BajaNomad - Auto Repair, Baja Style

Auto Repair, Baja Style

Osprey - 4-6-2014 at 09:09 AM

Auto Repair, Baja Style

Many of you Baja regulars know all about the great chasm between U.S. auto repair and having the same kind of work done far south of the border. Take one more step to a place that is the difference between what it is in Anytown U.S.A. and Almost Not a Pueblo out in the Baja puckerbrush. That’s what this little exercise is about because I happen to live in ANaP in East Cape, Baja Sur and my old cars break down a lot and I’m not good with tools or knowledge about metal or rubber things or things that move.

I’ll do the U.S. thing first because it’s more familiar and perhaps easier to describe. The vehicle is a 1989 Isuzu Trooper 4x4 that I used to launch and haul my small Mexican boat from the beach.

THERE

In The O.C., California, U.S.A. I go out to the garage and discover my trusted Trooper won’t start. The battery seems fine, plenty of electricity but only groans from the starter. I’ve had a problem with the starter before so I look at the Yellow Pages and find a repair shop just a couple of miles from the house and I make the call.

The gal on the phone finds the repair honcho “Thanks for calling Okay in OC Auto Services. Does the car run? I mean does the motor turn over? How sure are you it’s the starter?”

“It has given me problems before a time a two. Now I think it’s just froze up.”

“Is your car on the street or in your garage? I mean can our pickup guys get to it, maybe push it out of the garage to load it? Is the driveway clear for that? Can you be there with the keys at say, 10:15 tomorrow morning?”

It was just as easy at that and about 10:30 that next morning I rode in the car carrier to the shop and waited in the customer lounge where the TV, coffee, donuts and sweet rolls made me feel at home. Then I heard the intercom say “Chato, lounge please.” Shortly thereafter a short Latino with a shaved head, nice white teeth and a dragon tattoo on his left arm came in to talk.

He looked at the work order a second. “Mr. Smyth?”

“Smith.”

“Sorry, I get that wrong every time. This won’t take us long. While we have the car on the lift, we can give you a nice discount on our regular service special and it won’t take but a minute or two longer.”

“How much…?”

“The new starter is $139.95, the labor to install is $155.00 for a total of $338.45 including taxes. Delivery was $90.40. When you spend over $400 dollars at Okay, you earn a 25% discount on the regular $54.00 Service Special which includes everything but replacement parts and fluids. Safety and maintenance wise the car will roll out of here like a new one --- after all it is 25 years old.” He gave me a big smile and waited for a reply. Well, the coffee was hot, the sweet rolls fresh, comfy chairs so I told him to go ahead.

All of that above is how it might have happened in Anytown U.S.A. Now I’ll tell you how it happened way down here in sleepy little Mexican village land.

HERE

When I got here about 20 years ago there were 2 auto mechanics in the pueblo; now there are 4 or 5. It didn’t matter much as none of them speak English and I’m pretty good at pointing, grunting, playing Pictionary so I picked the guy called Gabby on the beach road and he’s been my main man ever since. Gabby’s a true “shade tree mechanic” because he does his work literally under the shade of a big tree.

He charged me 20 pesos for the first job he did for me and that set the hook. He learned that I was just a ham ‘n egger living on Social Security so he often gets me going again with used/remanufactured parts appropriate to the old geezer with old beaters. Most of the time I can go to him with parts money but sometimes he’s had to wait a bit for his labor pesos. I try to make up for it with gifts of tools, fruit from my place, fish, when I have a good day in the boat.

Anyway, my latest 4 wheel drive vehicle to haul and move my boat around is this old Isuzu and lately the problem has been the starter. I had crawled under the Trooper to see if I could easily remove the problem starter myself but it looked almost inaccessible to me. I felt foolish when Gabby drove up, pulled out his jack and removed the right front tire and rim and then the thing was right there staring at us.

Two days later he stopped by the house and I gave him 400 pesos for parts and 100 pesos for labor. Two days more and he was back to show me the broken guts of the starter and the brand new guts that had to be soldered before he could reinstall it. The next day he called to say that Mundo, the local go-to welder was in La Paz and couldn’t do the work till he came back. Mundo’s father was in grave condition in the hospital and might lose his legs to diabetes. So now, for me, the repair job rested on whether Mundo’s dad died or got better in the foreseeable future so Mundo could drive the two hours back to town, use his special skills and welder to do the 20 second welding job.

