Mechanics who repair German and American vehicles are located in a predominantly Sunni area of the capital called Sheikh Omar. Third Street in Sheikh Omar is where most of them are based - but the area is such a Sunni militant hotbed that Shiites dare not go anywhere near it.

Sadiq planned to have a Sunni friend drive it there to have it seen to.

"No other mechanics can fix the problem," said 37-year-old Sadiq, closing the hood of his car. "But the specialists are in the Sheikh Omar area, and I'm too afraid to go there."

Sunni insurgents have expelled non-Sunni from Sheikh Omar - once a mixed Sunni, Shiite, Faili Kurd and Armenian area in the heart of Baghdad.

"Insurgents even seek out Sunni mechanics that repair cars for Iraqi officials," said Mohammed Abdul Qadir, a 43-year-old Sunni mechanic who specializes in Mercedes.

While insurgents wage a sectarian terror campaign in the neighborhood, criminal gangs also intimidate and steal from mechanics and car owners.

Abdul Qadir complains that his business had suffered because militants in the area were scaring off his customers. He says they target Mercedes owners, believing they are government officials because of their expensive cars.

Sectarianism has also seeped into al-Baya, an industrial area dominated by Shiites. The suburb is home to mechanics who specialize in cars such as Opels, one of the most affordable and popular cars in Iraq.

Al-Baya was controlled by Sunni insurgents for a while but now Shiite militias are in control. Sunnis who own such cars won't risk entering the area.

Hatred of Sunnis runs deep here, even among those who worked with them daily.

Mohammed Khalid, a 35-year-old Shiite, lost three of his brothers to Sunni assassins at a time when they ruled the neighborhood. But after the bombing of the Shiite Samarra shrine in February 2006, the Shia of al-Baya rose up and turfed out the Sunni insurgents.

"The Samara bombing was a savior for us, the Shiites," said Khalid in his repair shop. "The insurgents back then were powerful, and no one was confronting them. They were controlling this area, and the [local] Sunnis were supporting them. Now they have to pay the price."

The raging sectarianism is ruining mechanics and many other small businesses by scaring off a substantial proportion of their custom.

Some have given up and joined the exodus of millions of Iraqis to Jordan and Syria. Ziad Saeed, a 40-year-old Sunni, said that his mechanic who had an auto repair shop in Sheikh Omar had relocated to Damascus.

"I know many Iraqi [mechanics] who have moved to Syria," he said, "They fled the hell of Iraq."

Abdullah al-Lami, spokesman for the ministry of labor, described the situation as a "disaster."

"The security situation has severely affected skilled workers in Baghdad. Many of them have been forced to close down their businesses and leave the area," he said.

Al-Lami said that his ministry doesn't have figures of how many businesses have closed down and how many mechanics have been killed or forced to leave their business.

Car owners, meanwhile, regret not being able to have their motors serviced by their old mechanics. Aqeel Muhssin, 29, a Shiite, said his Sunni mechanic, who was not even religious, was killed by Shiite militias. "He didn't even know how to pray," he said.

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Acknowledgement to Institute for War & Peace Reporting www.iwpr.net