Crunch

Arriving at my last morning visit I shut my car boot as usual to be greeted with a rather horrid grating noise. I opened it again and discovered that the boot support strut had come away from its fixing and had now jammed across the closure so that it was impossible to shut the boot properly.
Moving the boot lid up or down caused a grating noise and the tip of the extended misplaced strut was scraping off paint each time. Knowing I had to continue with work for the moment, but that I wouldn’t be able to lock the car satisfactorily, nor be able to see the car from the house I planned to visit, I took everything of significant value in with me.
When I got back out to the car I was relieved to see no one had tampered with it. I don’t carry drugs, but I do carry other items to which Joe Public should not have free access. I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry on with normal visits until this was sorted.

I rang the AA.
Not the sort of thing they could help with. Not an emergency, the lad said.

I rang a local garage. I have been there a few times for servicing etc. They know me by name.

“We’re very busy,” said Chris. “Why don’t you bring it over later on and we’ll have a look?”

I had a quick lunch, a drink and did some essential paperwork and hoped that was later enough.

I took the  journey from A to B at a steady pace, but even so a really nasty crunch occurred at one point, accompanied by a continuous scrape. I didn’t stop. When I reached the garage I discovered the whole strut had now separated itself from any attachments and luckily lay in the bottom of the boot and not abandoned in the road somewhere!

I walked in with the strut in hand. There were debates and discussions and few phone calls.The problem seemed to be that the back part of the nuts and bolts arrangement that held the strut to the car had come apart, the back section of which was now inaccessible in the structure of the car body. Added to which the strut was now bent.

“I can sort this,” said Pete. “Give me half an hour.”

I went over the road to the nearest surgery to complete  a few work related tasks and cadge a cup of tea. After half an hour or so I wondered back over the garage.

“Sorted,” said Chris.

“Brilliant. How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing,” he said, with a grin. “It was just a little soldering.”

Now isn’t that just service over and above the call of duty?

Pete had bent the strut back and soldered the offending fixing attachment in place AND patched the paint! Crikey chaps, that was brilliant.

Just imagine if I had taken it to VW. I wouldn’t be surprised at the sort of response I’ve had before.

“Well we can ‘t do it today. You’ll need new genuine VW parts. Can book you in at the end of the week. We’ll need the car for the whole day. No  we can’t loan you a car until 4th February. Yes, that’ll be well over £100.”

“What?”

“Plus VAT.”

Long live independent garages.