AN OPEN day, designed to put Harwoods firmly on the map in north Hampshire for BMW and Mini owners, is set to take place this month.

The service team at Harwoods Basingstoke, in Edison Road, Houndmills, Basingstoke, are hosting the event from 9am to 4pm on Saturday, September 20, which will feature a BMW M3 high performance sports car plus a M5 30-year-edition.

“The M3 is a limited edition and one of only 130 globally,” said service manager Chris Power, who is looking forward to the big day, which will include a barbecue and refreshments, and will see the display of a range of accessories and BMW corporate clothing.

Chris is hoping to attract BMW and Mini owners from across north Hampshire, including Basingstoke and Andover.

During the day, Chris and his service team will be offering a free electronic health check and over view for BMW and Mini owner’s cars, plus a car wash and vac.

“Basically, it’s going to be like a car clinic,” explained Chris. “What we want to do on our open day is to have the customer come into the workshop and go over the car with one of our technicians. And he’ll get the customer involved with the check too.

“So if they don’t know much about cars, they’ll hopefully go away with a little more knowledge.”

Chris wants to emphasise that the event is not a money-making exercise.

He said. “We want people to come and have a burger, meet the team, get their car on the ramp to make sure they have got a safe and reliable vehicle, and get it washed and hoovered.”

There will also be a competition, where customers can estimate the cost of repairing a damaged car for a chance to win either an engine oil micro service for a Mini or BMW, or a Smart repair of alloy wheels.

Experienced staff will be on hand throughout the day offering technical advice.

Chris said: “We have got some tremendous staff – in fact a lot of the other dealers are envious of the people we’ve got working here, including our master technicians.”

Among them is newly-qualified Adam Wilkins, who last year was one of eight people in the UK to qualify as a master technician.

Other colleagues who have a wealth of experience and knowledge are Peter Vaines and Duane Lewis who are the first port of call for customers visiting the service centre.

Although the service centre, behind the Harwoods Jaguar and Land Rover showroom, just off the Houndmills Roundabout, does not sell the BMW and Mini range, it does offer warranty repairs for new owners.

“People often think they have to take their car back to where they bought it, but as an authorised service centre, we are happy to deal with such work,” said Chris.