Describe someone who is very good at their job

I'd like to talk about a mechanic called Don Ernesto. He is around sixty-five years old and he has a small garage in my neighbourhood in Guadalajara, in Mexico. 'Don' is a word we use for show respect to older men.

His job is repairing cars. He works mostly alone, only with his nephew who helps him sometimes, and he can fix almost everything, old cars, new cars, even motorbikes.

I know he is good at his job because of my father's pick-up truck. Two years ago it started to make a strange noise and we took it to two big garages. Both of them changed some pieces and charged us a lot of money, but the noise didn't stopped. Then a neighbour told us about Don Ernesto. He only listened the engine for maybe one minute, and he found the problem immediately. It was a small part that cost less than ten dollars. Also, every morning there is a queue of cars outside his garage before he even opens.

I think he is so good because he has a lot of experiences, more than forty years. But also he is very honest. If something doesn't need to be repair, he tells you directly, even if he loses money. And he is still curious, he is reading about electric cars since last year. For me that is the reason why everybody trust him.

I'm going to talk about Don Ernesto, a mechanic who runs a tiny garage two streets from my parents' house in Guadalajara. 'Don' is a title of respect in Mexico, and in his case it's well deserved. He's somewhere in his mid-sixties, and he's been fixing cars since he was a teenager.

It's essentially a one-man operation; his nephew gives him a hand on Saturdays, but otherwise it's just him, a radio and a pit in the floor. He'll take on anything, from a 1980s Volkswagen to a brand-new hybrid.

The reason I know he's exceptional is something that happened with my dad's pick-up a couple of years ago. It had developed this awful knocking sound, and two big dealerships had a go at it. Between them they replaced half the suspension, charged us a small fortune, and the noise was still there. A neighbour suggested Don Ernesto, so we drove over, and he simply stood by the bonnet with his eyes closed, listening, for about a minute. Then he went straight to a worn bushing that cost less than ten dollars. Besides that, there's a queue of cars outside his gate every morning before he's even opened up.

As for why he's so good, I'd say it's three things. Obviously there's the experience, nearly fifty years of it. But he's also scrupulously honest: he'll tell you if a repair isn't worth doing, even though it costs him the business. And he's never stopped learning; at the moment he's teaching himself how electric motors work from YouTube, which I find really impressive at his age.

Someone who's outstanding at what he does is Don Ernesto, who runs a cramped little garage a couple of streets from where my parents live in Guadalajara. 'Don' is an honorific we give older men we respect, and nobody who's met him would dream of leaving it off. He's in his mid-sixties and has had grease under his fingernails since he was fourteen.

He's a mechanic, and it's very much a one-man show: a pit, a radio permanently tuned to old boleros, and a nephew who turns up on Saturdays. He'll work on anything, whether it's a battered eighties Beetle or a hybrid fresh out of the showroom.

I've seen the proof first-hand. A couple of years back, my father's pick-up developed a knock that two main dealers failed to fix, despite replacing half the suspension and charging us a fortune for the privilege. Out of desperation we tried Don Ernesto. He stood by the open bonnet with his eyes shut, listened for maybe sixty seconds, and then put his finger straight on a worn-out bushing worth about ten dollars. That kind of thing explains why there's a line of cars outside his gate at seven every morning.

What makes him so good, I think, is a combination of things. The experience is the obvious one, but plenty of people have experience. What sets him apart is that he's almost stubbornly honest, to the point of talking customers out of repairs they don't need, and that his curiosity hasn't faded. He's currently working his way through online courses on electric drivetrains, purely because he refuses to be left behind.