> They do limit the jobs they're willing to take on, and you'd be amazed at the work you can do with a good set of socket wrenches, a nice hydraulic jack, and maybe one of those ODB2 readers to talk to the computer.

Second this. In Sri Lanka, quite a few of us depend on some mechanics we know to come home to do repairs for us. My car's been saved quite a bit this way (one particular time was when the coolant stopped flowing through the radiator due to a jammed thermo). Quite often the work involved taking out most of the pieces sitting under the hood.

The most difficult part was the reliability of bringing the mechanic down. So it's pretty cool to see this service here. I'd gladly pay for something like it in SL.

Indeed. I've had a gearhead friend work on my cars for the past ten years. He briefly ran a shop he rented, but reverted back to shadetree mechanic work in his spare time when he pursued other career pursuits. I'll usually give him a hand if needed. All you need is a jack a decently stocked toolkit, and some knowhow.