Mechanic lifts lid on car maintenance for women

Unravelling the mechanical mysteries about what goes on underneath the bonnet, and being confident and independent with car maintenance, was the aim of a Girls ‘N’ Gasoline workshop over the weekend. 

A group of Dunedin women got a crash course in the details of car maintenance on Sunday at South Dunedin tyre store Treads.

The woman behind the workshops is Melissa Hannan.

She's been a qualified mechanic for the last 18 years and said she noticed a gap in the market regarding car know-how.

"I started to realise that there's just nothing out there for women or anybody for that matter to learn the basics of maintaining their vehicle and I help out friends and family all the time.”

Hailing from Christchurch, Hannan has been running the vehicle workshops around the country since November last year, travelling to the likes of Auckland and Timaru.

She acknowledged the difficulty she found starting out in the mechanic industry, and said even now, there was a stigma around women and cars.

“It still is [hard] to this day. There are people that don’t believe you’re a mechanic, or they ring up and ask for parts or people will ask to speak to a mechanic.

"It’s definitely changed to what it used to be like, but it’s still a very male-dominated industry."

The course teaches attendees 'the 10 basics' of maintaining a vehicle, which includes checking the oil and water, monitoring power steering and brake fluids, checking tyre pressures and changing a tyre.   

Hannan said she's been blown away by the response from women taking the course.

"The feedback has been really amazing. Like women absolutely love coming to the classes.

"I get messages straight after the class from people going out and checking their oil, checking their water and just having that confidence to look under the bonnet."

Hannan said she is open to the possibility of expanding the workshops to also help out the boys, along with more specialised one-on-one sessions in the future.

She believes the workshop is more than simply learning car basics for her pupils.

She wants to give women a platform to be comfortable when dealing with mechanics, and to help change the narrative around ladies in the automotive industry.

“So many people have just never looked under the bonnet of their own vehicle. So giving the ladies the confidence to do that, they empower me and I empower them.

"It is just an amazing little community that I’m building, and I can’t wait to see where it all goes from here."

- By Jack Ward, made with the support of NZ On Air