Veteran mechanic condemned by lovely hybrid Honda!

[Nick M.K. 574]

I use several mechanics, one of them is mobile and when you get him in a good mood his work is top quality. He delves mostly in older classic stuff, drives really old bangers for personal transport but is also quite capable with the mechanics on modern vehicles. Used to work for a Ferrari independent in Wembley years ago, that company was in the papers when it went bust. I use him for timing belts, chains, VANOS, interior electronics etc. 

Today I took him with me to a bodyshop 15 miles away because I had two vehicles to collect and he didn't have other jobs booked. I waited for them to finish one car and gave him the other to drop off at our place. A 2009 Honda Insight, a very nice looking thing (condition, not design)...

He calls me a few minutes later from a local petrol station. "Bud, there is something very wrong with this car. Keeps stalling on me. Every time I hit traffic or stop at a junction it just stalls. The engine stops by itself. It doesn't have a start/stop system and I think it might be the CVT gearbox. When it stalls I turn the key off and then back on again and it fires first time. That's why the car was at BCA!"

If by now you have guessed that this was the very first time this mechanic was driving a hybrid car you guessed correctly. How he managed to avoid them for the past 10 years being based in London, I'll never know. The boys from the bodyshop hadn't laughed so hard since the last time I tried to get them to do my bodywork for £50 a panel... 

[Dave2302 387]

Priceless 

[justina3 518]

£50 a panel brought back good memories 

[Nick M.K. 574]

3 minutes ago, justina3 said:

£50 a panel brought back good memories 

From the early nineties?

[trade vet 698]

55 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

From the early nineties?

£50.!...Up north..Only if it was metallic.We were still getting full shoots then in solid colours for under £200.Then water based paint came in and the end of full shoots.Nicks guy is probably an old school star,the sort who doesn’t mind swapping  a g/box in the street in a snowstorm.