Move Cancelled

As it turns out, we will no longer be moving workshop in August or the foreseeable future. Our shipping container office is too big for what would have been the new place, so we’re going to be staying here at Rectory Farm.

That said, we are still switching to a queue-based system for bookings in the hopes that it will avoid overlap, and we have already added multiple customers to this queue. We’re hoping this will be better for us as well as our customers as we should get each job done faster even if we can’t guarantee an exact starting day when a booking is requested, but as we’ve never used a system like this before with bookings, it’s a bit of an experiment and may need tweaking over time.

-Beau Miller

Down-sizing in August

As some of you may already know, we will be down-sizing in August as a sort of semi-retirement for Paul. This means we will be moving to a smaller workshop (literally just up the road from our current workshop, so we won’t be moving far) and subsequently, we’ll be drastically reducing the amount of simultaneous work we will take on. As a result, we will no longer be able to book new customers in with a specific date as we cannot guarantee that we would have the space for your vehicle/engine if Paul is still working on something else. Instead, you will be added to a list and contacted either by phone or email once the job previous to yours is nearly completed. We will tackle the list chronologically and when we add you, we should be able to tell you what position in the queue you’re in.

We understand this is not ideal for everyone, particularly if you have an urgent issue or regularly bring your vehicle to us for an annual service. However, due to Kyle no longer working with us and the new workshop being so much smaller, we’ve been left with no other choice. On the plus side, we’re hoping this will result in each individual job being completed faster as our attention will not be drawn away, and less stress for us which should improve the quality of our work.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us and we’ll try to answer your queries as best we can.

- Beau Miller

Labour, Full Services, & Engine Services Price Update

The price of parts is continuing to increase as the majority of them are manufactured in Europe (especially Germany) and are now subject to customs charges. As such, we are having to increase our own labour charge in order to keep up. So, from Monday September 6th we will be charging £60 per hour in labour. This will not affect any customers who currently have invoices running, but will affect customers already booked in for after September 6th. With the increase in labour charge, our prices for servicing must also increase, so please see below.

Engine Services

Standard T1 Engine - £120 +VAT | £144 incl. VAT

Standard T4 Engine - £130 +VAT | £156 incl. VAT

These prices are subject to change if your engine requires any additional and/or performance parts

Full Vehicle Services

T1 Engine Cars - £300 +VAT | £360 incl. VAT

T1 Engine Vans - £330 +VAT | £396 incl. VAT

T4 Engine Vehicles - £350 +VAT | £420 incl. VAT

T25 Air-Cooled - £310 +VAT | £372 incl. VAT

T25 Water-Cooled - £320 +VAT | £384 incl. VAT

Performance engines will be charged on the basis of time spent and parts used, not a set cost.

Current Bookings & Upcoming Closing Dates

As many of our customers know, we are currently exceptionally busy at the moment. So much so, that we cannot fit jobs of a particular complexity or length until mid to late August. Even relatively quick jobs are unlikely to be possible for us to tackle before July. We hope you understand and keep this in mind when contacting us for a booking date.

In a somewhat related matter, we will be closed from Monday June 28th to Sunday July 11th for a much needed break

Full Services & Engine Services Price Update Feb 2021

Engine Services

T1 Engine - £108 +VAT | £129.60 incl. VAT

T4 Engine - £118 +VAT | £141.60 incl. VAT

These prices are subject to change if your engine requires any additional and/or performance parts, for example a Fram oil filter.

Full Vehicle Services

T1 Engine Cars - £255 +VAT | £306 incl. VAT

T1 Engine Vans - £280 +VAT | £336 incl. VAT

T4 Engine Vehicles - £300 +VAT | £360 incl. VAT

T25 Air-Cooled - £265 +VAT | £318 incl. VAT

T25 Water-Cooled - £270 +VAT | £324 incl. VAT

Performance engines will be charged on the basis of time spent and parts used, not a set cost.

Annual Holiday Closing Dates 29/06/19 - 07/07/19

Everyone needs a break sometimes, and that includes us. As such we will be closed for our annual holiday for a little over a week from Saturday June 29th - Sunday July 7th. We’ll be back at work on Monday July 8th.

-Beau Miller
Office Manager

Christmas closing dates

Christmas is coming up and to keep all our customers informed, we will be closed from Saturday December 22nd until Tuesday January 1st, meaning we will reopen for the New Year on Wednesday January 2nd.

Also, unless we have informed you otherwise, we cannot fit anymore bookings in this side of Christmas. However, if youd like to make a booking for the New Year, please feel free to give us a call or send us an email.

Hope everyone has a good Christmas and we hope to see you in 2019.

Full Service & Engine Service prices changing in May

Due to the constant rising costs of parts, we will be increasing the set prices of some full services & engine services from May 14th onward by a very small amount. We have chosen this date because this will not affect any customers who are currently booked for a service. The new prices are as follows: 

All prices subject to VAT at 20%

T1 Engine service: £ 106.00

T4 Engine service: £ 115.00

T1 Beetle full service: £ 256.00

T1 Engine Camper Van full service: £ 281.00

T4 Engine Camper Van full service: £ 300.00

T25 Camper Van full service: £ 265.00

T25 Water Boxer Van full service: £ 265.00

Performance vehicle service prices will vary

These changes will take place from May 14th onward

-Beau Miller
Office Manager

Christmas closing dates

We will be closed from 23/12/17 - 02/01/18 for Christmas. 

In response to the MOT changes coming in 2018

For those of you who do not know, from May 2018, vehicles older than 40 years (anything before 1978) will no longer be required to have an MOT. Obviously, this will include most of the vehicles we work on, so we thought we should provide you, our loyal customers, with a response. 

