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Neil Corcoran is the owner/operator of Neil’s Auto Repair & Sales in Kingston Center and is an ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician with L1 Certification / Mass. State Emissions Repair Technician. Plus he’s extremely handsome.

The Poop on Pollution -- Part II
(September 16, 2004) I’m not listening to environmentalists anymore. Or politicians. Or actors. Or rock stars for the environment. Why? A number of reasons. One, they seem to be Chicken Littles, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Many are self-righteous blowhards and many others are hypocrites...  

The Poop on Pollution
(June 19, 2004) This month we're going to take a look at the new and improved emissions and safety test for vehicles in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I've written two previous columns on this subject. They can be found in the The Neil Mobile Archives.  

Summer Heat & Your A/C
(June 19, 2004) As I write this, it’s cold, raining, and raw, but it won’t be long until it’s hazy, hot, and humid and the global warming crowd predicting dire straits. Oh, well.  

Question & Answer Time
(February 20, 2004) As I write this, the New England Patriots are, once again, Super Bowl Champions. Congratulations on a great season!! In other good news, the recent cold snap has ended. But has anyone noticed that it corresponded with all the hot air spewed forth by the presidential candidates? Aha!! That's where global warming comes from, not the burning of fossil fuels.   

Remembering Ben MacFarlane
(January 15, 2004) Hope everyone had a great holiday season. I wish everyone health and happiness for the coming year. I thought I would dedicate my column this month to a Kingston legend who recently passed away, Ben MacFarlane.

Regular folks make a difference...
(June 20, 2003) This month we'll visit a couple of people I deal with all the time. Bill Greenlaw, the proprietor of the Tedeschi convenience store in Kingston Center, and fellow mechanic and shop owner Mike Peddell, owner of Raceway Auto & Truck Repair on Pottle Street. Bill I see every morning for the paper and coffee. Mike? When I send him work I can't handle. Why the story about these two? Charity. How regular folks try to make a difference in the world.

You Can't Get There from Here...
(May 16, 2003) On a recent Saturday, I left my shop in the center of town to get lunch. I took a right out of the parking lot onto Summer Street on my way to the Charlie Horse. It was a clear but windy day, the first non-rainy Saturday in probably five weeks, but it took me 23 minutes

Is Testing a Lot of Hot Air?
(March 20, 2003) The scam, also called the Mass. Emission Inspection Program. A little background here. Back in 1990 Congress passed the Clean Air Act. Its purpose was to reduce airborne pollutants, the dreaded greenhouse gases, as it were. It’s a long-winded, drawn-out document hailed by environmentalists, scientists, and health care professionals as a panacea to all ills inflicted on this planet earth. 

Pseudoenvironmentalist Rants
(February 13, 2003) This month I’m going to rant. Say it ain’t so. Yes, it is. Why? I’ve been repairing and selling automobiles for over 20 years in Kingston. In that time I’ve seen a lot of changes, most government mandated such as tighter emission controls and safety issues such as the air bag.

Silver Lake Shop Talk
(January 16, 2003)  This month we're going to spotlight education at Silver Lake Regional High School here in Kingston, of which my wife is an esteemed graduate of those hallowed halls. As this is an automotive column, we're going to be looking at the automobile vocational department at Silver Lake. 

Cold Weather Car Care
(October 2002) The leaves are late falling this year, but don’t be fooled. Now is the time to prepare your car for the upcoming winter. As a matter of fact, the Car Care Council has, in fact, deemed October "Car Care Month.” 

Singin’ the Fender Bender Blues
(September 2002) Hello, fellow townsfolk, another summer has come and gone. The kids are back in school and its back to business.

When It's Hot, You're Not
(June 2002) As I write this column, it's May and unseasonably cool. You'll be reading this, however, in June. What's this got to do with A/C systems, you ask. Well, now is the time to have the system checked and serviced if need be.

A Quick Spin Around Anti-Lock Breaks
(April 2002) Hey there, Hi there, Ho there. I'm back to regale you once again, folks. I know you must be in suspense wondering what I could be writing about this month. Well, put your anxiety to rest and wait no more...

Mission Emission - Part II
(March 2002) Fellow Kingstonians, last month’s column elicited a couple of responses. First from a fellow technician, "Hey, that column really was a Cliff’s Notes version! You didn’t mention anything about air flow meters, map sensors, throttle position sensors, or bi-directional controls.

Mission Emission - Part I
(February 2002) I want to give you a brief history of how automobile emissions have evolved over the years to the very efficient, clean burning high-tech machines that cars are today.

Neil’s Answer for the Inspection Blues
(January 2002) OK. So you are upset your car didn’t pass the emissions part of the inspection program, but the car to them seems to run fine. So let us look at the inspection program in  Massachusetts.