Haverfordwest master technician Lewis Thomas will be using his skills to precision next week when he jets off to Paris to compete against fellow professionals from all over Europe in the NISTEC finals.

The competition, which operates in Nissan markets all around the world, aims to recognise the skills of talented master technicians ensuring that the levels of customer satisfaction remain high.

Lewis, who works at Pembroke Motor Services (PMS) in Haverfordwest, saw off competition from 11 other Nissan technicians at the UK round of NISTEC 2023 which was recently held in Doncaster.

His success means that he’ll now be competing for the European finals which take in Paris on Monday (June 12), with the possibility of a trip to Japan later in the year.

Each participating European country has the opportunity to select one technician from its dealership network to take part in the Paris finals.

At the UK event, 12 competitors were chosen to complete practical, real-world tests after having undergone an online assessment. More than 100 Master Technicians from the UK’s Nissan network were involved, which makes Lewis’s achievement even more impressive.

Six competitors battled it out on each day of the Doncaster event. The assessment consisted of three tasks comprising a maintenance task, an electrical task and a vehicle data record task. The jobs were done on Nissan Jukes and the participants had 40 minutes to complete each one.

John Murphy, Nissan Technical Lead Trainer, commented: “The skill level was really balanced, with different competitors showing different strengths.

‘‘With this being the first competition since 2018, it’s a big step that we can take to deliver exciting opportunities to the dealer network population, with the hope of inspiring our next, and current, generation of Master Technicians to enter the next competition in 2025.

‘‘I’m sure our UK winner, Lewis, will do himself, his dealership and Nissan proud in Paris.”

Nick Phillips, Service Manager at PMS, said: ‘‘It goes without saying that all of us are hugely proud of Lewis’s achievements and are delighted that he has had the opportunity to go further in this year’s NISTEC competition.

"He is an incredibly valuable member of the team here and deserves to do well.’’

Lewis, who has worked at PMS for almost seven years, said he felt ‘excited and extremely privileged’ to be representing the UK at this year’s European NISTEC finals.