I am often getting in to slight scrapes with my car. Generally nothing too serious – I tend to run in to bollards, the odd wall and, on more than one occasion, the back of a taxi (weirdly they only ever seem to be the blue ones).

Anyway, I realised  after about six months of being here that I was going to need to find someone very good at paint jobs on cars – whether for big scrapes or small – and bodywork repair…AND who wouldn’t rip me off. H’s car had to have a whole new driver’s door just last week; yup, mea culpa sadly. Very luckily no one else was involved.

After a lot of hunting and asking around, I found Jin Huat & Co which is owned and run by a really rather remarkable lady. She inherited the business from her father and I think it makes all the difference in the world that it’s a garage with a woman at the helm rather than a shouty, know-it-all, car-mad man.

Whether it’s because I am in her workshop with alarming regularity or whether it’s because she’s kind as well as being great fun, it doesn’t really matter. She’s called Alice and I love her. She’s at the very top of my speed dial list.

She does more than repair work though, she’s also an accident negotiator and will speak to people on your behalf should you be unlucky enough to get into a serious situation. VERY handy if you don’t speak Chinese and, frankly, handy even if you do. She doesn’t charge for this, it’s just something she does for her regulars to help them out.

She hates having her picture taken but here she is at lunch yesterday. I took her for dim sum to say thank you for her recent repair job that could have cost me a lot more.

Alice Tan (or ‘Alice Accident’ as she’s known in our household)
Jin Huat & Co, 176 Sin Ming Drive, #05-01 Sin Ming Autocare, Singapore 575721
T: (+65) 6453 2151 or M: (+65) 9129 7299