Anybody in the South East need someone to do some work, i know the person

as per title, had my gearbox replaced this weekend by Richcinq and all i can say is that hes a damn good and hard worker

he was able to get hold of the box and a clutch kit for me aswell as come over to my house and get on and do the job. i helped out because i wanted to get dirty, but there is no denying that Rich did almost all of the work

his work is very good and is also a top guy aswell, i know for certain that i will be using him in the future, no second thoughts.

Once again Rich, thanks alot, cars a dream again.

Andy

It concerns me a little that there has been a few recommendations of people or even people advertising themselves to do work on vehicles. Do these people have public liability insurance in case something goes wrong with their work? How would they stand if something failed due to a material/product they used or their workmanship? In this blame and sue culture is it a good idea to not use trained professionals?

Each to their own!!! Some people are able to fix their cars themselves - they are not trained professionals and who is to say trained mechanics don't suffer from human error sometimes - none of us are faultless.

For those that have the money to go to the Fiat dealer or local garage - fine. Those that fix their own cars save money and have the satisfaction of having carried out the work and taken care of their car, rather than leaving it in the hands of strangers.

Then there are people who are unable to fix the car themselves, through lack of knowledge etc and don't want to be ripped off by a garage and therefore prefer the personal touch of someone recommended, thereby saving money. The mobile mechanic will strive to do a good job, because they want to get more work - sometimes there is less come-back with a garage (been there, done that!!!).

Whatever works for the individual.

Thanks Andy.

Glad to hear the car is good. Thanks for your help it made the job a lot easier and made a change to have some company. As mentioned before-if everyone had the money to go to a main dealer/garage Im sure they would but the reason I got into working on cars in the first place is because of a few bad experiences I had with various garages not to mention the waiting times, labour costs, sometmes shoddy work and the prices they charge for parts etc. Im sure there are quite a few good garages around and thats great and I would always prefer the personal touch you get with a person you know and trust whether it be a garage, friend or whoever. I agree in this sue culture you have to be careful what you say/do but I am not like that myself and think its all wrong! You cant blame a person for fitting a new part then it failing through no fault of thiers-thats life, parts fail even on new cars it happens. I am confident in my ability otherwise I wouldn't fix and maintain mine or my families cars but if people rather a garage I would completely understand as thats personal preference and everyone has a choice.

Speak to you soon Andy, Thanks again Rich.

Obviously I am not disrespecting anybodies technical ability, but what I am concerned about is what happens if an accident occurs, the person whos car failed may not sue but their insurance company or the other persons may!.

No problem at all Rich, it made a nice change to get my hands dirty and do something rather than just send her to the garage or scrappy for the job to be done like before.

the reason i decided to go the route of taking Rich up on his offer was that i was no longer going to pay the scrap yard £250 for a gearbox out of a mangled punto and for them to just slap it in willy nilly, i had no idea of the history of the car or anything, and it isnt the first to have broken on me. the garage option is in no way shape or form viable, with a recon box coming in on the shiney side of £600 then adding in 6 - 8 (maybe more ) hours labour.

all i can say is that i will be calling upon Rich's help again in the future should i need anything done, as after spending most of the weekend under the car i can honestly say that he is a top person no 1, and his work level and abilities are right up there. i know in the sue culture we live in anything can happen, but the same goes for the car, parts can fail etc irrecpective of who fitted it. i was able to save money, get more done and have a better understaning of my car and the gearbox in general, i feel that not only do i have my car back running superbly, but i learnt something and made a mate out of it aswell.

Cheers again Rich, Andy

I understand what people are saying about if someone had an accident after I had worked on thier car that they could try to get damages etc from myself this is why I select the jobs and who I do them for carefully. I try to stay away from brakes, suspension and steering etc as these are the areas liable to cause an accident and tend to do more engine, gearbox, clutch and electrical work. I like it when the owner gets involved if possible this way they can see how I work and also shows them that I dont bodge things.

Andy, when are we going to arrange a local meet? Have to make it soon.

Rich.

As I said earlier this was not meant as an attack on anyone certainly not anyone on this forum, but I dont do any work at all out of hours for this reason. As dealers/garages get more expensive this sort of arrangement will get more common, and the chances of someone being sued increases year by year. It has nothing to do with your technical ability, being sued (even for a relatively minor problem) could cost a fortune. At the moment Fiat are arranging for all their Techs to be fully licenced by an independant body like Corgi do with Gas Engineers. The shape of things to come?

car what car? i never fixed no car! never seen that car before in my life