I’m lucky that I found an honest mechanic (and I’ve never gotten crap from the dealers, either). I went there first some years ago. He told me the problem was that the belt was loose. I asked how much he charged to tighten it. He said, “No charge.” Note that it was the first time I used him and had absolutely no relationship. (It did turn out later that there was something broken that he missed, but since I hadn’t paid anything, I had nothing to complain about). Once the car needed a new sensor for the carburetor (it was an old car), but the dealer only sold the entire carburetor. So he disconnected the sensor and it ran fine for years.
Then we bought our two Saturns and we kept going to the dealer for years. They were also very honest; once they put in an oxygen sensor that I hadn’t asked for and which the didn’t ask me to approve. Even though it was only a couple of bucks, they were extremely apologetic and bothered by the fact they forgot to ask first.
Eventually, I started having problems with my older Saturn. In one case, the pipe to the gas tank started leaking. I was driving to the dealership when I realized that it might be cheaper to go to the mechanic. I called him from the parking lot of the dealer to see if he did the work. The guy who had owned the place had retired, but his son was in charge. He was able to do the work, and I started going to him again (his location was a ten minute walk from my house, so it was far more convenient).
I started going there regularly. Once, there was a hole in the exhaust pipe. In order to replace it, I needed to buy the entire assembly, including a catalytic converter to the tune of $1000. He told me that he knew of a place that would cut and replace just the pipe for $100. He didn’t even charge me for the diagnosis. I started going there regularly.
Once, when I went for service, I said to change the air filter. When I got it back, he said the filter was perfectly fine, so there wasn’t any reason to change it.
Just last month, I brought it in to be inspected and get an oil change. They did the oil change first, then discovered the frame was rusted and that it would not pass inspection without $2000 of work. He offered to check out any used car I might bring buy. He had to charge me for the oil change and was a bit apologetic that he didn’t do the inspection before changing the oil. But when a guy saves you $900, you cut him some slack. Since that trade-in – a 20-year-old Saturn – was the only thing I could offer the dealer when I bought my new car, I probably got back the cost of the oil change, since they would have seen the oil inside was clean.
I wrote him up on Car Talk and recommend him to anyone who asks. I’ll probably have some of my basic service done at the dealer for the first year or two, but will still be bringing my older Saturn in to him, and will bring my new car to him eventually.