Vineyard Community Church & Kemp Ford Host Women On Wheels Workshop To Educate Women on Vehicle Maintenance & Avoiding Scams

Thousand Oaks, CA (PRWEB) October 18, 2007 -- Kemp Ford today announced the second in a series of workshops to help better prepare women motorists in how to deal with service writers at dealerships or repair shops. The "Women on Wheels" workshop will be held on Oct 20, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. in the service drive of Kemp Ford at 3810 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. The workshop will educate women motorists in the basics of vehicle service and maintenance to help provide a better understanding and thus greater confidence when dealing with vehicle service. The workshop also aims to enlighten women about how to avoid paying for unnecessary vehicle repairs and how to avoid scams and is open to women of all ages.

The "Women On Wheels" workshop, co-sponsored by Kemp Ford and Vineyard Community Church-Thousand Oaks, will run for approximately one hour and is applicable to most makes and models. Refreshments will be provided by the Vineyard Cafe.

Each attendee will be presented with a copy of a "Write-Up" job aid; a simple and easy-to-understand vehicle symptom chart that any customer should fill out prior to bringing a vehicle in for service. The job aid better prepares the motorist for dealing with their mechanic or service writer. The form provides a simple grid and vehicle diagram for the customer to follow. It covers various areas of the vehicle that the customer can see, hear, feel or smell, conditions and enables notes to be taken of items that may need attention.

This will be followed by a walk around of an actual vehicle by a trained technician completing a Multi-Point inspection worksheet. It is a report card on conditions, recommendations and future needs of your vehicle.

The workshop will stress the importance of keeping maintenance records; these records help the customer avoid unnecessary maintenance and help maintain the value of the vehicle when it is re-sold. The dealership will attempt to ask the type of questions that customers "always wanted to ask."

Assisting at the workshop will be well known woman race car driver Belinda Endress, of Newbury Park, California. Endress has nine years auto racing experience in professional and amateur events and has multiple wins in various forms of motor sports. She is also a test driver for a major automotive suspension manufacturer.

According to Kemp Ford Assistant Service Manager, Patrick Gagnon, the idea for the "Women on Wheels" series of workshops came about when a member of his church asked another Kemp Ford mechanic, Dan McCay, if he could show her a little about her vehicle and help better educate her. The workshop was originally planned for the congregation but Church leaders felt that it would benefit the entire community, and thus it was moved to Kemp Ford.

"Our primary goal with these workshops is to help instill more confidence in our local women motorists and to help them save money by being better educated on the basics of their vehicles and any needed repairs," Gagnon said. "We are proud to have Dan McCay, an accomplished Drivability/Smog technician to assist us in this effort and grateful to Belinda Endress for offering to help at the workshop; the attendees should benefit from her experience and relate well to her," Gagnon added.

Representatives from BG products will also be demonstrating some of their products.

For more information call Vineyard Community Church at 805-375-2103 or visit the vineyard web site: www.vineyardto.org or call Patrick Gagnon at 805-497-2711 or email at p-gagno2(at)dealeremail.com.

Press Contacts:

Sara Callahan

Carter West Public Relations

949-742-0477

scallahan(at)carterwestpr.com

Vineyard Community Church             

805-375-2103                    

vineyard(at)vineyardto.com        

Patrick Gagnon

Kemp Ford

805 497-2711 x212

p-gagno2(at)dealeremail.com

###