“That is the question,” chuckles Graham Smith.
Almost 60 years to the day since starting as a mechanic at what’s now Max Scott Motors, Smith is about to retire – for the second time.
He
turns 76 next month and has a trip to England coming up with wife Lynn.
The pair last went over there in 2016, prompting Smith to retire the first time.
“I thought, ‘I can’t disappear for 14 or 15 weeks, so I better retire’,” he said.
The couple aren’t going for quite so long on this holiday, not least because of how much more expensive things are now compared to eight years ago.
So what are the chances he’ll be back in the overalls in a few months’ time?
You never say never, but a lot’s changed in the industry – and Hawke’s Bay – since Smith started in 1964.
He was fresh from earning honours in engineering at Hastings Boys’ High School, when his mother found a newspaper advertisement looking for an apprentice mechanic.
Smith had always liked pulling things apart and putting them back together, since his days at Frimley School.
He was part of the original intake of students at Heretaunga Intermediate in 1960 and, when his mates began leaving high school for jobs at the freezing works, Smith was already set on pursuing life in a garage.
The early days were spent working on American cars and trucks. Then came the British vehicles, such as the Land Rovers favoured by farmers, but also the Vauxhalls and Hillmans he remembers fondly.
“In those days you could actually repair everything. With the Land Rovers, you had to take out all the floors to take the gearboxes out, but you could actually repair them.
“Today, anything pre-2000 is not even worth pulling apart. By the time you do anything to them, you’re spending more than the actual car’s worth.”
Parts are replaced rather than repaired, and diagnostic testing has replaced the tinkering that was a staple of Smith’s early years in the industry.
For many bemused motorists, he says “there’s no use looking under the bonnet these days” because you won’t see much that tells you why your car’s not working.
Smith’s never had to call the AA himself due to a breakdown of his own car, nor has he ad a puncture.
“But about three weeks ago, I was coming out of the drive and the bloody thing coughed out in the middle of the road.
“I still don’t know why, because it had never done it before. I got it going again.
“But I’d like a dollar for every puncture or callout we’ve gone to.”
You’d think Smith is doing well to still be working at nearly 76. Only his boss, Max Scott, is “11 years older than me”.
He’s not sure if the industry is any better or worse than when he started in it.
“It’s different. The only thing that hasn’t changed is mechanical serving, brakes.”
He’s been lucky with his body. Pianos, organs and keyboards have always been a hobby and his fingers are still supple enough to play, even if his legs ache a bit more than they used to.
Hamish Bidwell joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2022 and works out of the Hastings newsroom.
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