PMM is celebrating 25 years in the trade by visiting as many fantastic garages across the UK as possible. This month, we’re visiting a great garage with a lot of history behind it.
NAME: Jessamine Motor Company
LOCATION: Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire
Meet the team
– Katie Vowles, director
– Jason Vowles, director
– John, vehicle technician & MOT tester
– Joe I, vehicle technician
– Joe H, MOT tester
– Dave, MOT tester (and odd jobs man!)
– Flash, ‘very noisy office dog!’
This looks like a place with a lot of history…
Katie: The site goes back hundreds of years and was originally a wheelwright’s next to a pub. They would fix the wheels on the wagons whilst they stayed in the pub. Fast forward to the 60s and it had petrol pumps on the forecourt until they were decommissioned and it’s been a garage ever since. My family took it over in 1995 and ran it as a family business. My brother, Jason, joined in 2007 and I came in 2012. Now our parents have retired and Jason and I run it ourselves.
How much do charge for the MOT?
We charge £54.85 for an MOT unless it’s done with a service at which point it’s £45.
Apprentices?
We have had them in the past but we really struggle because they need someone with them at all times and it does slow you down and where we are so fast-paced with the amount of work we turn around it is a battle.
Makes of car covered?
Absolutely anything – whatever comes through the door. Even tractors and really old stuff like the Rover 2200. It’s quite a well off area here so we get a few Ferraris and Aston Martins. Our ceiling is 10cm too low for anything bigger than Class 4 and as it’s a conservation area, we can’t change the building. But we have now put a galvanised two post lift outside.
How many ramps in total?
One MOT lane and two 2-posters inside, a very small half height ramp for tires and the two poster outdoors as well.
How many jobs a week?
With MOTs, around 70-80 a week.
Customer-supplied parts?
We will avoid them where possible. Our insurance has got quite strict now and when it comes to the safety of the car, like seat belts, we are not allowed to fit anything secondhand or supplied by customers. Equally, I understand that sometimes with our customers with their slightly more unusual cars, it is easier for me to say, go and get this part from your owner’s club, sometimes it’s easier and quicker for them to source it than it is for us.
Favourite motorsport?
Jason: I love going to watch the truck racing at Brands Hatch.
What job makes your eyes light up?
Katie: Servicing and brakes, easy in and out jobs which aren’t going to give us grief.
Jason: None of them! No to be fair, I do enjoy the electrical stuff, mainly on Discovery 3s.
Katie: He likes solving problems, but he can be very grumpy while he’s doing it.
What diagnostic equipment do you use?
Snap-on’s Zeus tool, Autel, VAG-Com for VWs because it’s so much simpler. Service lights are Autel all day long, especially for Fiats. We’ve looked into dealer tools and specialising but we wouldn’t get enough benefit from the cost. We have an oscilloscope on the Zeus, which we’ll use when we’re really stuck.
What are your labour rates?
£80 an hour plus VAT. Diagnostic read charges £55.
EVs, yay or nay?
Jason: I’ve done the training, and had some servicing work in, but we’re hampered by our layout to fit in EVs to do bigger high voltage work on them.
On Friday afternoon, what’s playing on the radio?
Katie: I’m not allowed to touch the radio.
Jason: Always Classic Rock, except for our tea break at half ten, when we all listen to Popmaster with Ken Bruce.
Katie: I’m not allowed to talk during Popmaster, it’s very serious in here then.
If you could have one celebrity drive into the garage with their engine management right on right now, who would it be?
Katie: Zac Efron because I watched Hairspray with my daughters on Saturday and introduced them to it. That’s an answer you’ve never had before.
Jason: That is sad!
