How things change

From carburetors and HT leads to coil packs to....... no engine at all!! Cars and the way they run has changed massivley thanks to technology (I'm not sure if 'thanks' is the right word) all the way up to the current era of electric cars with no combustion engines at all!

I was of the last generation to learn how to adjust points and carry out ignition timing on what I like to call, proper cars. The next generation of engine managment systems saw igition coils and engine ECUs take over which, at the time was a welcomed improvment as the earlier, simplier, management systems actually aided easier, in some cases, and faster diagnoses and repairs! As time went on I realised the more modern a car became the more detached we became from them. Gone were the days of fine tuning and improving the running of an engine by some adjustments which really gave you a feel and almost a connection with the car itself. 'Replace instead of repair' became the most cost affective and timely method to get a car back on the road. Technology in cars is great for the user but to be honest, as a repairer it has made our jobs more difficult but..... we can still fix them of course! As time went on more and more ECUs and emission related technologies were added. Some cars have over 30 control units fitted! Each one playing a part and when one fails pin pointing or finding the source of the fault can be.... fun and often very testing! There is always a sense of achievment when a difficult problem is rectifed. We are lucky enough to see an array of older cars owned by passionate customers and we still get to 'connect' with these cars. We are also aware that a car for a lot of people is a comomodity and in these instances we try and have a connection with the owner rather than the car itself to ensure we communicate efficiently and reach the same goal of having their vehicle back on time, working and with an understanding of what repairs or maintenance is looming so the customer can minimise their cars 'down time'.

Now we are seeing the surge of the electric era come through. For me these were the most interesting vehicles to have hit the market in a long time as far a modernicity goes, they really are something new to the scene! That is as far as my love for them goes, oh and the fact that you get instant interior heat from a cold start! We need electric cars to save the planet is what we were told which is a complete farce. The production of these cars and the lithium batteries out weighs the carbon footprint of a petrol or diesel car exponentially! The infrustructure is not in place and we cant see it ever being so until the grid is upgraded to the next new thing! We are not yet electric car trained or have any interest in reparing them until we have to be. That will be when we are turning work away and clearly missing out some sort of revenue which just isn't anywhere near the case yet. We can however MOT your electric vehicle and are happy to do so 😁

The general concensus here is technology in cars has changed the game massivley, from selling, buying, diagnoses and repairing. Some will fall behind, New Barn Cars are staying on top, talk to us about what you want from your car so we can tailor our services to match! 🫡