Auto Service News

Well i thought so. Taking my family down the motorway to Cornwall, (you know the roads), first I find myself in a long queue of cars but then I find we have pulled over because one of the kids now felt travel sick. The lay-by we were in was a drive in drive out type, so i could not see who else was in the lay-by, because if I had, my child may have had to hold on for another few miles. Standing next to her car, was a youngish woman with read hair (well nearly bright red) leaning against the car, ringing someone and pretty much shouting down the phone. It was the shouting that allowed me to overhear the conversation. In short she had broken down, on her way to some new job on a holiday camp site and her ageing Ford Fiesta. Although starved of oil in the engine, water in the water bottle, air in the tyres had let her down.

I now have a dilemma, as a mechanic I can fix her car, as I pretty much knew it was an earthing issue somewhere, or I get on with my well earned family holiday, that my wife has been waiting for, over the last few months. The devil on one side said No”, she should have breakdown cover”, but the angel on the other said, somewhere she has a mother worrying about her now.

So I offered to help and surprisingly my wife agreed and 10 minutes later I had found the bare wire, taped it up and her car started and away she went with a smile on her face. So I was on holiday, but working, I was now 30 minutes later than expected, my child was better thanks to the prolonged stop, but my hand were full of oil and I would need to stop at a service station to clean up properly, as I did not have overalls with me. I just don’t get it though, you can buy breakdown cover for little over 20 quid and the phone calls she was making to get some help, probably cost more than that. I’m glad I can forget about the loony’s for the next fortnight.

One of the hardest vehicles we find to work on is the Mercedes. Although we know these car are engineered (and possibly over engineered) and really go wrong, when they do they are a nightmare to repair. The reality is these cars are only designed to be repaired by their own dealerships or trained mechanics. This seems like and appropriate solution, as it protects any warranty that for some parts or bodywork can be several years long, but the fact is, if a Mercedes breaks down, it will be the local garage that has to deal with it, unless they have a breakdown recovery policy to transport it to their local Mercedes dealer.

Just about everything is electronic and without the right equipment you can think twice about getting access to certain engine functions. We are lucky in that we know a trained Mercedes engineer, although trained in heavy vehicles, still can get access to the equipment needed to repair these cars, although we still have to trailer the cat for 10 miles to his garage, of which he is only there part time.

I write about this, because this month we had two Mercedes in, both around five years old and because the value of these vehicles had dropped immensely, the owners did not want a dealership type bill to get their cars back on the road. We got the parts ordered and eventually repaired, but the hassle was probably too much for us, as even though we made a profit, we could have done 2 other jobs in the time, without the hassle. I love these cars when they work, but when they don’t, I’d rather have something cheaper to work on.