I believe forty percent of new female clients who come to us, tell me that their ex partner has been looking after her car for the past few years. The assumption she had made in the past, is that he was an able and competent man and the result is that her car is now in good condition. (She may have changed her opinion in recent months but we choose not to comment on that).
Upon hearing those words we know that the car we are about to pick up will be complete rubbish aside from one thing. The engine internals will be ok. How do we know this? Ex hubby, boyfriend or buff man-servant deem servicing as an oil and filter change and so the oil and engine oil filter are the only things that have been changed in the past decade on that car.
Unfortunately as honourable as Fabios intentions were, he is no mechanic by any stretch of the imagination. Servicing a vehicle is far more than just an oil and filter change. It’s a in-depth inspection and report of all components and systems on your car. Your ex or even existing partner or partners would have no idea how much free play is tolerable in a wheel bearing, how far a control arm bush can split before its a problem (or even what a control arm bush is) or that most Automatic transmission oil levels need to be checked with the car running.
Our newly separated client sends us a car that more often than not does not come close to the standards of a safe and compliant vehicle. The conversation that follows is usually along the lines of you need to spend several thousand dollars to get your car back to a standard that is acceptable.
What has happened is a decade of avoiding spending any real money has caught up with her. Had she sent her car to an actual workshop rather than a man friend who viewed the “servicing” of his girls vehicle as foreplay for servicing of himself, she may have received invoices for a few hundred dollars each time her vehicle went in for a service but she would never have got the rude surprise thats in store for her now.
The moral of the story is yes you can save a few quid by getting man friends to “service” your car for you but its a very short term saving. We always advise sending your car to an actual registered motor vehicle repairer.
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