Mobile mechanic Coundon, Coventry
Servicing, repairs and diagnostics on your own driveway
D&E Auto Repairs to You cover Coundon, Coundon Green, Whitmore Park and the avenues either side of Barker Butts Lane. Most Coundon homes have a driveway — which makes almost everything we do possible without your car leaving the house.
The easiest part of Coventry to work in
Coundon was built almost entirely between the wars, when Coventry's motor trade was pulling workers into the city faster than houses could go up. What went up was the classic 1930s suburb — bay-fronted semis, wide avenues, front gardens and, crucially for us, driveways.
That makes Coundon one of the most straightforward areas of Coventry for a mobile mechanic. If a car can sit on its own drive for two or three hours, there is very little we cannot do at the house: servicing, brakes, clutches, suspension, diagnostics, alternators. No garage booking, no waiting room, no arranging a lift home.
Daryl and Kieran have over 30 years in the trade between them and main dealer training behind them. More about us here.
What we do in Coundon
Driveways, garages and the 1930s problem
There is a quirk to Coundon worth mentioning, because it comes up constantly. A great many of the original interwar houses came with a garage — and those garages were sized for an Austin Seven, not a modern estate car. Most are now too narrow to actually get a current vehicle into, or too narrow to open the doors once it is in there.
The practical upshot is that Coundon cars almost always live on the driveway rather than in the garage, which suits us. A driveway gives us room to work safely around the vehicle and somewhere to lay tools out. Where the original drive is only one car wide and there are two cars on it, just let us know when you book — it is usually a case of shuffling one out for a couple of hours.
Where it gets tighter is the newer infill development and the flats along some of the main roads, where parking is allocated or communal. We can often still work, but describe the setup when you call so we know what we are arriving to.
What Coundon cars come to us for
Coundon is a settled area. People stay, and cars stay with them — which shows in the work. A lot of what we do here is the mid-life maintenance that keeps a good car going for another five years: suspension tired from a decade of speed humps, clutches on their second hundred thousand, brake systems overdue a proper fluid change rather than just pads.
We also get called out to a fair number of intermittent electrical faults that another garage has already had a guess at. A fault code tells you which circuit is unhappy, not why. Daryl has completed diagnostic training in oscilloscope use, so instead of replacing a sensor and hoping, we can look at the actual signal the component is producing and find out whether it has failed or whether it is honestly reporting a problem elsewhere. More on our diagnostics service.
What it costs
We do not bill a callout fee on top. Where you already know the job — brakes, a clutch, a cambelt — the quote is a single figure covering parts, labour and the visit itself, and it does not move afterwards.
Where the fault needs identifying first, the diagnostic work carries its own charge, because properly finding a fault is skilled work rather than a preamble to it. Either way, you know the number before anyone picks up a spanner.
Need a mechanic in Coundon?
Call and speak to Daryl or Kieran directly. If you have a driveway we can usually sort the whole job at the house — tell us the registration when you call.
Areas we cover around Coundon
Coundon sits in the middle of our busiest patch. We also work across Radford, Holbrooks, Keresley, Allesley, Whitmore Park and Foleshill, and right across the rest of the city. See our full areas we cover page, or our emergency callout service if you need someone today.
Frequently asked questions
Do you cover Coundon and Whitmore Park?
Yes. Coundon is one of the areas we are called to most often, and we cover Coundon, Coundon Green, Whitmore Park and the surrounding avenues, along with neighbouring Radford, Holbrooks, Keresley and Allesley. If you are anywhere in CV6 you are almost certainly covered.
I have a driveway. Does that mean you can do most jobs at home?
Almost certainly, yes. A driveway is the ideal setup for us because it gives room to work safely around the vehicle and somewhere to lay tools out. Servicing, brakes, clutches, suspension, batteries, alternators and diagnostics can all be done on a driveway. The main exceptions are jobs needing specialist workshop equipment, and we will tell you that before attending rather than after.
My garage is too narrow for my car. Is that a problem?
Not at all, and you are far from alone. Many of Coundon's interwar garages were built for cars a great deal smaller than anything sold today, so most people park on the drive instead. We work on the driveway anyway - we would rarely want to work inside a domestic garage even where the car fits, because there is not enough room around the vehicle.
My driveway only fits one car and we have two. Does that matter?
Just mention it when you book. Usually it is a case of moving one vehicle onto the road for a couple of hours so we have clear space around the car we are working on. It is a very common situation on Coundon's original drives and it has never stopped a job going ahead.
Do you charge extra to come out to Coundon?
No, and no part of Coventry is priced differently to another. If you already know what needs doing, the quote is one figure covering parts, labour and the visit itself. If we need to identify the fault first, that diagnostic work carries its own charge.
How quickly can you get to me in Coundon?
Coundon is a short run for us, so how quickly we reach you depends far more on how booked up the day already is than on the distance. For anything urgent, call rather than message and have your postcode, vehicle registration and a description of the fault ready so we can bring the right parts on the first visit.
Is it worth repairing an older car or should I replace it?
It depends entirely on the car and what is wrong with it, and we will give you an honest answer rather than one that suits us. Plenty of well-kept cars are worth another few years of sensible maintenance. Equally, if we think you are about to spend more than the vehicle is worth, we will say so. If a component has life left in it we will tell you to leave it and check it again next time.
Do you carry out MOTs?
No. An MOT can only legally be carried out at a DVSA-approved test centre, and we work entirely from the van. Where we are useful is beforehand: Kieran held an MOT tester licence for more than 13 years, so a pre-test check from us tends to be blunter than most about what is going to fail and what is merely an advisory.