As we said at the end of last year, we would be taking a very average and quite tatty Citi Golf 1.4 and making it into something to be proud of within a normal budget that can be achieved by most, and that time is now.

So in order to do this, we roped in our media friends at Speed and Sound Magazine for a bit of direction and a list of suppliers that could be used in this quest of ours, and this will be covered in detail over the coming weeks right here at Saturday CitiMotoring.

The first part of our project that we will be covering is the choosing of a reputable workshop that could give our Citi Golf a once over and then provide it with a bit of extra horse power at the same time. So for this we got hold of the guys at Steves Auto Clinic.

We all want the best, and mostly this is relatively easy to achieve, you walk into a store and buy the product that you have seen advertised the most or you simply choose the product you believe is the best.

But what happens when it comes to the complicated process of choosing somebody to look after your vehicle? It is far from a simple process, your vehicle after all is the second biggest purchase you will make after buying your home.

And as such you should be asking some serious questions of the workshop that you want to work on your car before just be handing it over and hoping that everything will be alright.

So here is a list of points to ponder before you take this potentially expensive plunge into the unknown.

Branches Situated Countrywide gives you coverage almost no matter where you are, be it on holiday and if you have a problem that needs urgent attention or should you simply want to book a service at the most convenient outlet, they will have you covered.

Comprehensive Insurance? Who ever thinks of this when taking their car to a workshop, many assume that the chosen establishment will have cover for your car while it is in their care, but you would be wrong. With SAC this is not a concern, because unlike many aftermarket workshops that don’t have this expensive cover, they most certainly do.

Then nothing can be worse than booking your car in and then having the inconvenience of not being able to get around while it is being worked on. All SAC branches have courtesy vehicles that are available and all they need to be is booked in advance in order to make use of this service.

It is important to remember that SAC are experts in working on and tuning both petrol and diesel vehicles. They also have 26 years experience in the industry to boot, and this is a fact that slick and fancy marketing can’t replace.

SAC are not only service technicians merely trained to replace service parts; they employ the country’s leading motoring personnel and are able to offer you comprehensive advice on maintenance matters while also being able to extract reliable horsepower from your vehicle.

And this is backed up by the fact that SAC is the only aftermarket workshop group in the country that has a dedicated research, development and training centre to ensure that not only are you getting seen to by the most well trained staff in the industry, the quality of workmanship and specification level remains of the highest order regardless of the branch you visit.

Adding further to their credibility, all their work can be validated and power checked as all SAC branches have 2 wheel dynamometers and some have 4 wheel dynamometers to back up their performance work and ultimately do away with any guesswork when it comes to getting the best out of your vehicle.

Should this not be enough, and to be honest it should not be, as it is only one important aspect of the business, all SAC branches are AA quality assured and this means that a very high level of independent standards have to maintained in order for the branch to maintain this prestigious motoring industry approval.

Now you have been through all of this, but what if something should go wrong? Well you need to fear nothing, as SAC are so confident in the quality and reliability of the workmanship they provide, that they offer, as standard, on all work they do, a no nonsense, 6 month / 20 000 km ‘Why Worry Warranty’ for absolute peace of mind.

So there you have it, some good food for thought and questions to ask yourself before you book your car in anywhere, but should you want to know even more, take a drive through their website at www.steves.co.za.

Next week we will cover the benefits of regular maintenance once we get down righting some of the niggling little faults on our Citi Golf and then we can get into the fun part of making power.