Workshop owner, mechanical whizz, champion racing driver and quick with an informed opinion. Suncoast Car Care’s Julian Lock’s just our sort of man.
There’s a disarming honesty to Julian Lock, owner of Suncoast Car Care in Maroochydore, Queensland.
He’s not shy in calling out some of the darker, dodgier sides of the mechanical trade, and that’s pleasingly refreshing. Be it dishonest workshop owners, price gouging mechanics, under-skilled workers or customers paying for jobs that haven’t been done, Julian’s seen it all.
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It makes him worth listening to. We can’t pretend all who work in the mechanical trade are bright beacons of honesty. Julian himself doesn’t profess to being in line for a sainthood, but he does preach integrity.
“My ethos is when you become a mechanic, you’re there to help people,” he says. “You’re in the service industry and helping people should be what floats your boat.”
He’s quick to point out this doesn’t always work in his favour.
“I’m too much of a yes man,” he continues.
“People ring me up in a fluster and I know I’ll end up working on the weekend. A guy rang yesterday as his turbo blew on the ute he needs for work. I’ll probably be putting the new one in on Saturday morning.”
All in a day’s work
Julian took over Suncoast in 2011 having previously been its workshop manager.
“Twelve years later and here we are with an enviable customer base, priding ourselves on fixing vehicles that others often struggle with.”
There’s day-to-day servicing of course – eight to ten cars come through daily – but also exhaust, brakes, clutches, suspension, roadworthies, engine tuning and more.
“In addition, Suncoast’s a Fulcrum Suspensions dealer, fitting 4×4 lift-kits for customers who’ve ordered online. On my visit the work phone’s constantly ringing.
“We’re booking two weeks in advance,” says Julian. “I’m trying to turn some of the less profitable jobs away, but I enjoy fixing stuff that other people can’t. We tend to take on the trickier jobs that maybe other mechanics wouldn’t touch. A lot of franchise mechanical businesses don’t have the skillset to do them.”
All very ethical, but Julian reminds it’s often not the most commercially smart way. “My ‘I can fix that’ attitude has lost me a lot of sleep and made me no money over the years, but my professional pride has remained intact,” he explains.
“You only need something to go mildly wrong and it’s another two hours on the job.”
Racing ready
Before running Suncoast, Julian’s life’s been quite the adventure. He originally served his apprenticeship in the UK as a fitter and turner, got into air cooled Volkswagens and was racing Formula Fords against eventual F1 race winners Damon Hill and David Coulthard. He was three-time Beetle Cup champion, then ran a team of Caterhams and TVR Tuscans, taking the wheel himself whenever possible, and with plenty of success.
Moving to Australia he worked for a variety of V8 Supercar teams, where the biggest positive, he says, was seeing a lot of the country. “It wasn’t much fun,” Julian recalls of his five years on the circuit.
“It really was a closed shop with the old guard stabbing the backs of anyone whom they considered might be a threat to their position.”
Sunny days
Julian worked in an air-cooled VW shop in Brisbane before the Suncoast gig arose.
“People hear my Pommie accent and expect I’m into European cars,” Julian says while showing me his in-restoration Mini Moke.
“I drive a Volkswagen and our courtesy cars are VW, so we’ve got a reputation for Euros. They’re expensive to repair, so people are always looking for someone who can fix them for cheaper.”
Suncoast may typically tackle Audis, Benzes, Skodas and the like, but it’s a real mixed bag on my visit, with a Toyota HiLux on a hoist and a custom Jeep Wrangler between another. There are four hoists in the main workshop and another in the adjoining exhaust shop for the four staff to utilise.
“We had a couple of guys go last year and we’ve not been able to replace them,” Julian says, echoing what many are finding in the trade these days. The workshop’s Sunshine Coast location makes it a desirable place to work, but house prices to rent or buy have shot up, making it harder to attract staff.
Costs have been a big factor since Covid struck. “Parts are the same as the supermarkets; we’ve seen a 20-30 per cent increase in recent years,” Julian says. “Generally, I can get parts the next day out of Sydney or Victoria, helping us offer better value to customers.”
Are his clients increasingly questioning the cost of parts and repairs?
“Not really, as over the years we’ve really learnt to communicate,” Julian explains. “Even if a customer’s been coming for years, you must communicate every step of the way. You’ve got to tell them what the end cost is, and they appreciate that.”
Work in progress
As for the future, Julian’s convinced younger mechanics must embrace the electric future. “Obviously there’s going to be a massive change in the market, but hopefully not during my career,” he says with a smile. “I plan on retiring in 10 years!” But he says there’s an inevitability to upskilling on EVs.
“There’s the opportunity for someone to specialise and find a niche market,” he suggests.
“If you’re a young mechanic that’s where your future is going to be. If you get in early enough, you might command quite a decent salary for that sort of skill.”
Like it or not, less work on oily bits and more on electrical and diagnostic systems looks likely.
“You’d be mad not to see that as the future,” Julian says. “But I don’t think it’s going to come as quickly as they claim. I think fossil fuels will be around for a good 20 or 30 years yet.”
With that said, he looks over his bright orange Mini Moke fresh out of the spray booth. A fun nod to the past from a man very much with his finger on the current and future pulse.