TimothyA123

Goodday to the forum and the St.Lucian Expats, just got a quick one, I am a St.lucian who reside in the UK with intentions of returning home. I am however thinking of setting up an enterprise in advance auto diagnostics for Japanese, European and even American vehicles(specilising in Euro ie BMW, Mercs, Audi, L/R etc.). I have been home on occassion to check out the market, in terms of the amount of euro cars out there and I am pleasantly surprised of the growth in that sector, what I do want to know is ; the availabilty of genuine parts, the availibility and affordability of a qualified Master technician and just great customer service? Ofcourse I would be an independant to the franchises out there, but I would be a british trained alternative. I do however expect to do some work in campaigning for cleaner Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel. Thanks in advance TimA!

Pistolpete2

Ultimate Automobiles (Prestige Auto) is the importer of BMW, Land Rover and Mercs, I believe while JQ imports Audi. Both bring in genuine parts to support their sales.

RASCO in Bois D'Orange is in the front line for auto diagnostics, aside from the main dealers in their service departments. One never wants to talk about how good the customer service is on one's car but Peter & Co. put out a good product for Nissan and I'm sure they are not a one-off these days.

Customer service is of a generally very high standard in St Lucia in the bigger businesses and in many smaller ones IMHO.

TimothyA123

Hi PistolPete, I was hoping you would reply! I very much value your imhos' you give a great take on what is really out there and what life is like back home. Anyways I am very much familiar with who is doing what etc. I just wanted to know from an expats point of view what are their take on the industry regarding new auto technology on island, coming from the UK and other parts of the world where competition is the name of the game since the Block Exemptions ( I digress). Again thanks in advance.

P.S. lol what Nissan you got?

Pistolpete2

Cars are just an A - Z conveyance for me I'm afraid so I'll have to defer to somebody else if they are out there.

As an aside, I would say that if I were given a second chance I would have chosen a smaller-engined gas (as opposed to diesel) vehicle as the fuels are the same price and to get the power I had to get a 3 litre turbo engined diesel which still guzzles the fuel. Vehicle choice is often about ground clearance though if you live in the sticks like I do and the terrain is rough and the access roads are prone to severe flooding. This rules out many of the hybrids that are now out there, if you choose to import a vehicle which is not in regular stock on the island.

pgtips

I would say if you have a valuable skill set and want to set up your diagnostics business just do it. As long as it does not cost you too much to set up the best way into the market is to just set up shop and market your service. There is only so much research you can do on the net and you have already been and checked out the competition on the island. The bold just do it, whilst others will just research and research.

Good luck.

TimothyA123

Not a truer word has been spoken! Thanks PGtips, Good to hear from you on this matter. I have followed your wise imput on here for a while now, good to be on the receiving end. Hope all is well with you and again thanks
TimA.