Auto Gossip

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 11

Auto Gossip

Whip and Spur

There may well be something in the saying that if yoq want to decide, whether to send your car to a certain garage for servicing, just stand outside the establishment for half an hour or so, and see, how the staff drive their . customer’s vehicles. This is an oversimplification, of course, for there is more to selecting a garage than that. But it is certainly a consideration. ■lf you stood outside some efty garages for half an hour and Saw the way young mechanics drove vehicles, you would be most unlikely to wish to trust your faithful steed to such merciless employers of the whip and spur, as it were. Eye Witness

Several years ago, so I am told, a Christchurch man who had recently bought a new car took it to the vendor's garage for some minor repairs. He took it to the agents because the new vehicle was his pride and joy, and he wished for it the very best of care. Later in the morning he was walking near the premises of the firm. He heard the roar of a motor, the bowl of spin-

by

A. J. P.

ning wheels, and saw his vehicle erupt from the garage, rocket down the street, screech around the corner, and skid to a halt outside a food shop. The young mechanic at the wheel, it seemed, was about to buy his lunch. Given the Facts The extremely irate owner approached bis vehicle, and found that the keys had been left in the ignition. Suppressing more violent impulses, he slipped behind the wheel and drove quietly away. And that was all he did. For three hours, anyway, when he telephoned the garage concerned to inquire when his car would be ready. The distress and embarrassment at the other end of the line can readily be imagined. Sir’s car, it appeared, had disappeared. It was hoped Sir understood. Everything possible,

Sir,' could be assured, was being done. At which stage Sir gave a brief but pungent summary of the facts. And hung up. The fate of the mechanic, unfortunately, history does not relate. One would hope that he was made a Horrible Example to his fellows, but if one were to stand for a time outside the same garage today, one might be forgiven for assuming that such was not the case. Quote of the Week “Our industrial leaders warn us of the awful potential effects of continued strike action. Unfortunately such warnings never have much influence because they belong to the future. However, it is now becoming obvious that in the motoring world the things we have been warned about for so long have come to pass. In the course of this year there has been an unprecedented rise in new-car prices. At the present rate of progress it won’t be long before a cheap car costs £lOOO and a medium-priced vehicle £2ooo.”—An editorial in the British magazine, “Motor.”