And then there was lockdown

Owning an Austin Allegro is a de-facto experiment of sorts to see if a completely hands off owner can run a 1970s car, and a notoriously problematic one at that, or if the whole exercise is economically unfeasible. Money pits have broken many more mechnically minded men than me but, what with it being end times for the almost extinct and yet still keenly priced Allegro, it was a pretty much now-or-never situation in terms of owning one. And no doubt for reasons unfathomable to many, this is the car for me.

Having at least got the Allegro home it now urgently needed shelter and a health inspection. I'd bought the 1300 SDL MK 1 during a rare spell of cash flow and my initial TLC budget extended to no more than £500. I hoped that would be enough to make her roadworthy and initiate one or two improvements.

It wasn’t long before Covid-19 cast a spell over the land and normal business was suspended. Nonetheless, my local garage was still in action and for all intents and purposes the lockdown shouldn’t have made much difference to phase 2 of my Allegro journey. 

The old fashioned looking (I’m guessing 1930s provenance) business was run by young lads who do repairs at reasonable prices. I sounded out the owner to see if he’d be interested in working on my wheels inbetween his other jobs and he seemed as keen as mustard. The green classic duly became installed in his workshop and became a talking point. Meantime, expecting the Allegro to be repaired –if not imminently– reasonably soon (he wanted my money, didn’t he?) I found a local garage to store my car in and began renting it for £50 a month.

We didn’t have a fixed timetable as such but the brief was essentially, look her up and down to see what’s wrong with her, make a list of things she needs doing, liaise with me and begin. And we seemed to get somewhere on that front. As I say, he seemed keen as mustard. He was a lovely man of about thirty with a softly spoken rural lilt who seemed happy to have a classic car to work on and he soon made a list of things and reckoned he could even cut carpet himself for it.

But as the days turned to weeks a ritual began. It would start with me getting concerned about progress, discussing what to do with my partner and then me or her ringing him or me or both of us visiting him in person. Every time I saw him he was amicable and enthusiastic and seemed to be on the brink of action. I was convinced that all was well and I would leave with a spring in my step. 

The fact that the mechanic told me he’d already had it up on the ramp and done a few bits and pieces on it didn’t sit quite right. It looked like it hadn’t moved since the day it came in, it still had the same coke can sitting on it, but at the same time it gave me hope work had actually started. He’d already put some oil in it and freed up the brakes, he’d already made some small unspecified repairs. So he said, anyways.

It just seemed like all the delay up to then had been a blip and one must remember the garage had other cars to work on, Covid was slowing things down, my mechanic had even dislocated his knee at one point. Gentle but persistent pressure was the way forward to get things done. 

Eventually, as we crept into July we decided to set a deadline and say we needed the car for a meet up in August. This seemed to galvanize our man only for the deadline to come and go and we set another one. By this time I’d already sourced carpet and underlay myself, as his talk about doing it himself never amounted to anything and seemed like a possible impediment to him doing work. In the early days I’d had delusions of grandeur about buying properly specified and made to measure stuff from a seasoned classic car carpet seller but in the end I found the cheapest I could that still claimed to be for an Allegro, was new and the right colour on Ebay and Amazon respectively.

If only I’d known my mechanic was going to take his time, then I could have at least spared myself the expense of hiring a garage that wasn’t being used for anything urgent. In fact, as my garage was empty I stored some things in it, including 70s car magazines that got damaged in a summer flash flood (that wouldn’t have harmed the car, had it been in the garage). I had to throw about £50 worth of magazines out and the rest are usable but have no resell value.

But I digress. In August, I went to another local garage, explained the situation and asked if they were interested in working on the car. Sure they would be but they didn’t want to take business off another garage. “But he’s not working on the car,”I explained.

“Well tell him to get on with it,” came the reply of the little lady who works behind the desk at Crossing Garage. I’d been trying to tell him to get on with it for months.

As September appeared in the rear view mirror I took action and told my man I was going to collect the car. Suddenly he sprang into action and did a couple of basic jobs. Swapping the Daewoo Matiz wheels over (I’d bought some Allegro hubcaps on Ebay but he said the wheels didn’t fit those)and putting the mirror on in the very hour I collected car. (He didn’t fit the 6x9 speakers he suggest I buy because they didn’t fit the holes in the parcel shelf). Cost, some way north of £100. He told me that he’d also put some petrol in the car but I drove no more than a mile and put my car into hibernation. 

I’m sure my mechanic was as glad to see the back of my car as I was to get it back and I was certainly pleased that it now had a mirror and a proper set of wheels. The trouble was, the car was still in dire need of work. Just driving it a short distance I could tell the brakes were the same and there was much to be done.

A fellow club member recommended her partner’s garage in Worcestershire and I rang him a couple of times to discuss options. However, the second lockdown then came into effect and that became impossible. Having moved in late August I was now 50 miles away from my car with no viable option of getting it fixed and things looked bleak.

In the fullness of time I realised that the garage I had originally sounded as a Plan B was more practical than Worcestershire anyway, so in December I rang them up and they put me on their vintage car waiting list. The following March I rang them again to chase them up and they booked me in for early April. I just needed to get my Allegro to the garage somehow.

With lockdown lifted in Wales I was relieved to discover that the Allegro had survived the winter unmolested by vandals who would have found it easy to break into a garage protected by nothing but wooden doors and a tough but small padlock. Turning the key in the ignition the lights came on but the engine wouldn’t start so I rang the RAC.

Reader, I think I got done again. Such are the perils of knowing nothing about cars. My RAC man told me my battery was fine then seemed to change his mind and said it was faulty. It’s not that I was unaware of rumours of the ole battery scam (if scam it was), it’s just that I needed this man’s help and refusing a new battery was tantamount to saying, "Please leave me to fix the Allegro myself." So I acquiesed and coughed up £110. 

But exactly the same problem occurred and this time he told me it was the petrol. This was odd, as my mechanic had put some in but petrol it was. We put some petrol in, tinkered a bit more and she was fit as a fiddle. By the by, he checked the oil and found it had none in it, the dipstick was bone dry right to the end. This can only mean that my lovely fluffy mechanic did not even perform the most rudimentary health check on my Allegro after having it for six months in his garage. I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure I asked him to do the oil and he told me he had. It turns out mustard isn't that keen. 

The moral of the story is...if you want a job doing...

Fortunately, there were no more mishaps that day. I drove the Allegro about a mile to Crossings garage with the RAC man following behind and at Crossings garage it currently resides. The next chapter of my Allegro Adventure will follow shortly, but a brief reminder. The cost of owning an Allegro which I have not yet used beyond getting it home, to a garage, stored and to a garage again has so far run to more than £800...Money well spent? Yes, I love Allegros! And I consider myself a custodian and preservation society as much as an owner. But at the same time I'm really hoping the next £800 will be better spent.