What to expect when you book your car into Maitland Motors – Covid Update

If you’re new to Maitland Motors or haven’t been into us for while, this updated post will give you an idea as to what to expect when you book in with us. Especially as we’ve had to make some changes in the workshop due to Covid restrictions.

When you drop your car off, we now have a Key Drop Off Box where you can leave your keys securely at a safe space that adheres to social distancing. Its just at the office door on your right. We’ll then give them a quick wipe with antibac, label them, and store them in the office while not in use. (We’d really appreciate any large or bulky keyrings being removed as its one less thing to touch.) After you drop your car off, we’ll pop it up on the ramp to or if needs be, take it on a test drive. Our team will be wearing face masks, using seat covers, matts & gloves and wiping down any areas we’ve touched when we’re in your car. From here, we can start the work your car is booked in for, diagnose any issues (noises, bangs, lights) or start further investigation for more in-depth work. If you’re a new customer or we haven’t seen your car in a while, we’ll also give your car a Free Vehicle Health Check.

Key Drop Off Box to safety leave your keys with us.
The Key Drop Off Box is located at the office entrance to your right.

Next, if your car needs new parts to fix or repair the fault, we’ll only use quality and trusted parts, such as Pagid Brakes and Mann Filters. We find that using trusted manufactures helps to keep your car running as best it can. ( For safety and warranty reasons, we don not fit parts supplied by customers.)
If any unforeseen repairs are picked up that means the car is dangerous, such as bald tyres, we will contact you to discuss and advise of any further costs involved. We would only go ahead with additional repairs with your full permission, ensuring that you are fully aware of the work we are carrying out and the costs. You are under no obligation to go through with any works for what ever reason. We can only advise you on repairs, ultimately its your choice if you go ahead with any work.

Once given the go ahead, we will crack on with the job. Repair times vary from job to job and car to car, and if for reasons, such as seized bolts or lost locking wheel nut keys, your job is going to overrun its expected repair time we’ll be sure to let you know. For really big jobs or in-depth investigations that may mean your car is with us for a few days, we do offer a courtesy car (£10 per day) to help minimise the stress of being without a car can cause.

Ross under the bonnet.

Finally, we’ll take your car on one last test run before calling you when your car is ready collect. When you come in for your car, your invoice and any additional paperwork (new MOT certificate etc.) will be ready for you. Full payment is due at time of collection. Ways you can pay:

  • over the phone before you collect the car
  • cash or card in our office
  • Payment Assist (please let us know before hand if you are planning on paying via Payment Assist so we can get it in place in time for collection. Its a great way to spread the cost of your repairs, find out more here)
  • via bank transfer before you collect the car. Details are available on request.

You’ll be back on the road again fully aware of the condition of your car, the works carried out and any advisories we’d recommend. We can also keep the old parts to show you exactly why we’ve replaced them.

Additional Covid precautions: When in the office, you aren’t required to wear a facemask but if you have one we’d appreciate you wearing it. Our team will also be wearing them. We have loads on hand sanitiser available, you are more than welcome to use it. Please don’t come into the workshop. If the office is empty, just holler from the front door, we won’t be far. Unfortunately, customers are no longer able to wait for works being carried out in our office, but we do recommend the local cafes on Burntisland High Street. Thanks in advance for your understanding in helping us to keep you and our staff safe.

Points to keep in mind:
If you’re booked in for an MOT, have a backup plan in case it fails and MOT repairs are needed. Depending on the repairs and when we can get any parts needed, you may not get your car back the same day.
Let us know of any time scales you’d like your car back for, such as school pick up etc, so that we can work our diary around you.
Make sure your car has fuel in it so that we can carry out any test drives to diagnose issues or make sure your car is safe.

So, if like the sound of our service, why not book in for our free, no-obligation Health Check and try before you buy. Call the office on 01592 328848, or email us at maitlandmotors@gmail.com

Top of the Class for Maitland Motors

We’ve had a very busy and exciting few weeks here at Maitland Motors.

Alongside looking after your cars, Ross spent a couple of days training with the one and only The Garage Inspector, Andy Savva. Christine from our office has also been back in the classroom starting her PDA in Book-keeping and Dale our technician was pleased to receive his certificate for his Air-Con course he did a few months ago. All this learning and development will only have a positive knock on affect on your experience here at Maitland Motors.

Ross and Dale. Dale having received his certificate for an Air Con course he passed a few months ago. Well done Dale!!
Ross and Dale. Dale having received his certificate for an Air Con course he passed a few months ago. Well done Dale!!

Its a legal requirement for a technician to have this certificate to carry out Air-Con services and handle (potentially dangerous in the wrong hands) air con refrigerant. Dale is now safe and legal to do so keeping him, our team and our customers safe.

