Tell me the street. That is the whole first question.
A mobile mechanic in east Auckland. Everything else on this page — the prices, the parts, who turns up — is worth nothing to you until you know whether I come to where your car is sitting. So that is what the top of the page is for.
If your suburb is not on the list, ring anyway. The answer is sometimes yes and it is never a guess.
Where the van is
Concept page — an example week, not a live runHowick, Cockle Bay, Mellons Bay
Booked out. One slot back on the Friday.Pakuranga, Farm Cove, Sunnyhills
Two slots, morning and mid-afternoon.Botany Downs, Flat Bush, Ormiston
One slot, 11am.East Tāmaki, Highland Park, Golflands
Three slots.Whatever Thursday ran over, then Whitford
Held open on purpose. This is where a job that went long gets finished.Beachlands, Maraetai and Clevedon are a run of their own, every second Tuesday. Next one is the 23rd.
Thirty-eight suburbs, in three bands, and the travel charge is on the page.
Servicing greater Auckland is not an answer, it is an invitation to ring somebody else and ask them instead. Here is the actual line, with what it costs to cross it. Nobody should have to find that out on the doorstep.
On the run
No travel chargeI am in these most weeks anyway. Book one of them and the callout is the callout.
“Rang from work about the car sitting in the drive at Cockle Bay. He said on the phone it sounded like the battery, told me what to try first, and it was. Did not charge me for the call.”
Sample text · concept buildJust past it
$25 travelStill fine, still most weeks, and the twenty-five is on the invoice as its own line rather than hidden in the hour.
“Sent him a photo of the sticker under the bonnet the night before. He turned up at Ormiston inside the window with the part already on the van, so it was one visit instead of two.”
Sample text · concept buildThe fortnightly run
$45 travelOut past Whitford it is a drive rather than a detour, so it goes on the every-second-Tuesday run. If that is a fortnight away I will say so on the phone instead of booking you in and moving it later.
“Out here everybody is a fortnight away and most of them will not tell you that until you have already waited a week. He told me on the phone.”
Sample text · concept build · BeachlandsWest of the harbour and north of the bridge I do not come out at all, and saying so here saves both of us a phone call. There is no minimum job size in any of the three bands — a battery in Clevedon is as welcome as a full service in Howick, it is just on a Tuesday.
Six things at the address, and none of them cost anything.
None of this is difficult. All of it is invisible to somebody who has never had a mechanic come to the house, so it either goes on a page or it gets discovered in a driveway.
- Somewhere legal to stop the van within about twenty metres of the car. A driveway is ideal. A permit zone is not.
- A power point I can reach with a twenty-metre lead, or tell me there is not one and I will bring the generator.
- The keys, and the car not on a slope. A flat driveway, a flat verge or a flat car park.
- Somebody over eighteen at the property, or written permission and a way in. I will not work behind a locked gate nobody knows I am behind.
- The dog inside. Every mobile trade asks this and every one of them has a story.
- Anything you already know. The noise, when it happens, what the last person said. A voice message is fine and it is often worth an hour.
What happens if it is not there.
You are letting somebody you have never met onto the property, and I am driving to an address I have never seen. Both of those go better when the awkward bit is said in advance.
A wasted trip still gets charged.
If I get there and cannot get to the car — no park, no power, nobody home, or a dog that was never going to allow it — the callout is charged and nothing else is. The van and the hour are already spent by then, and I would rather you read that here than hear it at the kerb.
Ring or text before the window opens and it moves for nothing. That is not a policy I am proud of, it is just the one that keeps the price the same for everybody else.
Two columns, and the second one is the honest half.
A driveway is not a workshop. Most of what a car needs does not care about that, and a short list of things very much does — so here is the split, before you book rather than after I have arrived.
