rallying1

Have you noticed that most mechanics drive crap cars?
I have just taken mine to my mate who has a garage to have the dent removed from the door, which he did last week and he said " oh take my car and I will ring you when its done" and pointed to his crappy P plate Escort Estate, to say it drives like a bag of poo poo is an understatement, the gearbox is just 'pick a spot and shove it '!! the brake pedal is like a brick, the steering is heavy, why do they do it? another mate of mine who has a garage drives a K plate Mazda 232 rustbox!! and these are not cars they just use for work I have seen them out and about with their families in them at week ends and stuff, I just find it wierd!!

TopBanana

I have noticed this, odd isn't it.

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

They tend to buy cars and fix them up to sell. My mate who runs a garage has a Boxster and is after a 911 so not strickly true

edit: Or maybe they see what a money pit cars are working with them all day and chose something cheap.

davegtt

few points really, unless you own the garage there isnt much money to be made. the other point is why buy something expensive when you can get anything that will do the job and they can fix if it breaks down?

rallying1

They both own their respective garages but fair point no need to buy something expensive but my wifes Focus only cost us £3k and its lovely to drive!

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I'd agree with this, and also, wouldn't doing up your own car, if you worked on cars all day, be a bit of a busman's holiday?

Alcazar

davegtt

But you'll probably find most mechanics get their cars from either auctions and/or customers who bring a car in that needs work doing thats worth about £1500 but needs about £1000 spending on fixing say the engine. so the garage says I'll give you a few hundred for it and then the garage will fix it at next to nothing if it was say the cambelt snapped and its all labour charges.

Dracoro

Does this answer your question

Shark Man

Firstly: The wages ain't nowhere near as good as a high flying office bound IT bod

Second, if you fix cars all day for more than 10 years,you tend to lose interest in them on a personal level.

Third people will give you a car thinking it scrap because it'll cost £500 to sort a gasket or weld on a new sill etc. Where to a mechanic it'll just cost no more than £50 to sort in their spare time.

Finally, some do keep something for the weekend. Usually, when that is the case its something hardcore that would never see the likes of a public road

stilover

Plus

My mate ownes his own garage, and goes to work in a crappy Fortrack. Why?
Because working in a garage is a messy job, what with oil, grease etc, so why get in a nice car with dirty clothes/hands etc. Unless you have shower facilities and a change of clothes, then you'd just muck-up your nice car.

KiwiGTI

Several mechanics I knew back in NZ used to run serious rally cars and that's where they put their money.

On a similar matter have you noticed how the level of cars drops as soon as you cross the channel. I think people are generally less bothered about their image.

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

My old mechaninc had an Evo.
I can understand why some have bangers though reading the above.

KiwiGTI

I think you also get to a point where a car is a car. I've had various levels of cars in my life but at the end of the day the £40,000 BMW I had was not performing any better than a £3000 Mondeo or Peugeot 406 for 99% of my driving (commuting, drive to supermarket etc)

Now I realise what a waste of money it was I will never spend that sort of amount again.

Leslie

I also find that the Mini Cooper which I now own gets around just as quickly as the M3 Evo and the well tweaked classic STi that I owned before. It is very enjoyable to drive and uses about half the petrol too.

Les

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

The guy who works on my car owns this. Can't he afford a new one??


M

the big yim

I work on cars all day and the last thing I want to think about when I get back home is cars. This is why I oonly ever venture into the nsr section.
Or on occasion the Exterior and styling to see if anyone has asked any paint related questions.
There is a trend in the motor trade of driving pieces of junk though

Fuzz

Oh yes.
But I cant ignore the 60 mpg, never need to lock it, never need to clean it and only fix what falls off if it'll get me done for not having it attached in the first place.
The wings are still oily from when I did the cambelt on it about 6 months ago.
As soon as it pulls out the gate at home the accelerator is mashed to the carpet and doesn't leave the floor until I get to work 20 mins away.
Warm up.... what's that.

Method in the Madness !!

The toy is in the garage...
Only spent 5k on it this year

Andy

Maz

iTrader: (34)

Perverse logic but makes complete sense. One you drive 99% of the time yet treat it like ****. The other you drive 1% of the time yet treat it with kid gloves and lavish plenty of tlc on it. The crazy thing is you'd never swap their roles.

Vegescoob

In the trade, the "ticket" may not be such a problem.

Fuzz

but that 1% it does get driven makes up for more than the 99% of the other one.
Without the daily ****ter, the toy wouldn't happen..
Too harsh to drive as an everydayer
Too fecking dangerous in the wet
It wouldn't still look in good condition for it's age, 39,000 miles and holding
Couldn't jump in it in the oily rags
Couldn't throw stuff in the back of it.


Andy

Dazza01

I reckon you've got it spot on there

jonnystiv1

im a mechanic drive an sti impreza and a bmw 525 dont think there such bad cars