Are there ANY honest auto mechanics, dammit?

The BBQ Pit
1

Okay, maybe there’s one - my regular mechanic. But that’s only because he gets quite a lot of business from my co-workers and knows he would be screwed by word-of-mouth if he jerked any of us around.

Today, I wish to vent about the other sons of bitches that I’ve dealt with. Maybe it’s just me, but I always seem to end up with the jackasses who think they can rip me off because I’m a woman, and of course I must not know a damn thing about cars. :rolleyes:

To the man that I had to leave my car with when it conked out while I was on the road last week: You, sir, are a fucking asshole for taking advantage of someone who wasn’t a regular customer. I left my car with you to have a busted radiator repaired, not for you to also give my car a gratuitous inspection & then lie about the old sticker having been out of date. And what the hell do you mean, that your other mechanic didn’t know why the car was in the shop & that was why he did an inspection? Didn’t it sit there for more than a day with a note that said “overheated - probable radiator problem”?? Did you really think that I didn’t have my emissions receipt to prove when the car was last inspected???

To the two idiot brothers who run the repair shop my father frequents: Gee, when my dad brings his car there, everything gets fixed and tuned until the car is like new. I brought my car to you, and you “fixed” the brakes so badly that I had to stop at a Toyota dealer while on vacation 1500 miles from home; I nearly overheated on the road because after you replaced my water pump, you forgot to clamp the hose back on; and the last time you changed the air filter, you didn’t connect it to the air intake… and you left a damn wrench in there!

To the nimrod who came highly recommended to me (by a male friend): Thanks for connecting the new exhaust system so poorly that it damn near fell off completely just a month after installation. Thanks also for telling me that you’d checked out the odd noise I told you about, and that you’d fixed it for free… I would never have guessed that the car didn’t sound any better afterward.

To the jerk who got my car after the timing belt broke, and it had to be towed in for service: Thanks for holding me hostage to your list of “urgently needed repairs,” started even though I told you NOT to do anything until I was able to call you (because I was unreachable in class for part of the day), and left undone an extra day to “penalize” me for demanding that you only fix what was clearly broke and leave the rest for my regular mechanic.

What the fuck is wrong with these people? I sincerely hope that there is a hell for these morally-bankrupt wastes of natural resources, and that it somehow involves a ratcheting socket wrench (with dull razor blades set perpendicular to socket) that regularly gets cranked around their balls and lubricated with iodine.

::takes a deep breath, exhales, and feels just a little bit better for unloading::

2

I agree with you there. I absolutely HATE taking my car to the mechanics. Being treated like a child. This was a few years ago…I had just turned 20, working full time, and living at home. My car broke down and I took it to one of the repair shops in town. The estimate was $900. to be fixed. I told them to go ahead with the repairs…needing my car for the next day in order to go to my job. I had taken mechanics in high school and knew exactly what they had to fix (fortunetly for me). They responded by telling me that I should really get my mom and dad to pick me up and ask them before I spent that kind of money. They didn’t want to do the work and be left with the car and bill I guess. However, when I told them of my postion ( working full time and living at home - having no other bills to pay, not to mention the fact that I was 20 afterall) They demanded that I go home and talk to my parents and get their permission. I was so furious I called a tow truck and sent my car to another shop, in which was more than happy to repair the car for $700. and would get right on it when the next mechanic was available (approx an hour later) I was able to tell them the EXACT terms that the first car repair shop had told me…so they thought I really must have known what I was talking about! The next day when I picked my car up the mechanic took me in the back and used words that I could understand and explained EVERYTHING that they had done to fix the problem. I was so impressed with the service I wrote a letter the next day to the first car shop and explained my experince with them and with the second car shop…I ended up getting a “free dinner” coupon in the mail from the first car shop in order to keep peace!

The assholes…

3

Do what I do to keep costs down and bullshit to a minimum.

Fix it yourself.

Don’t say that you can’t, or you can’t learn. I’m sure you know something very well, we all do. Why not cars? And I’m sure you’re able to learn.

I’m not being a dick, truly I’m not. Cars are NOT that complicated, and NOT that hard to fix. It only takes a little training, a good eye, and some smart reasoning to fix one yourself, and maybe a Hayne’s or Chilton’s if it’s something major.

Pick up a “How Things Work” book about cars. Read it.

Pick up a car repair book from your library, read through it.

Then pick up a repair book for your own car and read through it.

You’re on your way to saving hundreds, hell, THOUSANDS of dollars on repair and upkeep.

$20 for an oilchange? How about $10 and 20 minutes in your driveway?