Ross had a brilliant couple of days with Andy Savva on the Marketing Essentials for the Garage Business and the Financial Understanding Essentials for the Garage Business courses. Ross came back to the workshop full of new ideas on how we can improve our services and continue on building our reputation as being a friendly and approachable garage. We’re already putting some exciting changes into place, so watch this space.

Well done Ross, another certificate to add to the collection.

In an industry that is rapidly changing, it is so important to keep up to date with new developments and the ways in which cars are being repaired\ maintained. More and more technology is playing a bigger part in workshops and the only way to keep up is by investing in training and our future. Things are very different from when Ross was an apprentice… This is why we are so keen to keep learning, developing and improving as much as we can with the aim of repairing our customer’s cars as efficiently and accurately as possible.

As always, if you have any questions or would like to know more about Maitland Motors and how we can help look after your car, just leave is a comment below.

We are 4!!

Maitland Motors turns 4 today. Here’s a wee look at how far we’ve come.

Maitland Motors turned 4 over the weekend, happy birthday to us!!

4 years ago Ross opened Maitland Motors with just one ramp, his toolbox and a desire to do things right in an industry renowned for cowboys. Prior to this, Ross had slowly been building up a client base by doing homers in his drive come wind, rain or shine and would often be working 7 days a week. (Most of his homer customers still are still Maitloan However, even with his hard-working attitude and knowledge of the car industry, it was still a big leap of faith to go from being employed to self- employed especially with a young family in toe.


The garage quickly outgrew its first home and 4 years later we are now in much bigger premises with 3 ramps, office and staff room. Ross also has company thanks to our brilliant mechanic Dale who joined the team last summer and Chrissie (Mrs Maitland) who looks after the office and behind the scenes side of the business for this past year. Thanks to our growing team and capacity, we can look after even more customer’s car more efficiently. We’ve also become accredited with many industry experts, such as the Good Garage Scheme, Forte, Pagid (not forgetting that we’re Pagid Brake Specialists) and Varta. So you can rest assured that your car is in good hands.


Even after so long in the trade (over 20 years!) Ross is still as keen as ever to keep learning, bettering his skills and widening his knowledge base and over the past 6 months has been on a few courses. This only has a positive knock-on effect on the workshop and then for our customers as we implement more modern ways of working on cars.


We have big plans for the future and are excited to see where the next 4 years take us. However, at the core of what we do is always our customer and giving them an honest, reliable and friendly service. Without our customers, there would be no Maitland Motors and we certainly wouldn’t have made it to 4 years in business without them. So, we’d like to thank all our customers for supporting us, encouragement and telling their friends about us all of which has helped us hit this milestone.


As always if you have any questions or would like to find out more about how we can help look after your car here at Maitland Motors, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Behind the scenes at Maitland Motors: Meet the team, Ross.

This week we thought we’d take you behind the scenes of life here at Maitland Motors and introduce to you our garage owner and top mechanic, Ross.

What is your background? I’ve been in the motor trade for over 20 years now and starting off with an apprenticeship back in 1999. I graduated from college top of the class winning apprentice of the year, which I’m still really proud of. From there I’ve worked in all shapes of sizes of garages; from small, independent family ran garages, to large brand name dealerships and everything in-between. This has given me the chance to work on a vast range of vehicles and experience different garage environments. I’ve been able to take all my experience in the motor trade world and build my own garage, ran to my high standards.

What do you do at Maitland Motors? I always strive to give my customers the best service possible by proving honest, reliable advice, use my knowledge to repair and maintain cars to a high standard with quality parts and work in back of house making sure the garage runs smoothly, phoning suppliers and keeping customers updated. Even after all this time in the trade, I’m still very keen to keep learning as much as I can, especially as the industry is constantly changing with new innovations and in-car technology. So, I’m often on courses where I can learn as much as I can to bring back to the garage which has a positive knock-on effect on the service we provide our customers.

Ross and the mini Maitland’s…. Future mechanics in the making?

What drives you? Giving my customers the best I can while fighting the poor reputation the trade has. Yes, there are cowboys out there but not all we mechanics are out to rip our customers off. We want customers to leave with a full understanding of what work has been carried out, why it was done and how it helps them. We are always upfront and honest when it comes to price and always keep our customers posted when additional work/parts are needed. We only go ahead with repairs once we’ve had the green light. I have big plans for Maitland Motors and thanks to our brilliant customers and supports have had a great start to life as a business owner over the past 4 years we’ve been open. From a one ramp unit with just me on my own, we’ve grown to a 3 ramped garage and have been able to take on Dale our mechanic and Chrissie (Mrs Maitland Motors) in the office. It’s also great being able to set a good example of hard work and determination to my young sons. I’d love, if they’d be happy to, to pass it all on to them.

Do you have any questions for Ross? Leave them in the comments below and we’ll get back to you asap. We always love hearing from you. Likewise if you’d like to book your car in with Maitland Motors, call the office or drop us an email.