Modern Garages, Bloody Useless!

[dinosaw]

I bought myself a replacement for my last old car (an MGB GT) at auction a couple of months ago, got myself a Scimitar. It hadn't seen much action over the past few years so I have been going through a list of replacing bits on it and fault finding. As you all well know, the weather has been absolutely foul and my garage doesn't have much space with all the assorted crap in it so I decided that a couple of the jobs involving fuel could go to the local garage. I wanted the pressure on my fuel pump tested and the old fuel in the tank drained off. Not hard jobs, could do them myself but would have to buy a pressure gauge and a siphon for the tank and then of course find somewhere to dispose of the petrol. Nah, not interested, they don't do that sort of stuff and don't even have a pressure gauge, it would seem that if it doesn't involve plugging their little handset into the ECU it is beyond them. And they charge £75 per hour!. It will save me money but you would have thought in this climate they would want the trade. Pretty typical for round here though, in all trades.

 

[dianefairhall]

Not remotely the same thing but when we were staying in Bracara, Morar, near Mallaig, a few years ago, OH managed to fill our diesel Freelander with petrol in Mallaig. Having kangarooed back to Morar the guy who owned the garage there drove us back to our holiday cottage, drained the tank of the Freelander, filled it with diesel and brought it back next morning all for about £100. He was a Yorkshireman and one of the old school.

 

[dinosaw]

Not remotely the same thing but when we were staying in Bracara, Morar, near Mallaig, a few years ago, OH managed to fill our diesel Freelander with petrol in Mallaig. Having kangarooed back to Morar the guy who owned the garage there drove us back to our holiday cottage, drained the tank of the Freelander, filled it with diesel and brought it back next morning all for about £100. He was a Yorkshireman and one of the old school.

Doesn't surprise me, I liked the people up there. We have a photo we took just up from Morar on a beautiful day that looks like we are on a beach in Greek islands.

My neighbour couldn't even get a plumber to fit a toilet for him, everyone that came was only interested in doing a whole bathroom. It was the same story when we wanted stock fencing when we first moved in. I ended up doing 250m of the stuff myself and got a good upper body workout into the bargain. That amount just isn't worth their while.

 

[Marigold]

We’re really lucky here to have a genuine independent garage that we have used for the 49 years we’ve lived here. The original owner retired and his son took over, now the son has retired and a nephew has taken over. Always friendly reliable personal service at reasonable prices, in a small town where they know everyone’s name because why would anyone go anywhere else?

 

[Margaid]

I'm lucky to although the garage I've used for 6 years closed down. There's another place hat does MOT and servicing, still in walking distance and they were quite happy to fit a secondhand wiper motor assembly for me. Lexus parts are expensive and the car is 21 years old with 191,000 on the clock so they understand I don't want to fit expensive new parts when I can find what I want on -line. They charge £48/hour too.

 

[dianefairhall]

There are plenty of independent garages on our island and all charge reasonable prices. OH swapped the Freelander for a BMW i3, one of the island's few electric cars so it is always a talking point. Almost every visitor engages OH in long conversations about its performance, range, etc.

 

[Hen-Gen]

It’s all Dutch to me. Never owned a car.

 

[LadyA]

I'm lucky too in having a local garage nearby. I've been using them for over 20 years, first with the father and now he's retired, his son runs the place. They collect the car for servicing and return it, which is good, because we're in a rural area, and they don't have the space for customers to hang around all day!

 

[dinosaw]

I'm lucky to although the garage I've used for 6 years closed down. There's another place hat does MOT and servicing, still in walking distance and they were quite happy to fit a secondhand wiper motor assembly for me. Lexus parts are expensive and the car is 21 years old with 191,000 on the clock so they understand I don't want to fit expensive new parts when I can find what I want on -line. They charge £48/hour too.

Thats like 10 years and 75,000 miles on a normal car. Lexus are great, as are Toyota, I've had one of each, I had the Toyota for 17 years never failed me once.

 

[MrsBiscuit]

I think I must have been very lucky over the years. My first mechanic was a 'gentleman mechanic'; he was very well spoken and drove about in a mad open top sports car, and apologised every time he gave me a bill. His garage was down an oily backstreet in Brighton, it was all small garages, and never felt entirely safe. Then when we moved to the countryside we met a man who was interested in a variety of things, and was very sensitive. Eventually in late middle age he gave up being a mechanic, because he felt just didn't suit him, too noisy and filthy. Our last garage was another small one, where the owner told my OH he had the cleanest engine (emissions) he had ever come across (an old Suzuki Ignis!) in 20 years of MOTs, and I remember discussing George Osbourne and his fitness to be Chancellor, plus antique furniture amongst other things! All 3 were small independents. My mother has used her garage for 50 years and luckily they treat her very well, super-fortunately at the moment, with collection and delivery. They are a local village business and various family members run the garage, the plumbers, the coal, breakdown services etc etc.

In France I noticed that you could eat your dinner off the floor of many garages, and here in Portugal they are very expensive. This is because anything to do with motoring (cars, petrol, tolls) is very expensive and many people don't have cars. Ancient tractors yes.

 

[dinosaw]

I remember when we were thinking of moving to Portugal, the cost of importing your own car was huge. Didn't the EU take them to court over it, and I think just recently won the case so they have to bring it in line with domestic taxes?.