Name: Dave Ryan
Business name: North Street Garage
What does your business do? We fix cars - all sorts of cars in all sorts of states. We also sell things like tyres and batteries.
How long have you been running the business? We’ll have been open four years in September. Personally, I’ve been on the Phoenix Industrial Estate for 20 years. I was at ATS next door for the previous sixteen.
What was on the premises before? Another garage - it was the mechanical workshop for the now-closed Market Lane garage.
Where do you get your spare parts from? Most of our parts come from the main dealers. We get our tyres from a small Dutch tyre firm called Vredestein. They’re not that well known, but they’re great value and make excellent tyres.
What’s the most expensive car you’ve worked on? That’s a tricky one. We did some work on a beautiful old Bentley once, and also had a Jenson CV8 in - that’s a very rare (and expensive) car.
And the cheapest? That’s probably your Polo. We also fix up bikes for some of the local kids.
And the most unusual? At the moment we’ve a bright yellow Citroen DS in, and we’re also working on a Yamaha 660 Buggy.
Is there anything that annoys you about your customers? Not really. I get more annoyed when we haven’t got quite enough staff and slightly too many cars in the garage.
What is your favourite shop in Lewes? It’s got to be May’s on Cliffe High Street.
What sort of businesses do you think Lewes needs to attract? It could definitely do with a few more clothes shops.