Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

My garage is 5 miles distant, so I need one of their courtesy vehicles whenever I have work done.

Last time I stood waiting, the lad reversed a huge 4x4 down to me and parked up. I'd just got my hand on the door handle when he shouted, "No, that's the tow truck. I'm getting yours now!"

It was a Rover 25. Great psychology though. Believe me, if you want to feel good about whatever you drive, just have one of those for the day! :eek:

So is mine.....in t town. . I usually manage to cadge a lift off someone...a visiting parent or a client and if that fails i can get a taxi. Even better, the garage owner lives up the road in one of the local villages, so he can pick it up and drop it off.....i just try and make sure i am not running low on stocks of anything.


When dh fliped the lr last winter i think it was incredibly good for me. Apart from when too ill to drive, i have never copped with out a car. Obviously longer term its unsustainable somewhere like you are, even somewhere like i am, but like losing your mobile. It was also sort of liberating.

I am not great at asking for help though, and found askiong friends to pick up things odd. It also made me realise how dame good i am at planning trips out for essentials usually.

PasturesNew

Until recently, using a garage that had courtesy cars wasn't on the agenda... had to find the cheapest one man band to fix it up. On the basis of being able to plan the car going into a garage it'd be done using either an annual leave day or a weekend (rare as they seemed to shut by lunchtime Saturdays) - and it'd be within walking distance of home. If the car broke down, that was always tricky and job-location dependent. I did have one job that I couldn't afford to drive to really as I knew that the day the car packed up I'd not be able to afford to have it fixed, nor was there any other way to get to the job. "Luckily" I was laid off after a year and nothing major had happened in that time.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Until recently, using a garage that had courtesy cars wasn't on the agenda... had to find the cheapest one man band to fix it up. On the basis of being able to plan the car going into a garage it'd be done using either an annual leave day or a weekend (rare as they seemed to shut by lunchtime Saturdays) - and it'd be within walking distance of home. If the car broke down, that was always tricky and job-location dependent. I did have one job that I couldn't afford to drive to really as I knew that the day the car packed up I'd not be able to afford to have it fixed, nor was there any other way to get to the job. "Luckily" I was laid off after a year and nothing major had happened in that time.

There is a garage within walking distance....well the five or six miles to the garage i am using is walkable too for most, and me on a good day.

But this garage is good. Every one locally with my sort of car recommends it and the machanic has an excellent memory and is not greedy. Last time i went in he did n't charge me anything, because he did not solve the problem to his satisfaction. He solved it to mine and he spent time on it, and imo time is money.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

There is a garage within walking distance....well the five or six miles to the garage i am using is walkable too for most, and me on a good day.

But this garage is good. Every one locally with my sort of car recommends it and the machanic has an excellent memory and is not greedy. Last time i went in he did n't charge me anything, because he did not solve the problem to his satisfaction. He solved it to mine and he spent time on it, and imo time is money.

The last guy I used charges £35/hour and works from home. When he did a job on my last car he ordered the part, picked it up, took me back to my house and picked me up again. On the bill I was only charged for the time he spent working ON my car. Smallish, local garages charge over £100/hour.

PasturesNew

Secret Millionaire, now, More4 (freeview 14).

Bloke who owns the Priory rehab place.

misskool

argh...booked train tickets online, got the code, decided to be good and get tickets so not stressed at stupid o'clock tomorrow morning and it won't let me pick up the tickets.

blardy southern. now I will have to try again tomorrow morning or ask for a refund when we get back.

Davesnave

PasturesNew wrote: »

Smallish, local garages charge over £100/hour.

Not mine! It's about £35, and it's a big enough place for the owner to be walking around organising, not actually tightening nuts etc....and it does Class 7 MoTs, which is important if you have a big van.

Last time the car went in, they could have charged me for new calipers on the brakes, but "we cleaned 'em up and sprayed 'em with WD40, because 9/10 that does the trick...."

Have to admit though, they sometimes try too hard. Like the time they stripped paint off my colour coded bumper with the free car wash, pressure sprayer stylee! :rotfl:

misskool

and this just been on the news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17363257

<sigh>

Davesnave

PasturesNew wrote: »

Secret Millionaire, now, More4 (freeview 14).

Bloke who owns the Priory rehab place.

We can't get decent Freeview. DW has a box thing I don't understand, linked to an old Sky dish. This produces nothing but American crime dramas, animal documentaries, Location x3 and Antiques Roadshow.

That's why I'm here.

lostinrates

Have a fab time misskool!