New generation.

[bigstraight6]

My youngest hates EV’s, rocks an old Polo diesel daily and a ‘68 Mercury Cougar for weekend’s and high days and enjoys doing jobs on my old stuff like this fuel pump rebuild on my ‘64 Zodiac last weekend, thankfully all is not lost just yet! Any other keen on the old stuff offspring?

[Popsicle]

Ah thats so good to see, your positive influence has obviously rubbed off onto him.

We've 4 kids, eldest two are girls, no real interest in fixing cars but both do drive, youngest 2 are boys and the eldest of the two is just starting to learn to drive and has declared that he wants an old Defender and is more than happy to learn how to keep it on the road, time will tell. I've told him to start saving as the bank of mum and dad will buy him a cheap and cheerful first car like we did for the girls but not a Defender.

To be fair to the girls they do show some interest when I work on their cars, I think its more being polite/keeping cups of tea coming and to report back to Mrs P how much swearing I'm doing than anything else. At least they hang around though and spend some time with me, it does feel nice when they say 'what we gonna do when your gone dad'.

[vaughant]

My boy has literally zero interest in such things but an adult apprentice at work told me his youngest brother has just turned 16 and has gone straight to a garage to start work like his old man, has zero interest in anything else. 

I think it's a hard industry to make a good living from if you work for someone else and hence hemorrhages staff to other industries that offer better pay/conditions. 

I'm hoping that changes over time and mechanics get recognised for the complex machine a car is. 

Hopefully the EV stuff will push the wages up.