of it.
“We get some work just by being in HEVRA and The Good Garage Scheme. People go to their site and search EVs and we come up. We have also picked up quite a lot of work because two local garages have recently shut because their owners retired. We’re busy all the time at the moment actually.”
With the business benefitting from its involvement with programmes and associations as we have seen, we wondered how being a finalist in Top Garage 2021 helped: “I was really impressed by the competition,” said Adrian. “It was a bit of a shock to us that we did so well.”
Future
Looking ahead, Adrian has plans for growth: “When my son came on board, I was hoping to expand to another premises, keeping this place, but adding another unit. That would focus on the EV side. I’ve put that on hold, as there is a bit of a shortage of mechanics at the moment. I’m going to start looking again and then see if I can find another mechanic later in the year.”
Adrian concluded: “Overall, we are going to keep busy. We always help customers if we can. I’ve gone around the country finding cars, I’ve even transported washing machines for people. We see ourselves as part of the community. I think that how any good business should view itself.”