The next day Gabby got word that Mundo’s dad’s condition was still critical but stable so the mechanic would have to drive to the next little town and seek out Tito, a guy with a welder like Mundo’s. I know Tito and he doesn’t do the smallest job for free because he needs to pay for that very special and, rare in these parts, welder for aluminum and the costly rods. All that arranged and the final price was paid, 600 pesos for parts and labor or $46 bucks on that day’s exchange. (including the necessary 100 pesos for Tito)

I guess I would have missed out on Chato’s big smile, the free car-scent little Christmas tree for the mirror up there in The O.C. but, as they say here in the old west, what I got was “Good enough for the girls I go with.” Beyond all that I know it’s not fair to try to measure the U.S. work by the Mexican work: $46 bucks vs $335.45 excluding the haul cost. In the U.S. they hauled the car to the shop, while down here Gabby did the work in my yard. U.S. parts and labor were done quickly, professionally and come with a written guaranty so you could say it was far superior up north.

Once I had to wait 8 days for Gabby’s good work and when I learned what had occupied his time I apologized for even bothering him. He was helping in the remodel of an old house for his wife’s family. The old septic tank roof fell in and they covered it up with some cardboard as a temporary fix till’ they could deal with it. One night a cow fell into the tank and it took them forever to get it out so the whole town knew about it. They had to stop work on the house, fix the tank roof proper before Gabby could get back to working on cars again. Same kinds of things might likely have happened to the other mechanics in the pueblo; Enrique, Ernesto or even Homero.

The Mexican system is only for those who don’t need things done quickly, those with trust and confidence in the people and the process --- one has to have a lot of patience. The other important thing for me is that each breakdown brings me face to face with my Mexican neighbors and their working culture. The quick, easy way in the states is usually non-personal, mechanical, sterile. In this rustic rural “Take what you can get” style of commerce everybody learns to weigh what’s reasonable and available against the pain and the pesos.

chuckie - 4-6-2014 at 09:14 AM

I love the way the Mexican system works....I could tell hundreds of tales about how well I have been treated over the years and the creative ways things get fixed.....No finer people ANYWHERE!........

cocoscabana - 4-6-2014 at 09:23 AM

Thanks for posting this, Osprey. We have dealt with many of our locals in Mulege, and always find them helpful, friendly and caring. It may take them some time to make repairs or get the correct parts, but we always come away from the experience feeling happy...at the "basic" way the repair was done or at some joke we all shared.

El Jefe - 4-6-2014 at 10:16 AM

A good reason why anybody out here on the east cape has at least two cars. While our mechanic Jorge from La Fortuna is searching for parts we have a backup vehicle to do our business.

Thanks for the post. Good read.

durrelllrobert - 4-6-2014 at 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by El Jefe
A good reason why anybody out here on the east cape has at least two cars. While our mechanic Jorge from La Fortuna is searching for parts we have a backup vehicle to do our business.

Thanks for the post. Good read.

A little different at Punta Banda. The reason that we have 2 baños is so that while the plumber is repairing one we have a backup to do our business :lol:

N2Baja - 4-6-2014 at 11:43 AM

Thanks for the story! A good read with good insight; you're a great writer!

Barry A. - 4-6-2014 at 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by N2Baja
Thanks for the story! A good read with good insight; you're a great writer!

Ditto, N2Baja. Always enjoy Osprey's stories, and the points made.

Barry

tigerdog - 4-6-2014 at 06:41 PM

Good story. It reminds me of a time a couple of decades ago when Cabo was still small and not-quite-famous. A friend living outside of town had a beat up old pickup truck with a seriously holey radiator but she couldn't afford a new one, so she always had to carry lots of water with her to get anywhere.

She was lamenting about it with a neighbor one day while the neighbor's grandfather listened from the shade of a tree. The grandfather finally broke in to say he could fix it for her. Making a long story short, he disappeared down the street for a few minutes and returned with a box of oatmeal, which he promptly poured into the radiator, then filled the radiator with water.

Voila! The radiator sort of stopped leaking like a sieve, though she had to contend with carrying both oatmeal and water with her and the chore of washing frothy oatmeal off her windshield and the front of the truck every few days. It worked pretty well for several weeks until she could afford to replace that radiator with a newer model.

The best part? The old man refused payment for both his labor and parts.

Viva Mexico!

wessongroup - 4-6-2014 at 06:56 PM

Thanks much ...

DocRey - 4-6-2014 at 07:56 PM

Very enjoyable. Thanks.

Whale-ista - 4-7-2014 at 12:24 AM

Thank you for explaining why I enjoy the process of having repairs done in Baja much more than at home.

Just back from 3rd whalewatching trip of 2014. Each time had minor car work done (those rough roads to the lagoons take a toll), each time wound of meeting some very nice people, both the mechanics and the people who referred me to them.

Two repairs were quickly handled, one needed special parts when I returned to San Diego.

