When I first stepped foot into Auto-Kilta Mikkeli, I noticed some pretty insane changes to the workshop than back home in Slovenia. I really don’t know where to begin because everything is so up to date and maintained.

They had full Würth tool trolleys worth anywhere upwards of 4000 euros, and that’s for every mechanic, full-on drainage systems because their cars are so covered in snow that it starts to melt in the workshop, and an absolutely insane fluid system which covered all the workplaces for every type of oil and every other fluid in the car at the reach of an arm.

Enormous 2-story electronically controlled storage department, which, by the way, was controlled by only one parts manager; you would need at least 5 people in a manual storage department for that many parts. 13 all-time fully operational workplaces, and to bind it all together a stand-alone workshop programme connected to every computer in the building with every vehicle in the lot accounted for and every part properly positioned at the exact right time.

And one of my favourite quirks were the doors which were not electronically controlled but rather by hand, which was not only faster but seriously cheaper to maintain and didn’t use any electricity. The workshops in Slovenia are not even in the same ballpark as these ones. It just really goes to show how many years ahead these places up here are.