I entirely agree with you about too many mechanics in the field that aren’t very good, too inexperienced, lazy, dishonest, etc.
And I like your approach of simply avoiding those that aren’t up to the task
What I do NOT appreciate is guys like in the other discussion . . . who have decided that ALL mechanics and the entire profession is worthless and that he could do anything and everything better, faster and cheaper
To be honest, many/most business owners wouldn’t want to deal with someone with that kind of attitude, who comes in guns blazing and foaming at the mouth
I stopped taking that individual seriously when he used the term “stealer”. Just because a pig is wallowing in his own slop doesn’t mean I have to too.
I’m sure I’m not alone in my experience that the “inspectors” that those extended warranty companies send out are often incompetent contract workers who understand little or nothing about the systems they are inspecting. I recall one incident where I had to explain to one how the AWD transfer case he was inspecting was designed to operate.
It is offensive. And anyone using that term does nothing more than demean an entire industry and makes himself look worse for doing it. Can’t sling cr*p without getting it all over yourself too.
When we found our longtime independent shop they were working out of 1/3 of the building but over the years they’ve asked their regulars at least “what’s the dealer doing for you that we aren’t?” They’re located in a commercial park wiht a L shaped steel clad building that now they need all of it. Nex tDoor and Facebook are part of their marketing plan. We found them in the yellow pages 30yrs ago. Dad’s used the local Honda dealer to service his CRV’s since 2007 and has had good service from them.
Couple repair shops use the same Website software that includes a way to show what the shop has worked on recently (yr/make/model) and at least a general summary of what the car was in for. German Specialist and a We service Anything shop both have the feature.
Honesty is the key quality I always looked for from an auto repair shop. It’s ok by me if a shop makes a mistake and tells me what happened immediately, car repair after all is very complex and I don’t expect perfection all the time; but — and this is part where car repairer often would fail me – it is not ok if they attempt to hide their mistakes. I’d have been a happy camper for the past 40 years always taking my cars to the shop for all repairs and much of the maintenance, if only I’d been able to find one that would simply admit when they made a mistake. Or they didn’t know.