It seems this change was inspired largely by people that own classic sports cars like Jaguars, Aston Martins, etc., the kind of cars that are driven only a few times a year, and usually on short journeys. However, Volkswagens, whether Beetle, Van or Karmann Ghia, are often used daily by their owners, and Vans especially are used on very long camping trips, sometimes even across Europe. That is what they were designed for, after all. We feel that because of this, even though an MOT test will not be required, you should still have your vehicle voluntarily tested annually.

We will continue to offer our full MOT service after the change is implemented, however if you feel you cannot trust an MOT centre to know what to check on a classic vehicle, then we will gladly perform a full safety inspection of your vehicle ourselves. VWs are our specialty, so we know what to look for, and we feel that familiarity has made us more thorough in ensuring the safety of these vehicles. 

If you have any concerns about how the MOT change might impact your vehicle, please do not hesitate to email us.

We're moving!! (Closed 17/07/17 - 23/07/17)

We are going to be closed next Monday 17th for a week while we move into a new workshop. We will be open and ready to start work again on Monday 24th at our new workshop. Here is the new address: 

Rectory Farm
Fambridge Road
Ashingdon
Essex
SS4 3LW

Our email will of course, stay the same, however our phone number will change to:

01702 203579

You will still be able to call our current number for a little while after we move, and it'll redirect to our new one. The info on our contact us page will be updated late next week.

No space for bookings until early August

As some of you may already know, we are moving workshops in the near future (more information on that soon), and because of that, we've had to dedicate some days over the next few weeks to preparing the new workshop. Meanwhile, the days not dedicated to the move are all fully booked.

As such, we cannot fit in any more jobs over the next few weeks until late July/early August, by which time we will be at our new location on Fambridge Road, near Ashingdon. We will of course still be taking bookings before the move, we just can't fit you in until we have relocated. 

Hopefully this is all clear and understandable.

-Paul Miller

Labour rate price increase

As of Tuesday May 2nd, we will be increasing our labour rates by £2.50 per hour. Invoices started before May 2nd will not be affected by this change, their labour will still be charged at the current rate. It's unfortunate that we have had to increase the labour rates so soon after our previous increase, but thanks to the outcome of the EU Referendum in June of last year, the prices of parts have been increasing rapidly and as such, we've had to increase our prices across the board to keep up. Plus, we've recently found out we must find a new workshop to move into before the year ends, which will undoubtedly be more expensive than our current location. 

This will, of course affect the set prices of full services and engine services, which are as follows: 

All prices subject to VAT at 20%

T1 Engine service: £ 105.00

T4 Engine service: £ 115.00

T1 Beetle full service: £ 255.00

T1 Engine Camper Van full service: £ 280.00

T4 Engine Camper Van full service: £ 300.00

T25 Camper Van full service: £ 265.00

T25 Water Boxer Van full service: £ 260.00

Performance vehicle service prices will vary

- Beau Miller
Office Manager

Closed over Christmas

This Friday, the 23rd we will be closing at 1:00pm and we will not be re-opening until after New Year's. We'll be back to our regular opening times on January 3rd 2017. 

Have a nice Christmas and a Happy New Year

Closed for 2 weeks (05/09/16 - 17/09/16)

Due to a much needed holiday, we will be closed for 2 weeks from September 5th to September 17th, so we will reopen on September 19th. 

Also, as I'm sure you would have guessed, we will be closed this coming bank holiday, Monday 29th August. 

Service prices updates

As of today, our labour rates will increase slightly by £2.50 per hour. This will only apply to new invoices made from today onward, so if you currently have an invoice running, the labour will still be charged at the previous rate. This will of course affect the set prices of both full services and engine services, which are as follows: 

All prices subject to VAT at 20%

T1 Engine service: £ 100.00

T4 Engine service: £ 110.00

T1 Beetle full service: £ 245.00

T1 Engine Camper Van full service: £ 265.00

T4 Engine Camper Van full service: £ 285.00

T25 Camper Van full service: £ 255.00

T25 Water Boxer Van full service: £ 250.00

Performance vehicle service prices will vary

Full Service price revision

We've taken another look at our set prices for full vehicle services, and we've noticed the price of some parts has increased. However, this will only affect the final price of a Full Service for Split Screen and Bay Vans with a T1 engine. The original price of £250 plus VAT, has now increased slightly to £255 plus VAT. We'd also like to add that we now have a set price for T25 Waterboxer full services, which is £240 plus VAT. Please find below, the set prices for the foreseeable future of all the full services we provide. 

All prices subject to VAT at 20%

• Beetle with T1 engine - £230.00

• Split Screen or Bay with T1 engine - £255.00

• Bay with T4 engine - £270.00

• T25 with air-cooled engine - £245.00

• T25 Waterboxers - £240.00

Prices for performance engines will vary

- Paul Miller

Our internet access is back

Thanks to a very informative BT engineer, we have our internet access back meaning emails should not be delayed for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, something like this doesn't happen again.

- Beau Miller

Email reply delays

Due to an incredibly infuriating issue with our current internet service provider, (I'll spare you the details and just say, don't ever, ever, use Premier Calls) replies to emails will be delayed for the next few days. However, if our internet provider continues to be as difficult as they were today, replies could be delayed until 31/05 when we change providers. This does not mean we won't be able to reply to any emails until the issue is resolved, I am able to access our email from home and I will reply to any that I can immediately; but, particularly technical queries are unlikely to see a reply until the next day, unless they are clearly urgent. You can still contact us by phone to get an instant response if you need one (our phone no. 01702 713114). We apologise greatly for any inconvenience.

- Beau Miller