For the love of cars

New rating system for car workshops will improve both standards and road safety

A car garage in Sharjah. A rating system will be brought in for workshops across the UAE. Alex Atack for The National.

Car workshops are popular for a reason. They offer cheaper and quicker services than agencies, which sometimes take weeks to repair vehicles. But unlike official agencies, some of these garages may employ unskilled technicians and use counterfeit car parts in order to save on costs. And this could cause serious long-term damage to vehicles and affect road safety.

This is why the new rating system for car workshops is needed. But it’s worth asking why unofficial car workshops have thrived: and the answer must lead back to agencies. Because too often those who work there don’t have an affinity for cars and certainly don’t appear to understand how cars are actually used.

Too often they take a technical approach to cars, plugging them into machines and repairing what the computer says needs to be repaired. Perhaps if they showed more interest in cars, more understanding of drivers and – yes – less relentless focus on profiteering, there wouldn’t be a need for so many illegal shops.