$500 for major brake work? How about $10 for a set of pads, $15 for each rotor to be turned or $25 each for new ones, and after a hundred and fifty thousand miles, maybe some new calipers (depending on make and model)? I can change my brake pads and rotors in less than an hour.

Really, working on cars is alot easier than you could imagine. And you’ll save SO much money, and if you have to take it in to get repair elsewhere, you’ll know enough NOT to get screwed.

–Tim

4

Great Idea Homer. The one and only time I have had to take my car to the shop was the one I described. I had to have a valve replaced courtesy of the previous owner! The job was going to take ME forever! Was much easier and quicker to take it to the garage! I would have to agree…doing an oil change is not at all difficult. My friends even bring thier cars over for me to change their oil! I own a few automotive books and have fixed my way out of several roadside breakdowns! I would recommend a basic mechanics course for all drivers…it was great fun and saves you $$ too!

5

I appreciate the suggestion to do as much as possible myself, Homer; I have no doubt it would save big bucks. And I’m fully confident that I’d have the ability to learn (got a mechanical bent from my dad the machinist). But until VERY recently, I was breaking my back working 12-15 hours a day, seven days a week, in order to finish my degree & write proposals so that I’d have a job after I was done, plus help bf with his fledgling consulting business. The last thing I wanted to do at that point was sit down with a car repair manual in the street (I have no driveway) to try to figure out how to replace a radiator, starter, master brake cylinder, exhaust system, water pump, or intake manifold (all major repairs I’ve had done on my cars through the years). I was - and still am - happy to pay a reasonable price for services that leave me with just a little more precious free time.

Besides, what is wrong with expecting people to do an honest job and charge fairly for it?!?

Plus, as you’ll note, two of the people I griped about were people I had to go to for emergency repairs when the car broke down away from home. In both cases, they did stuff they weren’t supposed to do and lied to me about what they were doing and why. That doesn’t have much to do with my not going to a mechanic for regular maintenance - it’s plain bullshit.

The kicker - the asshole who replaced my radiator last week is my boyfriend’s regular mechanic! It’s why I felt comfortable leaving my car there in the first place! I even had bf call them to let them know that it was his girlfriend’s car they were working on, and still they pulled this crap over the inspection. When I ccomplained to bf about it later, he said, “Gee, they’ve always done a good job for me. They even did my inspection for free.” Well, I guess they saw the opportunity to make up for it with me.

I really hate to say stuff like this because I dislike people whining about unfair treatment because they belong to a particular group… but I really do think I got treated this way because they assumed I was just an “ignorant woman.” And that really frosts me.

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There are a few (as you have noted) and when you find them, you treasure them and send them a holiday ham every once in a while. And do the word of mouth thing like crazy.

I also use referrals–like when I needed my brakes fixed, I knew of one very honest repair shop in town, but they didn’t do brakes. I called them up and told them that their reputation was stellar and who would THEY recommend for a brake job? And then when I took my car there, I told them why I chose them.

Obviously this doesn’t help when you’re stuck in some strange place… I guess the best you can do is not let it go. Write a letter to their local BBB, or any other consumer group you can think of. Don’t let them think that just because you drove far away from them that the issue is just dropped. At the very least, you’ll have vented your spleen.

7

I guess mechanics feel they have thr opportunity to rip you off when you don’t have many choices. For example, state vehicle inspections. In many places you have to have one, so what can you do if the mechanic says you have to “fix” something? You pay before hand, so if you take your car to some other shop, you have to pay all over again.

Twice, in two different states, I was told my muffler did not pass. The first time, I took my car over to Midas and had them look at it. “Nope, nothing wrong here” (passing up a great opportunity to make a bundle selling me a muffler–they knew I was in a spot.) Instead, they signed a statement saying that my muffler was fine. I then spoke with the inspection station manager. All of a sudden, my muffler passes inspection. Imagine that.

Second instance, different car. Again, muffler does not pass. It’s a Midas, so I take it to them. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with it, but since it’s under warranty, we’ll just fix you up with a new one.” Okay, new muffler passed inspection. But the inspection station did nick me for $18 wiper blades (again, unnecessary; but I figured I’d let them have their wiper blades before they discovered some “problem” with my brakes).

Once I had a cracked windshield. Went to the autoglass place.

“That’ll be $400, but don’t worry, we’ll file with your insurance.”

“I don’t have windshield coverage. I can’t afford that. Later.”

“Oh, in that case, it’ll only be $100.”

See the scam? And you wonder why your insurance rates are so high.