Next up: home (de)construction project! Similar dynamics...

chuckie - 4-7-2014 at 04:27 AM

Years ago, in a carburated chevy blazer, 350 engine, I had a fuel pump fail way over on the pacific side. Nearest parts were in Loreto. A Mexican came by, dumped the water out of my windshield washer tank, fillled it with gas, ran a hose to the carb and I was off...The washer tank was higher than the carb, and except for haveing to fill it it a bunch, and haveing to charge hills, got me back....He wouldnt take a peso and I learned something....

Mula - 4-7-2014 at 05:16 AM

After time at the mechanics with one or another of our old rigs. . . I always come away with a smile and usually have learned something.

I love these mechanic guys here!

monoloco - 4-7-2014 at 07:08 AM

One other aspect of Mexican mechanic shops is the way they will sometimes "share" parts. Say you have a bad radiator, no problema, there just happens to be a vehicle just like yours sitting there with a bad A/C compressor and a perfectly good radiator, so the mechanic will swap out your radiator and compressor with the other car, insuring future job security when you return for an A/C compressor problem, and the other guy's radiator fails on the way home. :lol:

bajalearner - 4-7-2014 at 08:10 AM

Good story. This is a big reason I like Mexico.

My left side mirror glass was broken. Toyota wanted $400 and some dollars.

While in Mexico, I stopped at a glass shop and got a new custom cut mirror glass, fitted and glued onto my mirror frame. Total cost of 100 pesos. No sales tax, no union dues tax, no hazmat disposal tax, no city, county, state or federal Gestapo tax. No appointment and the work was complete in 30 minutes. It has been a year and the mirror still is good as new.

watizname - 4-7-2014 at 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by chuckie
Years ago, in a carburated chevy blazer, 350 engine, I had a fuel pump fail way over on the pacific side. Nearest parts were in Loreto. A Mexican came by, dumped the water out of my windshield washer tank, fillled it with gas, ran a hose to the carb and I was off...The washer tank was higher than the carb, and except for haveing to fill it it a bunch, and haveing to charge hills, got me back....He wouldnt take a peso and I learned something....

Had a buddy that got home a few miles in a VW by putting gas in a gallon milk jug and setting it on the back seat and running a siphon tube to the carb. The windshield washer reservoir is a new one on me.
Gotta say, that's one I hadn't heard of. They do some amazing stuff down there. :spingrin:

Jaybo - 4-7-2014 at 12:39 PM

Osprey,

When are you going to start writing a book?

Osprey - 4-7-2014 at 12:46 PM

A book? A book? Sounds like a great idea.

Jaybo - 4-7-2014 at 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Osprey
A book? A book? Sounds like a great idea.

You have such a great writing style and your stories are always enlightening, entertaining and thoughtful. I need more Baja books for me "Reading Room"

vacaenbaja - 4-7-2014 at 03:36 PM

On one trip returning from Bahia Asuncion we had just stopped at the
military check point before El Tomatal. We got the go ahead and went
about fifty feet before the alternaor light came on, the power stearing
went and a loud slapping noise started. We pulled over to find that the
serpintine belt was off. The culprit was siezed ac compressor bearing.
Back in the days when engines used separate v belts for each accessory
this would have been no problem. But this serpintine belt ran not only the
charging system, power stearing, and ac, but also the vacuum pump and
most importantly the water pump. This happened about two hours before
dusk. It took us eight hours and many failed attempts to put a fix together
that could possibly get us to that supposed auto parts mecca of Guerro Negro. Using a spare alternator to replace the failed ac compressor,
mounting it with bolts taken from the intake maniforld and a wheel lug
nut coupled with tie wraps and nylon parachute cord we were able to
properly align the pully so that the belt would not slip off. When we arrived
in town we tried to find a replacemnt ac compressor. Nobody had one.
It seems that the way parts are procured for those in a hurry is to have
some one go to the Federal impound and see if a car is being held that has a workable part. The bad part is then exchanged for the good one and a
price is paid and off you go. Not wanting to take chances of being charged with receiving stolen property we opted
to try and find someone who by chance could just replace the bad bearing.
We did finally find someone who could do the job, but after looking at our
handy work he asked why we should even bother? In his opinion our fix was
as good as permanent. We were not so confident considering the 500
or so miles we would have to travel. Something to thing about if your car uses serpintine belts.

bajalearner - 4-7-2014 at 03:54 PM

Quote:

I don't know if I could have thought of that. But I am very happy I heard the story. It will make me think more when...

willyAirstream - 4-8-2014 at 06:32 AM

Thanks for the story Osprey.

805gregg - 4-9-2014 at 07:27 PM

The only question I have is can Gabby come to my house in Ojai? Otherwise how much does it cost me to move to Baja?