A garage boss is so keen to show a job well done that he is offering customers videos of his mechanics working on their cars.

In a move designed to reassure customers they haven't booked into a garage from hell, Woodhouse Engineering at Brook Road, Rayleigh, will soon be offering clients the chance to see their mechanics in action.

Owner Martin Woodhouse said: "When you come to us for the first time, you will get a colour video cassette of the whole time your vehicle was being worked on. I think it is probably the first time it has ever been done in a garage.

"We have all heard the horror stories of a car supposedly being worked on for five hours when it was actually out in the car park all day.

"We hope to have one of the video cameras on a walkabout basis so if we have to do brake work, for example, there is some evidence of the work done when it is completed.

"With this climate of the Garages from Hell series on television, it tends to tar everybody with the same brush and people forget there are honest people out there."

Mr Woodhouse, who has had CCTV installed in the garage workshop, believes the idea is bound to catch on.

He said: "We have been trading for 20 years but we do get people coming as new customers and we can see it in their eyes that they are not prepared to trust anybody on the first occasion.

"Anybody who is honest in this trade will be glad to do it. Anybody who is dishonest will be worried about doing it."

An AA spokesman said the garage videos would be unlikely to top a bestseller list but were a good idea to reassure customers.

He said: "It is a good idea and one of the things we do encourage people to do is check the work has been done.

"It's quite obvious the trade has an appalling image which is a problem for the garages who do a decent job.

"Anything that helps has got to be good news."

Video - Darren Smith holds the camera as mechanic Mark Brown gets to work on a car

Picture: STEPHEN LLOYD

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.