Bruce McIlroy is winding up his niche car service business after more than 30 years of operation.
Among the things he will miss most are his customers, staff and cars.
But he says at age 69, it is time to retire.
His Ashburton-based business, Bruce McIlroy Ltd, was an independent Rolls-Royce and Bentley specialist.
It was for many years the only Bentley service centre in the South Island.
It has now been sold to owners of Auto Restorations and will relocate to Christchurch.
They take over at the end of the month. Five staff were affected and all had all been offered a job.
McIlroy said his crew were the best mechanics around.
‘‘It’s a fairly niche sort of market. We get the best mechanics we can find, then we teach them (our) way,’’ he said.
McIlroy, a qualified mechanic, branched out into his own business 31 years ago.
His foray to being self-employed followed years of working on other people’s cars after hours.
‘‘People started bringing me cars out of hours … and I decided to take the plunge.
‘‘But I wasn’t expecting it to get away on me like this,’’ he said, looking around the workshop.
Sixteen cars, many luxury and exclusive await attention.
‘‘You see why I’m retiring,’’ he said with a smile.
Around the workshop there were a collection of different motors. Among them a 1920 Silver Ghost and many Rolls-Royce.
‘‘I’ve always been interested in Rolls-Royce history and what it stands for,’’ he said.
‘‘They are the best car in the world, the engineering, history, all the development of the models.
‘‘It’s not just leather and woodwork, it’s all the engineering underneath it.’’
Over the years, McIlroy has built strong relationships with his customers.
They were among the things he would miss when he finally closed the door to the workshop.
‘‘We’ve got some very unique customers.’’
Most were understanding of the news, he said.
He has worked on a range of classic, vintage and modern models.
‘‘The oldest Rolls-Royce is 1905, and the newest ones we’ve worked on are 2007.
‘‘The oldest Bentley is 1923, which is about as old as they get, and right up until the modern ones.’’
Sourcing parts was never an issue.
‘‘There’s a network of people in England building parts for old cars.
‘‘And we’ve built parts ourselves when we’ve had to.’’
In retirement McIlroy and wife Philomena plan to spend more time together and travel.
And McIlroy has his own projects to complete; cars to work on and ‘‘things to restore’’.
‘‘I’ve got loads of things to do, heaps of projects,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ll be plenty busy.’’
