Top gear for Wellington

Dave Jensen’s been dubbed a “boy racer”– and it’s not a term the 28-year-old owner-operator of Wellington Automotive Gearbox Specialists (WAGS) takes exception to. It’s his love of cars, along with his passion for repairing them, which has helped make his business such a success.

After five years under the tutelage of local gearbox expert Miles Udy, Dave – with his partner Charlyene – took over the business in 2011, continuing Miles’ legacy as the region’s go-to guy for complex gearbox and diff repairs, as well as offering regular servicing, WoFs, maintenance and their own line of gear kits.

Judging by the amount of work on, it’s fair to say Dave’s making a very good fist of it.

“The plan is to eventually take on more staff, and move into a bigger workshop,” says Dave, who’s working flat-out.

“To get there, I’m told it’s about me stepping back and working on the business, not in the business – at the minute, it’s just too busy for me to get out.”

A big factor in WAGS’ success comes from specialising in performance cars, which accounts for 50 percent of Dave’s work.

“We’re pretty passionate about our motorsport here – we’ll do anything from engine conversions, manual conversions to complete competition car set-ups,” says Dave, who competes in drift and sprint events (when he can find a weekend free to hit the tarmac, or even work on his Nissan Silvia S13).

Dave says whether it’s a rally driver bringing his Evo in for fine-tuning before an event, or a customer off the street dropping in for a service, it’s always the same – “they just want it done properly the first time”, which is why he places a heavy emphasis on genuine parts.

“Genuine parts play a big role in our operation. There’s no hassle with them; we don’t have time to muck around,” says Dave, who stocks a lot of genuine parts onsite – plus an estimated 400 gearboxes – in order to quickly turn jobs around.

“The guys at Hutt City Mitsubishi are fantastic, too – I can just call them up and list off a bunch of serial numbers, and they’ll have them to us quick-smart.”

“For our ‘off-the-street’ customers, we recommend genuine over aftermarket parts – we find these days they’re competitively priced.

“Some parts, such as seals and bearings, we’ll go genuine no matter what, as aftermarket parts just don’t fit.”

With quality parts, first-class workmanship and a passionate team, Dave continues to protect and build on WAGS’ proud reputation.