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those costs covered. “I went to a Volkswagen van centre – Donnelly’s – but I didn’t like working on commercial vehicles. So, I got in touch with Roy Patterson, the Service Manager here, and I asked if I could have my job back. He said ‘no problem’ and I have been back three years next April. They have put me through as a qualified diagnostic tech, they have put me through on all those courses to get to that level. I owe them a lot.” Performance We asked Service Manager Roy Patterson what he thought of Declan’s accomplishment: “We thought it was an excellent performance, coming second having entered the competition for the first time. If I had known he was going to come second, I would have gone with him! If he is in the 2020 final I’m coming over with him. “Declan has the correct work ethic and he wants to diagnose rather than just fix, to be sure of a first-time fix. Y ou probably know how our garage visits normally go, if you are a regular reader of Aftermarket. We arrive at an independent garage, relay a tale of triumph over adversity, and tell you about how they are punching above their weight, winning customers from the franchised dealers. If this is the case, why are we standing in front of the bright and shiny building in Lisburn, Northern Ireland that is home to Phillips Volkswagen, a franchised dealer? Shouldn’t we be at the garage down the road? That would be great, but if we did that we would not get to drop in on Top Technician 2019 runner-up Declan Robinson. Declan was the franchised dealer tech that came second in the 2019 competition. If that’s not bad enough he has his own triumph-over- adversity story, as flight problems meant he nearly missed the final, but then came second on his first go in the competition. What’s worse is that he is still only 24. The absolutely most terrible thing though, is that he is so darn likeable. We asked Declan how it felt to be runner up in Top Technician, after having not entered before: “It’s super,” he said, summing it up in a word. “These guys only see me here working on Volkswagens, working through VW diagnostic test plans and seeing known faults and fixes, but test plans and having to use my own developed diagnostic technique, that’s what is in the competition, and is more of what you get in the real world; different cars, weird faults, all the systems that can go wrong in a car.” Upside down Declan has been out in the independent world, but to turn our usual story upside down yet again, he actually started here, at Phillips 48 AFTERMARKET DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020 GARAGE VISIT www.aftermarketonline.net BRIGHT SPARK IN LISBURN: PHILLIPS VOLKSWAGEN Left to right: Roy Patterson, Declan Robinson and Graham Phillips We dropped in on Phillips Volkswagen to see Top Technician 2019 runner up Declan Robinson Volkswagen: “I came out of school and started here straight away, and did four years of my apprenticeship. Then I left and went to a place called Gary Hutchinson Car Sales in Belfast. He was looking for a mechanic to work on the cars instead of sending the work out. I learned a lot. It was good as I was working on all makes and models, and having to use my own initiative as I was working there alone for the best part of a year. I also learned support information in the independent garage is key and finding it can be difficult. Your diagnosis of a vehicle is depending on the information you've got to hand, so making the big calls on diagnostic work made that bit more difficult. “I did that for a while, but then I felt like it was time to get back to Volkswagen, mainly because you aren’t getting the same calibre of training in independent garages as you would from a dealer. You also have to factor in the cost of these training course for the independent garages. Obviously, my employer has