In other news...
You may recall I put The Grey in for service on the fifth of this month. Other than the first-year dealer check, this is his first official visit to the van vet. He hasn't hit the 10k miles yet, but it has been three years now, and in the UK, once a new vehicle has been running for three years, it must be submitted for the Ministry of Transport Roadworthiness Test (MOT) on a yearly basis henceforth. The said test cannot be carried out without a service having been undertaken. In addition, there were a couple of repairs required...
An aside: the damages I have not reported here before, because they didn't matter - until now. The rear near-side lamp cover was shattered when we were parked at a supermarket some two years ago. Someone had clearly not been looking where they were going - or had just been in a bad mood. I got back with the groceries to find the perspex cover in shards. I managed to retrieve all but one small bit and, like a jigsaw, pieced them all together, fixed with clear gaffer tape, and then gaffered back into place. The bulbs were intact and operational, so this has served just fine. However, an MOT would not pass that, so a new cover was required. Then there was the driver's wing mirror. Two Decembers ago, coming home from Aberdeen (yes, from that last visit with Gail), we were travelling the pretty Tay lochside route. It's not a wide road, and there are walls on both sides. To my horror, there was another van heading towards us... in the middle of the road! I slowed down and pulled as much to the left as I could (very limited), flashed my lights, blew my horn, but that driver was clearly out of it - maybe pre-festive liquid lunch? Anyway, by some miracle, it didn't hit The Grey full-on, but the wing mirrors jousted, and I lost all rear view on that side for the rest of that road. At Killin, I parked up and let the shock run through me.
The lower magnifier was completely gone, and the persepex indicator cover was shattered, as was the main mirror, although due to it being wired up for proximity warnings, it had held onto the housing.
Out came that clear gaffer tape again, and I was able to fix it together enough to at least know there were vehicles behind and overtaking, but broken into multiple images. I did manage to obtain a replacement for the wide-angle, which simply clicked into place and provided adequate visibility to drive safely. However, I wasn't able to do anything about the main mirror, so that was going to have to be fixed before MOT, too.
It was a scary moment, and I found myself folding the mirrors in on narrow roads when oncoming traffic appeared, for quite a while after that! When I recall it - like telling you about it just now - I can feel my body tensing as it did when I realised that b***** van wasn't getting back on its side of the white line... yeeccch...
Anyway, back at The Hutch in April 2026, I was getting notifications reminding me of the impending MOT, and it was imperative that I got organised. I had not had the best experience on the first year check back at the dealer's in Glasgow, as the van had clearly been handled disrespectfully... all the stuff in the back was off shelves and thrown about. There was no sense of personal service at all. Also, Glasgow is an hour's drive away (and a half, if you include the ferry ride). I had also not had good experiences with the two Dunoon garages, when I had the wee red car, both those places being deeply mysogynistic and also dragging the chain by keeping me, in one case, waiting for two weeks before getting the car done, despite having had a fixed appointment. I ended up going over to Edinburgh to use the place dad always used.
I was wondering if I might have to do the same for The Grey... but just before my birthday, when taking a constitutional around the block, I decided (for no particular reason) to cut through an alley I hadn't used for a few years. It's a private culdesac with a pedestrian cut-through at the end and runs up the side of the terrace where The Hutch is. Talk about serendipity!
As I emerged on the Edward Street end of things, beside the scaffolding workyard, I spotted a fellow in overalls standing beside an open work unit that was clearly nothing to do with the scaffold place. Getting to the gate, I spotted a sign...
Say what?! That wasn't there last time I was... The fellow in the overalls looked my way with a fine smile on his dial.
"Are you the garage?"
"Yes, ma'am."
I walked right up and started enquiring. Ralph had opened up there only a little over a year ago. Being tucked away down the lane, he was working purely on word of mouth and FB for business. He was Polish-born and raised, having received his vocational training there, qualifying as an auto-engineer, working in that industry before coming to the UK in 2012... to Dunoon, of all places, where his brother was working in a now closed hotel. Ralph liked the town and got work at one of the aforementioned garages. He hadn't liked their style, so went and worked at the other garage... where he had also found disatisfaction at their standards. He'd taken to driving buses for a while, having met and married a local lady and deciding to put down roots here. Then he'd taken the plunge and decided to start up his own business... for which, I say, thank heavens!
He was happy to spend that 20 minutes with me, discussing this and that, including lots of vehicle talk, and I was reassured that he was trustworthy and, what is more, reasonably priced. An hourly rate that was perfectly within expectation.
Ralph knew in advance that I was aware of the two repairs needed, but could only assess the parts required once he had The Grey on the mat. Being a small operation, he naturally does not keep stock on hand, so the parts were ordered from Ford, the main service was done and dusted, and then the wait was on for those parts. Ralph did warn me that being Ford official, they'd cost, which I was perfectly accepting of - although we did get a surprise when it turned out that there is no such thing as a cover for the rear light stancion... the whole unit needed replacing and golly did that shoot the bill up! Deep breaths, it had to be done. As I said in a previous post, the parts took a tad longer than planned to get here (add a ferry into the delivery mix and things can get silly), but that was finally seen to late last Thursday. I settled the bill for the service and the parts, knowing that both the van, and myself, had been given due respect and quality work. Then the MOT had to be booked, and that was for Monday this week.
MOTs generally come in aroun the fifty-sixty quid mark. Shopping around can mean finding cheaper, but then one has to add in the cost of travelling to where that might be and from here, that also means factoring in the cost of the ferry ride, so swings and roundabouts. Ralph quoted £55 and I was happy with that.
After receiving the call to say The Grey had passed and been logged online, I went to collect the key and pay up... but Ralph refused payment.
Yup. Gratis. Nada. Free... offered quietly and with that lovely smile. No fuss, deflecting into more talk about where I was planning my first trip and what it was like to spend long trips in The Grey... and I was introduced to Michael, who has been taken on as a help, due to business really picking up for Belmont Garage. I'm not surprised. When I had checked the Google reviews for it, there were nothing but five stars... and I have added mine to that!
Of course, he had earned a decent amount with performing the service and repair work, but that really was above and beyond. I almost can't wait till next year to take the van there again!
At the weekend, then, I shall be prepping Grey for a short trip, over to Edinburgh for a week, the a slow trip back this way to spend a couple of weeks, then sort out a much longer trip again...
Toot! Toot!
A good end is a happy thing despite all the hurdles along the way.
ReplyDeleteI thought the kind of things like rash driving were kind of Indian way!