This week, Inksplott interviews local garage owner, Andrew Moody, about his family business.
Inksplott: Hi Andrew, thank you for being interviewed for inksplott. Can you tell us a bit about the history of your garage, Alexander Autos?
Andrew: Yes, my dad had it about twenty five to thirty years ago and I took it over about ten years ago, just a small family business that does everything from MOTs to servicing, breaks, exhausts, anything to help out anyone I can and do what I can to help the community.
Inksplott: And why Splott?
Andrew: Family. Lived here most of my life, I sort of know everyone around here, everyone knows me. Those are the ties. My dad lived round here when he was a child.
Inksplott: And why should people come to you?
Andrew: Basically a good family run business.
Inksplott: You loaned my friend a pair of jump leads overnight the other week, which was really impressive! Are you a trusting person?
Andrew: Absolutely! If I can help anyone out I will. Absolutely, I’ve always been brought up old school; if you can help someone out it’s swings and roundabouts at the end of the day. I’m only small so I can keep my overheads low and sort of help people out in that respect, you know, our prices are not super expensive. I’d rather have someone come to me for twenty years as a regular than sting them and not have them come to me and then get a bad reputation.
Inksplott: Tell us a secret or something about Splott that we won’t know.
Andrew: Oh! (laughs) OK, um…
Inksplott: Any memories from Splott, anything changed?
Andrew: Yeah, to be honest with you the whole area’s changed in that respect. My dad used to play behind the toilets by here years ago with my uncle, tiddlywinks and things like that! Man!
Inksplott: So there were public toilets here on East Tyndall St?
Andrew: Yeah, just on the island by here, they used to play round by here and there was the lane just down the back there that used to go right down to the bottom of Portmanmoor Road and my dad literally lived round the corner with my uncle…
Inksplott: Before they knocked down the houses?
Andrew: Yes, the lane that you see where the MOT station is there (NG Motors) used to go right the way down to the docks, literally, used to go right the way through. My dad lived on Portmanmoor Road. My nan had a shop there, my aunty had a hairdressers, my nan worked in the chip shop on the corner, it’s just like everybody knew everybody. It has changed a lot in all fairness, it’s not like it used to be, but you’ve just got to go with the times haven’t you and make good of the situation. A lot of new faces around, but to be fair, you’ve just got to make an effort with people.
Inksplott: Are you busy?
Andrew: Very, yeah. Exceptionally!
Inksplott: What’s your speciality?
Andrew: I do a lot of track driving myself, I do a lot of work with Japanese cars, but to be fair anything and everything. If it’s got an engine and it needs fixing then pretty much that’s it; that covers me across the board. I just love cars basically.
Inksplott: Thank you so much for the interview!
Alexander Autos is at the rear of 1 Walker Road, CF24 2EG and is contactable on 029 20 461676