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Ah ... after a few weeks of trial-and-error ... I've got it working: the code to persist a vehicle's state, then repawn it exactly as-it-was later. (I know, lots of other mods do this, but I'm new at this). Anyhow., here's how I plan to use it:

V 1.4 (next weekend ETA) will have VEHICLE INSURANCE features something like this ... Insure a vehicle (car or motortype, initially) with the mechanic, and in the event that it gets totalled or lost, the mechanic can provide a shiny new copy of the vehicle as-it-was when insured. On low regard, they'll leave it somewhere for you to go pick up (with a blip, etc); it may be far away, but too bad. On high regard, they'll drive it directly to you (much like other insurance type mods / gtao does). And in that case I can make the vehicle invulnerable during the rendezvous so that it arrives undamaged.

Meanwhile ... Verson 1.3 is locked and loaded for release this weekend. It's got feature requests and other fun new features in there ...

I have it as a backburner thing to look into the viability of making their driving style & underlying api use (if possible) a matter of INI settings. But that's kinda at the boundary of what I consider in-scope for this kind of mod, ya know? Ha. Time wil tell.

For now, I am wrapping up dev of 1.3 - mostly quality of life and immersion adds, fwiw -- for release this weekend. Then I'm gonna really focus on what can be done about this SHVDN vs. Enhanced situation, so I can perhaps. improve my mod to either straddle both SHVDN3 and SHVDNE, pick one, or remove Enhanced compatibility -- that last move is one I don't want to make, of course.

@Starfox1993 Right. Or, if using those hacks options (in tbe hacks menu, btw), you can force the mechanic to warp directly ahead of your current location .Likewise for warping directly away.

Obviously I use the API that relies on traffic nodes for the sake of verisimiitude and reliability in their driving w.r.t the path they take -- of course, within the limits of what the game's underlying NPC driving logic can provide, ha.

@Starfox1993 Ha, nice :)

The only caveat to calling the mechanic whilst in traffic is if the engine-side of your vehicle is blocked -- if the place where they need to "open the hood" and work from is obstructed, the mod will say so (in a subtitle message) and prevent the visit to begin with.

And if the engine area becomes obstructed while they're on the way, the mod will again warn so, and give the player a handful of seconds to rectify the problem (if they can). If it is unblocked, the repair proceeeds. If it remains blocked, the visit is interupted, and the mecanic leaves (then charges for for the hassle afterward).

Which side of the vehicle has to remain clear depends on where the engine is, and what sort of hood (if any) it has. For front-engine, normal-hinge vehicles (most cases), it is in front of the vehicle. For rear-engine, normal hinge, it is directly to the rear of the vehicle. If the hood is on a reverse-hinge in either case (see a tow truck, for example), then the mechanic has to reach the front-left or rear-left side, instead. The obstruction logic follows all these rules, as well.

And, yeah, while on the main map, the mechanic will arrive if you call from a place of dense traffic. But be ready to either wait for them to get through it, or the show of them wedging through (and sometimes under) other vehicles to get to your location, haha.

If you the work site is in the middle of a multi-lane highway, yes, the mechanic will pull up, stop in the middle of it, and walk to your vehicle through traffic. I purposely left it like this for the amusement / emergent factor of it, ha.

@Starfox1993 Ha, yeah. That message is one of the possibilities the mechanic may send when the mod can't find a good location, as in any "nearest street location" to put them ( again, according to the normal map data you find on the main map).

FWIW, such messages are all stored in the INI. The options for this case (by default) are:
TxtMsg_NoVisitForLocale0 = How am I supposed to get there?
TxtMsg_NoVisitForLocale1 = My GPS is good, but not that good.
TxtMsg_NoVisitForLocale2 = Sorry, that's not somewhere I can get to.
TxtMsg_NoVisitForLocale3 = Call back from somewhere I can find.
TxtMsg_NoVisitForLocale4 = I can't find a good route there, sorry.

(all of that tested in 1.2.2, btw)

@Starfox1993 I just gave it a quick test in North Yankon again. In general, the mechanic will say they can't find a way there, there is no road nearby, etc -- preventing the repair visit. (Again, this is because I rely on -- and check for -- the game's map-bound nav data, much of which seeems missing in NY?).

But, if you use either the "Warp To Arrive" or "Skip Near Road Check" -- the latter of which will default to warping when it can't find any "nearest street location" according to the nav data) -- the mechanic will get there via warp (in the worst fallbackway: a default distance dead-ahead of your location) and perform a repir, but then unless "Warp to Depart" is also selected, you'll see the mechanic has a hard time navigating their way away.

I'd have to see what I can do about this; I've added it to the back-burner, but for now I need to focus on hedging my mod against Enhanced b.s., ha.