Tour blog 14

Tour blog 14

31 Oct 2008

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Aftermarket On Tour makes it to Preston for a meeting at the HQ of tech expert Frank Massey

Friday 31st October . . .

7:31pm – Hello to you all from the brilliantly hospitable comfort of the Massey household at a secret location somewhere in Lancashire!
The last half of the day has seen us swing by two garages, one of which is the headquarters of Aftermarket technical writer and diagnostic expert Frank Massey.

Technically speaking, Frank isn’t actually around at his Automotive Diagnostic Solutions (ADS) business because he’s out training more of the country’s technicians in the latest fault-finding techniques and repair methods.
That means it’s been left to his wife Jean (who’s the one who keeps all of the ADS boys on the straight and narrow) to take care of us and make sure we get a decent meal inside us before our trip to Penrith later tonight.
Here’s a quick look at the day’s events so far in our on-going quest to get to 100 garages in 10 days in support of BEN.

Jean and ‘Dangerous’ Dave Massey, Anton Tsrev, Lewis Atkinson and Diggler the German Pointer at Automotive Diagnostic Solutions in Preston

Seeing as I’ve dealt with ADS and spoken to Jean and Frank for the best part of two years now, it’s great to finally see Frank’s workshop for myself.

I’ve read about it plenty of times in Frank’s magazine articles but don’t really know what it’s like.
It really is immaculately neat and tidy. In fact, it’s probably the cleanest workshop we’ve seen all trip. Cleanliness is apparently next to diagnostic godliness.

We say hello to everyone and sit down with Jean for a cup of tea when she very kindly makes a £100 donation to BEN. Aftermarket On Tour has now raised more than £3,000 for charity thanks to Automotive Diagnostic Solutions. Another extremely generous donation.
Frank and Jean’s son David is Mr Performance when it comes to workshop work and heads up another wing of the Massey empire, Automotive Performance Solutions.

He offers to give our Renault Trafic the benefit of some economy and power-boosting software. The prospect of blasting through the final stages of our trip to John O’Groats in a van with close to 200bhp is seriously appealing.
Although for reasons I totally understand, Renault (who were kind enough to lend us the van in the first place) aren’t quite so keen so, on this occasion, we’re forced to pass. Next time I’ve got my own car in the Lancashire area, it might be a different story.
Before we head off, Jean takes us into her office and kindly raids the Frank Massey Network database to help set up some appointments in Scotland.

Jean appears to know just about everyone, including super technicians in every remote Scottish village. And if we’re going to get to 100 garages, we need all the organisational help we can get!
Much as we’d like to stay for a natter with Jean and the team, we’ve got an appointment round the corner so it’s time to scarper once again.

Paul Lay at Sunwin Renault in Preston
We pull up and head for the dealership’s reception desk to ask if they can drag our next appointment away from his latest technical problem.

Paul is a ‘Renault Expert Technician’ and entered the Top Technician competition for the first time this year.
Actually, his wife decided he should enter it and, like a good boy, he’s doing as he’s told and pitting his diagnostic wits against the best of the country’s technicians.

Paul’s dad worked in an independent garage and Paul used to help out on a regular basis. He says one advantage of dealer workshops is that they’re not so cold as in the independent sector.

He kindly gets us a cuppa and shows me some of the cars he’s been working on recently. After a quick chat about training and software keys he explains that the Volvo dealership across the road shut down recently.

Still, the guys at Renault are keeping very busy and one of Paul’s colleague’s in the little tea room where we’re pitched for a chat explains that they even do servicing on hearses.

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