The everyday half
- Full and basic services, filters, plugs, fluids
- Batteries, alternators, starters
- Brake pads, discs, fluid and bleeding
- Belts, hoses, thermostats, water pumps
- Pre-purchase inspections, wherever the car is
- Fault reading and diagnosis, and telling you what it is
- Getting a car through to a warrant, other than the parts below
The half that needs a hoist
- Clutches, gearboxes, anything coming out from underneath
- Cambelts on most engines — some are a driveway job and most are not
- Head gaskets and internal engine work
- Air conditioning regas, which needs certified gear
- Wheel alignment and tyre fitting
- Warrant of fitness itself — I am not an inspector and cannot issue one
- Anything needing the car up in the air for more than a jack's worth
And when it turns out to be the right-hand column.
It happens, and usually only once the covers are off. What you get then is the diagnosis written down, a price from the workshop I use in East Tāmaki before anything is booked, and the tow arranged if you want it. The diagnostic is charged once. If the repair comes back to me afterwards, it comes off that bill.
“Sometime Thursday” costs you a day off work.
Every appointment here is one somebody has to be at their own house for. A four-hour window is a morning of leave and a vague one is the whole day, so this is the part I actually promise.
A text with a two-hour window
Not a four-hour one, and not a morning. If Wednesday has already gone sideways you will hear it on the Tuesday night rather than at eleven the next morning.
A text when I leave the job before yours
With roughly how long it takes to get to you. That is the difference between waiting in and waiting around.
A phone call, not silence
Some jobs go long. The one thing I will not do is let the window pass without a word, because that is the part people actually tell other people about.
The invoice with the parts written on it
Part numbers, what each one cost, and the labour separate from the travel. Emailed the same day. The old parts stay in the boot unless you say otherwise.
Every figure with the GST already inside it.
These are the numbers I would tell you on the phone, so there is no reason for them not to be here. Parts are quoted before they are fitted and nothing is ordered without a yes.
Callout and the first half hour
Covers getting there and the first thirty minutes on the car. Most small jobs finish inside it.
$95incl GSTEvery half hour after that
Charged in half hours, not rounded up to the next one.
$45incl GSTTravel, second band
The suburbs listed as just past it. Its own line on the invoice.
$25incl GSTTravel, fortnightly run
Beachlands out to Clevedon, on the every-second-Tuesday run.
$45incl GSTPre-purchase inspection
An hour with the car, wherever it is sitting, and a written list the same day. Bring it to a negotiation or walk away on it.
$180incl GSTA trip that cannot go ahead
No park, no power, nobody home. Charged once, and moved for nothing if you ring before the window opens.
$95incl GSTCard and bank transfer, invoiced on the day. No deposit to book, and no card held on file. Accounts for fleets and property managers on the usual terms, and if that is you, ring rather than using the form.
One van, one person, and it is the same one every time.
There is nobody to be put through to and no branch. That is the whole business, and it is the reason the run has a shape rather than a call centre.
- Name
- Dave Rehu
- Qualification
- New Zealand Certificate in Automotive Engineering, Level 4
- Before the van
- Fourteen years in workshops, the last six of them on diagnostics
- Takes on
- Japanese and European petrol, most diesel utes, hybrids for servicing and brakes
- Sends elsewhere
- Electric vehicles beyond tyres and brakes, and anything under warranty that a dealer should be doing for nothing
What is pulling into the drive.
On a live site these are photographs of the actual van and the actual plate, because somebody at home on their own is entitled to know what is about to park outside. They are empty here: this is a concept build, and Skyward does not put anybody else's vehicle on a page that is not theirs.
The quoted lines further up this page are sample text written for this concept, and each one says so underneath itself. On a live site they are the business's own Google reviews and nothing else — Skyward does not write reviews, and a five-star line we wrote ourselves would be worth less than nothing.
Tell me the suburb and what it is doing.
You will get a text back with a day and a two-hour window, from me rather than from a system. If the car is not going anywhere and you need it Monday, ring instead — it is faster and it always will be.