Your holiday is going to Spain this year. To be on the safe side, you want to have your car checked, but the garage owner has bad news. It’s your turn after the summer. You’re not the only one this is happening to. The waiting times are considerable at almost all garages. “We do emergency repairs in between, you have to wait for regular maintenance.”
The phone rings regularly at Automundi in Gemert. People who want to have their car checked, because a well-functioning air conditioning is nice, especially now that it is so hot in Southern Europe. “We can no longer help them for their holiday,” says garage owner Geert Emonds.
Customers who call now will have their turn at the end of August. “We are also partly closed to private individuals during the construction holiday. But it’s actually always so busy here. If a car is really broken, we’ll see if we can help. But we don’t have room in the agenda for regular maintenance. And it is also busy at other garages in the area, I know.”
‘Only next month’s turn’
At Auto Hommel in Etten-Leur, they work throughout the holidays, just like other years. The mechanics have their hands full with all the work, says owner Patrick Hommel. “People who want to make an appointment will only have their turn in a month.”
That is slightly better than in June, when the waiting time was five weeks. “There has been a lot of attention in the media for the busyness at garages. Customers have also started to plan better themselves as a result. Previously they called a week in advance, now the same people sometimes already make an appointment for the autumn.”
Short emergency repairs such as replacing a flat tire or repairing a brake that rubs are done in between. “We don’t plan the technicians completely full. Then there is time for these kinds of short jobs. But if, for example, an air conditioning pump needs to be replaced, something like this easily takes four hours. Then the customer will have to wait weeks. just drive the car safely, so that’s not an emergency for us,” says Hommel.