AW Engineering, Darwen

Run by Tony Walsh and his family, they only repair Diesel engines made by VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat for cars and light commercial vehicles. Some 7 years ago I bought a V reg diesel golf from my next-door neighbour for my daughter. Despite a clean bill of health from the RAC, one of the little ends went within a year (possibly due to my neighbour having it serviced by a non-VW specialist, who used the wrong grade of oil). A local VW specialist said that the only thing to be done was to buy either a new or reconditioned engine or find one in a scrapyard. The first two seemed uneconomic and the third unfeasible By good fortune, a remover delivering to us recommended AW engineering. They recovered the car from Blyth on a low-loader, took it across the Pennines to Darwen and had stripped and rebuilt the engine within 10 days (having also found and corrected a new fault induced by the local garage). They charged £1000 all-in and gave an informal 1 year guarantee. Tony, his wife and son all come across as very decent folk who know their job. The workshop is reassuringly "old fashioned". So good was the job that the car ran without any problems for a further 5 years until it was written off by an idiot paramedic on his way home from work, who ran into the back of it, stationary in traffic, while texting and doing 50! Incidentally, the police offered him the option of a motorist awareness course, with my daughter's agreement, so as "not to jeopardise his career with the ambulance service".