May 2020

E very cloud has a silver lining apparently. Well, when you are talking about something as serious as the Coronavirus, ‘silver lining’ is probably not really the right phrase. One does not want to make light of a very serious situation for the country, and the world. On the other hand, if you didn’t try to find some humour or positivity in the situation, you would probably just end up crying into your beer, if you could get hold of any what with the pub closures and the supermarket panic buying. See what I mean? Anyway, last month’s missive from muggins here feels like it was written long ago, relatively speaking. By the time it came round for finishing the issue in mid-March, what I had written, when I read it back, felt as if it was from a distant, gentler past. Luckily the artist who does the cartoon (no, I don’t draw it myself) was thinking on his feet, and he did a sterling job, giving the article greater topicality. He really captures the inner me, although I always thought the outer me looked more like Sir Patrick Stewart. Urbane, dignified and heroic, but bald as Bare Mountain. Mrs P respectfully disagrees with my self- image, but I respect that. What? Things are serious, and I am trying to reflect that… What do you mean “How long can I keep the act up for?” Readers eh? Who’d have them? So, things have moved on at speed since the April issue. As you might expect, despite the danger, which can be mitigated, we have kept our doors open. There are key workers who need to get around, and families that need to keep stocked up on food. This means we stand ready to support them through our ability to repair their cars where necessary. We are seeing our existing customers, as you might expect. We are also seeing customers from other independents who for whatever reason have been unable to stay open. What we were surprised by was the number of franchised dealer customers we started seeing come in. There has always been a drift towards our end once cars hit three years, but we have seen customers with very new cars with sudden and emergent problems knocking on our doors, and ringing us. What we hear is that many of the shiny lot are shutting their workshops at the same time as their showrooms. It’s true that under the current restrictions that car sales is unnecessary, but repairs? Those are absolutely vital. Not all those glass and steel places are entirely shut; some of them are doing what we are doing. The ones that are not though, they may find that when this is all over, their customers may remember they were not there in the hour of need. Of course, I am not saying stay open entirely, I am not saying, act like everything is normal. It would be good for them if they were supporting their local communities, and many are. That is what it is all about at the moment. KEEPING THE DOORS OPEN 58 AFTERMARKET MAY 2020 TEABREAK: MEMOIRS OF A MOTOR MECHANIC www.aftermarketonline.net

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