Johor Baru workshops ‘flooded’ with cars

Busy week: Jumadi repairing a car that was affected by the floods at his workshop in Skudai.

JOHOR BARU: It is a busy period for some car workshops here as their outlets are packed with vehicles stranded in floods.

Mechanic Jumadi Ismail, 60, said that he is currently repairing six cars from two villages that were hit by floods in Skudai recently.

“Two of the villages here, Kampung Sepakat and Kampung Laut were flooded recently, damaging the cars parked there.

“While I have received dozens of requests to fix the cars, I am unable to work on all of them and had to reject some due to the lack of manpower, ” said Jumadi at his shop in Skudai.

He said some of those whose cars were affected by the flood were putting repairs on hold due to financial constraints.

“I do not want people to think we are taking advantage of the floods to hike up the service fees.

“I will inform my customers the expected price of the spare parts and service fees before proceeding to fix the car to avoid conflict.

“Some told me they were unable to fix the car at the moment as they have recently lost their jobs and are facing financial constraints, ” he said.

Another mechanic, who only wanted to be known as Tan, 36, said the workshop he is working at is currently fixing four vehicles, including two lorries that were affected by the floods.

“The damage to the vehicles that were stuck while crossing flooded areas were more severe as there is a possibility the engines had been completely damaged, ” he said.

“Meanwhile, vehicles parked in a flood and towed here without the engines being forced to start could still be salvaged.”Also busy are tow truckers who are getting dozens of calls from car owners in flooded areas.

Tow trucker Chin Ting Wee, 42 said he received close to 20 calls a day on the first three days of January.

“I was unable to handle all the cases as I only have two tow trucks and some of the flooded areas were too deep.

“I work with other tow truck drivers where we alert each other when we don’t have enough tow trucks, ” he said.