A new all-in-one service and vehicle repair centre has opened in Gleneagles in the south of Johannesburg.
Called Auto Presto, the new centre will offer a full range of minor and major services, scratch and dent repair, valet and wheel alignment and rim repair on one premises. The latter will be added soon.
As a unique addition, Auto Presto also has a full accredited intern training facility on site. The first cohort of seven apprentices have completed their theoretical training and will now start with a three-month practical training on site.
The new centre was opened on Thursday 15 September by Quinton van der Heever, the General Manager, and Robbie Matticks, a franchise executive.
“We aim to be brand agnostic and offer vehicle services for cars and light commercials that are outside of their service plan or warranty period,” says Quinton. He does acknowledge that they would be able to also service in-warranty vehicles under the recent changes championed by the Right to Repair movement.
Quinton also hopes to canvas the OEM and non-franchised dealers in the area to do their overflow servicing, vehicle cleaning and minor scratch and dent repair. The Auto Presto facility is nestled between McCarthy Ford The Glen, Lexus The Glen and Rand Stadium Toyota. Several other dealers are located close by.
To open Auto Presto, Quinton returned to South Africa from Ireland, where he has spent the last couple of years. Prior to that he was the brand aftersales manager at Imperial (now Motus) for over 25 years.
“We aim to become the trusted brand in the non-franchised service space with modern equipment, good service and a team that has plenty of experience,” says Quinton.
As part of this focus on customer service, Auto Presto has registered with NADA and the RMI, while the internship programme is fully SETA accredited.
“I am particularly proud of our internship programme. We will train a cohort of around seven interns on a six-monthly rotation, with detailed practical training at our service facility. As we cannot absorb all of these interns, we hope to offer them to the dealers in our area and OEMs in general.”
In setting up Auto Presto, Quinton and his team has partnered with Motul, who will supply all oils and additives and their newly launched range of vehicle care and cleaning products.
Motul, the French lubricants giant, entered the automotive space in South Africa around nine years ago. Prior to that it was a well-known brand in the motorcycle space with close to four decades of retail experience.
Says Mercia Jansen, Motul SA Area Manager for Southern and Eastern Africa: “Motul has grown in leaps and bounds in South Africa and has become a trusted brand across the passenger, commercial and powersport sectors.
“We are excited about our partnership with Auto Presto as it is a facility that will utilise our full range of lubricant and vehicle care products on one premises.”
Falling back on their heritage and the legacy specific models have established over decades seems to be a strategy for European manufacturers to try and neutralise the tsunami of Chinese vehicles, especially full-electric vehicles (EVs), being set loose on Europe’s roads.
South Africa has taken important steps to position itself within the global electric vehicle (EV) industry, but industry stakeholders argue that further policy adjustments are needed if the country is to accelerate adoption and support long-term investment in clean transport infrastructure.
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