But while fuel injection is a boon to all but shade-tree mechanics, the automatic transmission is not quite as clear a gain.

Most resourceful are the shade-tree mechanics who create parts.

But whoever put this system together for you was no shade-tree mechanic, that's for sure.

He was a fix-it guy, sort of a shade-tree mechanic.

The proprietary codes for each model can often yield more sophisticated information, but some of it may be more than the average shade-tree mechanic needs.

He was a shade-tree mechanic, a tinkerer, who proceeded one inspiration at a time.

The gap is likely to grow as cars become ever more like road-going computers - difficult, if not impossible, for shade-tree mechanics to work on.

My dad was a shade-tree mechanic.

And it will carry Volkswagen's reliable engine, the modern kind that seldom breaks, but is hard for shade-tree mechanics to repair.

A very different breed than the "shade-tree" mechanics of the olden days .