Originally Posted by
Pantah
I've been in the auto industry for a while now and there's a lot of professional mechanics I know who do the bare minimum work/maintenance to their own vehicles because when they clock out, they've run out of the energy to work on their own stuff and want nothing to do with cars until they're getting paid to do it again the next day. It's not the case with every technician, but I would gander a guess that it's over 75% of them, at least in my experience.
My understanding of the typical mechanic's car is that he knows how to keep it running with a minimum of effort, and doesn't care much about its appearance because he's a mechanic, not a body guy. I'm a bike mechanic first, but I used to do a fair bit of car mechanics and welding, my cars were the ones that ran well and were structurally sound but had patches of primer over undisguised welds, and might have occasional issues like a temperamental starter (hit it or bump it).