Mobile Phones Poor Way of Communicating. Car Mechanics, How to Handle Them!

Thursday 4th October

Graham

Hi, Mobile phone conversations can be so inefficient. Last week when the jeep broke down outside a bar next to the filling station at San Pedro. I called everybody I thought might be able to either come out and give me a hand or locate a mechanic to get us and our jeep full of shopping back to the bar. Just about everybody I called had his or her phone turned off or out of range. Fortunately Victor who was with me, went to speak to the guy who runs the car wash who in turn sent him to a bar where he said he would find the garages mechanic, who had just arrive back from doing a repair in Marbella. Victor found the guy and explained the problem and then they came to meet me in the broken down jeep. The mechanic said we had a flat battery. He told me to get in the car, turn on the ignition on, select 3^rd gear and release the hand brake. I was surprised by this plan, as the jeep weighs over 2 tons, we were on a flat surface and I was confounded.

How could my son and this tiny little mechanic possibly push this great metal lump fast enough for me to bump-star it. We’ll push it they did and it started within 4 metres, leaving me completely astonished. We thanked the mechanic and with me feeling proud of how my son had arranged all this we drove back to our bar restaurant in Estepona.

That evening Klause the mobile mechanic called me on my mobile and told me that he had fitted a new battery, but that unfortunately, the alternator was not charging and that he would remove it and sort out the problem. On the strength of that mobile phone conversation, I have been waiting a week for him to return from his garage in San Pedro to our bar and refit the alternator.

For the last week I have been bump starting the car and not using any lights, air/con or any power from the battery, as the battery is not receiving any charge. This morning whilst walking the dog, I decided to call Klause and inquire as to why he had not been back to the bar to finish the job. It turns out that we had misunderstood each other whilst talking on the mobiles and he hadn’t taken the alternator away at all. He told me that the alternator was still on my car and that a few days ago a close friend had died in Marbella and he’d been tied up with the funeral etc and because of that he had forgotten to come back. He wanted to come straight away and take the car to Estepona to get the charging system checked and then back to San Pedro to work on the car. All this he said would take between 2 days and a week, depending on whether or not he needed to procure a new alternator. I agreed to this timetable and went back to the bar to do some more cleaning.

When I got to the bar I thought about the situation and decide that I needed the car (Even though I can’t use the lights etc.) to do the school run, go to a pleasant bar in Marbella or Estepona with Victor after his school to chill together, do some shopping and I certainly wanted the car over the week end, when Olivia is arriving back from the Dominican republic.

No time to waste, so I called Klause straight back on my mobile to say. That he should not come straight away to collect the car, but leave it until Monday. He said hat I would run out of battery by then, so I am trying to fix up a long cable and a charger, so that I can put the car outside my bar restaurant and charge it form the bars electricity supply.

When Olivia arrives back in Andalucia from DR late Saturday evening, she will have her sister Inelda’s car, which I hope we’ll be able to use, until Klause has our car sorted.

By the way, none of this would be possible with a petrol car, as they need battery power for the motor to run, a diesel doesn’t need that. I park on a hill at all times, so I don’t need battery power to start the motor. A lot of vehicles bought here on the Costa del Sol are diesels.

Here are the morals of the story:

• Don’t rely on mobile phone conversations to resolve important problems.
• If you are going to give your car to a mechanic, try and do it on a Monday, so that he has all week to get the parts and fit them.
• Never leave your vehicle with a mechanic for more than 2 days without giving him a call to see how work on you car is progressing. He/she may forget about you.
• If you are not living in a city, try never to timetable car repairs, so that you are stuck without a car for the weekend. We live close to our bar restaurant, between San Pedro and Estepona and we need our car to go anywhere on the Costa del Sol or any other part of Andalusia.

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