Dear Editor:

On May 7, my husband and I were returning home from Vancouver. We stopped in Merritt at the Tim Horton's for coffee. When we returned to our car, it would not start. The motor would turn over but would not catch and start. We tried everything we could think of to restart the car to no avail. I called BCAA and had them come and tow my car to the nearest garage, which happened to be Canadian Tire right next door. When we told the garage person what was happening, he said it sounded like a fuel pump. He said that he was able to change it for us but had to get permission from the head mechanic, who was on his regular day off. This was at approximately 12:30 p.m. He got the permission and proceeded to install a new fuel pump. Unfortunately, this was not the problem and the car still would not start. He then changed the fuel filter, and, still, no results. Finally, the owner of the store called in the mechanic, Mr. Kirk Turley, and he tried to diagnose the problem. By this time, I figured I would have had to mortgage the house to pay for the repair bill. When the car was finally put on the diagnostic computer, it showed that there was a problem with some electrical system. It was determined that it was the ignition wiring harness that was not allowing the ignition to operate as it was supposed to. The owner of Canadian Tire, Mr. Dave Kopacz, took the time to go and get the part needed, and my car was finally fixed at 6:30 p.m. When Mr. Kopacz came and talked to me about the bill, he said that he did not feel right about charging me for the fuel pump, filter, or the labour required to install these items and would only charge me for the wiring harness, diagnostic check, and the labour to install the wiring harness. I was very pleased and thought that Merritt was a very lucky city to have such a conscientious and considerate business owner.

Lore Heer
Armstrong, B.C.