JustAuto is a workshop just off the N2 in Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan. Justin runs it, he does the diagnosing, the quoting and the spanner work himself. That's deliberate, not a limitation: it's the reason you get the same answer twice and deal with the same person from the first phone call to the keys back in your hand.

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The hours are the other deliberate part. Most garages are shut by the time you finish work, which means booking a service is a day off you can't spare. So this one opens in the evenings and on Saturdays because a car is easiest to leave in when you're not depending on it to get you somewhere.

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The fault gets found before it's quoted. The price gets agreed before the work starts. And if a job isn't worth doing on a car of that age, you'll be told that too.

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The standard doesn't move with the size of the job. An oil change and an engine rebuild get the right parts and the right torque figures either way. We're not the cheapest and we don't pretend to be what you get instead is a straight account of what's wrong with the car and what it costs to put right.

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All makes and models come through the door, from a runaround that needs an NCT check to something worth keeping that needs an engine rebuild. Cars travel in from Carrickmacross, Castleblayney, Kingscourt, Bailieborough and across the Cavan–Monaghan border  usually because someone told them to.