Alicia Holland was always curious about cars, passing up Barbie dolls for toy trucks when she was a child. Her father spent afternoons tinkering with the family’s station wagon – a tan-coloured Volkswagen with floral curtains. He died when Alicia was 12 years old, so when she reached driving age, there was no one to show her how to change a tyre, fix a windscreen wiper or check for oil.
Years later, while heavily pregnant, Holland’s car broke down on a busy highway. It was an “embarrassingly” simple fix, she says. The petrol tank had run dry, yet she waited, flustered and sweating, for roadside assistance to refill it.
