BRYNAMAN garage Valley Motor Services has given one of its customers an early Christmas present - a brand new car.

Catherine Elin Jones was picked from over 20,000 entries to win the top prize in AutoCare's win a Mini giveaway.

The competition was open to any UK motorist who visited an AutoCare garage for a service, MOT or repair.

Elin had visited the Mountain Road garage and entered the competition online after having some repair work carried out on her car.

When Maria McCullough, Garage Network Manager for AutoCare called to give the good news, Elin and her husband couldn’t believe their luck.

“I was over the moon to hear that I had won a car, and a brand new Mini to boot,” said Elin. “I cannot thank Valley Motor Services and AutoCare enough for this wonderful chance to experience what it is to own a brand-new car. Christmas has come early for me and my family.”

Gareth Davies, owner of Valley Motor Services in Brynaman was delighted it was the Jones family who won the Mini, as they are very loyal customers to the garage.

He said “Elin and her husband have been regular customers at my garage for years now, and the prize couldn’t have gone to a nicer couple. They also live locally in the area, so it’s a great message for the community and obviously for me and the staff at our garage. Because it is quite a small place, news has already travelled fast, and I have received quite a few calls from people asking if it’s true about one of my customers winning the car. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Neil Rickard of John Rickard Motor Factors our local parts supplier for introducing us to the AutoCare garage Network.”

Elin collected her new ‘Pepper White’ wheels on Friday, December 13 and was joined by Maria McCullough and Neil Rickard. Neil also presented Elin with a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates as part of the celebration.

Maria McCullough added, “This is one of my favourite parts of the job, being able to offer our garages the opportunity to reward their customers with such brilliant prizes, especially the car, it’s amazing to see the excitement from the winners."

It was lovely to meet Elin and as you would expect she was over the moon with the prize, Gareth from Valley Motor Services was equally delighted that it was one of his customers who had won the car. Valley Motor Services only joined the network two years ago, so it is a great reward for their hard work in embracing the programme and pushing the promotion to their customers.

“We try and make promoting the competition as simple as possible for garages, we provide free printed marketing materials, as well as a complete digital pack for their website and social media networks. We also invest heavily in Facebook advertising to help spread to word to the masses and that’s not to mention the fantastic prizes that are up for grabs.

“In addition, we always highlight the block exemption message on the back of all the leaflets to ensure that customers are made aware the fact that they can take their vehicles to an independent garage without affecting their warranties. This is something that the general public are often still unaware of.”