Vasstechnik, Eastbourne, East Sussex

 My visit to Vasstechnik was on a busy Friday and there was certainly no Friday afternoon slowdown in this workshop. One of the partners, Kevin Murday, who normally mans the front desk and deals with the office side of the business was going to speak to me but had to dash out, leaving me with the other two partners in the business – Lee Weafer and Ben Barton.

The three partners all used to work together at Sterling Automotive

– a Rover MG workshop based in Eastbourne, East Sussex. In February 2013 with the Rover business in decline they decided to start out in their own workshop. Although they were daily servicing the Rover/mg marque, Lee had previously trained as an Audi technician, so with contacts in VAG they looked to set up as a garage who specialise in the VAG marques, hence the name Vass-technik – VASS Standing for Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT and Skoda, with Technik being the German word for technology.

Lee, as well as having done an apprenticeship with Audi, was also for a time a roadside technician for Audi, and his father is still a master tech at Audi. VAG runs through their veins. Although they are dedicated to the German range of vehicles, Vasstechnik do take on all makes of vehicle and around 20% of their work is on non-vag models.

Alongside the three partners is Lewis, their third-year apprentice, who is now quite capable of many of the jobs covered in the workshop.

MOT testing is carried-out at one of the local units, giving Vasstechnik more time to concentrate on servicing and repairing customers’ vehicles.

Detailed website

Their online presence is covered by the website vasstechnik.co.uk and a Facebook page – though Lee points out that they rarely have time to update this, so don’t be surprised to find that the last addition to the page may have been some time ago.

Customers have plenty of options when it comes to leaving their vehicle with Vasstechnik, with two courtesy cars, plus Pevensey & Westham train station just five minutes’ walk away. On top of this they also offer a free collection and delivery service by arrangement over quite a wide area, from Brighton to the outskirts of Eastbourne.

The workshop is well-equipped

The compact front of the unit hides its true size, but once inside there is plenty of working space.

Lee shows me the walnut blasting machine which is now a treatment recommended by VAG for decoking the direct-injection engines.

Ben tackles the job of removing a broken rear spring on an Audi A4: due to the broken coils, it can’t be compressed in the normal way.

When not running around Kevin can normally be found behind the front desk.