Last updated: 30 April 2026

Trust Score methodology

The Trust Score is a number from 0 to 100 we publish on every garage profile. It exists to help drivers spot the most trustworthy EV and hybrid specialists at a glance, without having to chase reviews and accreditations across a dozen websites.

How the score is built

We combine eight separate signals, each scored from 0 to 1, weight them, and add them up. The maximum is 100. Every signal sits in one of four buckets.

Why we weight things this way

Google reviews

Real customer reviews matter most, so they carry the largest single chunk of the score. We use a Bayesian average. That means a garage with five 5-star reviews does not automatically beat one with two hundred reviews averaging 4.7. A small sample is pulled gently towards the directory-wide average until the volume justifies a stronger position.

Volume is scored on a logarithmic curve. Going from 10 to 100 reviews matters more than going from 1,000 to 1,090. Recency uses an exponential decay over twelve months, so an active garage taking new reviews stays ahead of a once-busy one that has gone quiet.

EV accreditation

HEVRA (the Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Repair Alliance) membership is significant because it is EV specific, and we verify it automatically against HEVRA's published member list. We are keeping accreditation deliberately simple for now: other credentials like IMI certification are shown as badges on a garage's profile when we have verified them, but they do not yet feed the score. We will expand this once garages can submit and verify their own accreditations.

Track record

Companies House gives us official incorporation dates. Years trading is scored on a logarithmic curve that rewards longevity but does not let a fifty-year-old garage coast on age alone. A garage being claimed by its actual owner, rather than sitting unclaimed in the directory, is a strong trust signal in itself.

Engagement and quality

A garage that fills in its full profile, has a working website, and shows as active at Companies House is one that is paying attention. That last bit is small in points but meaningful in spirit.

Where the data comes from

• Google reviews: Google Places API, refreshed in regular sweeps (rating, review count and latest review date).
• HEVRA: cross-referenced against the public HEVRA member directory, plus admin verification.
• Companies House: official UK government API.
• Profile completeness, claimed status, website status: derived from the listing record itself.

How often it is recalculated

Source data is refreshed on its own schedule. Google reviews are refreshed in periodic sweeps, HEVRA and Companies House monthly. The full Trust Score is then recomputed every night at 03:00 UK time, so any changes show up the next day. The displayed score is always the cached overnight value, never live, which keeps every page fast.

What it does not measure

The Trust Score does not measure price, location convenience, opening hours, or whether a garage works on your specific car. It is a measure of how trustworthy a garage is, in aggregate, based on signals that are publicly verifiable. It is one input to your decision, not the whole decision.

Score bands

• 80 to 100: highly trusted. Strong reviews, accreditations and track record.
• 60 to 79: trusted, with room to grow. Likely missing one or two signals.
• Under 60: usually a newer or unclaimed listing without much public proof yet, not necessarily a bad garage.

If you run a garage

The fastest way to lift your score is to claim your listing, fill in every field, link your Google business profile, and reply to your customer reviews. Add HEVRA or IMI evidence and we will verify it through the dashboard. We do not sell rank: paid placements are labelled separately and the Trust Score is unaffected by them.

We update this page whenever the calculation changes. If a weight or formula moves, the new value is reflected on the same day for every listing.

See the full leaderboard.