Their business has not seen any pick up as most of their customers are either working from home or facing a limited budget to keep up with their maintenance schedule.“My workshop has been quiet for the past few days, ” said mechanic Teh Wei Ping, 42.
With more Malaysians working from home in the age of Covid-19 and cutting down on travel, he said that motorists were stretching the schedule to service their car.For example, it is no longer the case of people getting an ordinary engine oil change every 5,000km. “There are multiple cars at some houses and not all of them were driven during the movement control order period, so the batteries had to be replaced or recharged.In Butterworth, tyre shop owner Yong Hee Chern, 33, found that some people were driving around with worn-out tyres as they cannot afford to replace them.
“When tyre tread gets worn out, the tyres lose traction during braking and won’t grip the road well, especially when it rains.