March 2021

You can’t have a technician taking a car apart because it might need something, and then waiting two hours for the parts to arrive. Your ramp is blocked in that scenario. It’s just getting your processes in place really, and making sure you can run efficiently.” Specialism Commenting on their focus, Ian said: “VAG is 95% of everything we do, probably more. We do service and repair other vehicles, but we don’t get involved with them. If there are engine management lights on, or ABS light on, we will refer it off to a specialist. We have not got any diagnostic equipment, any knowledge, or any technical information for them. We don’t want I n a quiet corner of Surrey, nestling in what could probably be described as a golden triangle between Guildford, Woking and Leatherhead is CT Cars. The VAG specialist has been based in the village of West Horsley since 1990. The business now serves a well- heeled clientele in the area out of a purpose-built facility that was put up in 2015. The garage has four bays, which consist of three two-posters and one four-poster. “There is no other space capacity at all” said founder Ian Whitmore. “There is no other extra parking within the garage. It is just those four bays.” This means they have to be pretty efficient to make sure everything is 40 AFTERMARKET MARCH 2021 GARAGE VISIT www.aftermarketonline.net SMALL BUT PERFECTLY FORMED: CT CARS Above: The CT Cars team Aftermarket ventures to wildest Surrey to find out what goes on at Top Garage 2019 finalists CT Cars coming out so more can come in. “I have set it up quite well,” explained Ian. “Because we are VAG specialists, and we are quite close to TPS, we get quite quick deliveries, normally within the hour, two hours at most. We have general rules where we won’t take something apart unless we know we’ve got the part for it. I just can’t have cars dead on ramps. It just doesn’t work for the efficiency of the workshop. “As an example, if we are doing clutch and flywheel, we won’t even start until the components are on the premises. If we bring a car in first thing in the morning and do a service, the first thing we do is drive it, bring it in the workshop, do a health check, and any work that is reported does not happen until the parts are on-site.