Since I am soon to be a 3rd gen owner, and knowing that probably most 3rd gen owners use a shop for servicing, I will post this here, but I am interseted in what you all have to say actually...

I am an honest licensed mechanic, I work at a very honest shop... and I dont even want any of your buisness... funny huh...

here is my question... I have read soo soo many posts about people who take their car to their mechanic and are told they need some work... some times big... some times a a few hundred bucks....

so what do the owners do... go home and look around and see if what the mechanic is saying is true... then come here and ask all kinds of questions...

this is where this people loose me..... If you dont trust your mechanic about a few hundred dollars worth of work why are you going to him???

I get people all the time looking for second oppinions... and wonder why they got a first oppinion... IF YOU DONT TRUST THEM, STOP GOING TO THEM!!!!

If you have dealt with a place for years, and have got good service... what are you worried about??? do you honestly think after years of good service, the same guy now thinks " HA HA we got this sucker now charge him good" ???

I would love to hear what you guys have to say!!!

Cheers
Bob

 

I don't know what I'd do without my mechanic. We've been through some shady stuff with some people, and dealers always try to screw you. But, the guy that does our work now is great. He's an honest guy, and treats customers right every time.

 

Some people take they're cars in, get it looked at and then leave because they don't know whats wrong, or don't know the troubleshooting steps to determine the problem themselves. Sometimes you can do all the troubleshooting and not figure it out or over-look the problem, take it in and they can figure it out and you have your answer. Just because you go to your mechanic and have him find the problem and not have him do it is just because he did what you needed. Found the problem. You can fix it on your own.

2nd opinions? Why do you go to one doctor, have him take a look at you, requests getting a mri or xray, he tells you what the problem is and his solution, then you go get a 2nd opinion?? Confirmation. Yes, he's a doctor, but doctors can overlook things easily by overanalyzing the problems. Getting a second opinion is just a simple way to make sure what your getting into is the right thing. Do a complicated math problem in school. After doing all your calculations, pluging in formulas you get your answer. Do you just move on to the next question or do you check all your moves and make sure you didn't do it wrong? Just confirming that the result you have it accurate, though thru calculations, it can be right calculation wise, but have the teacher look it over, and you might have missed a step which throws the final calculation off.

Final thing, just because you've gone to one shop and have had great service, doesn't mean they haven't been ripping you off. The work might be great, but if you know squat about cars, trouble shooting or anything, they might have told you that you needed something else and threw it in. The work was great, service great, you walk away satisfied, and wham, they still got you. Even if it was only 50.00, they got you.

People get the stuff checked and then come here for a number of reasons. Great location with very knowledgable people to double check what you've been told. There are a ton of people on here who will know what your issue is, and can tell you that he's right, or wrong. We have people who can also help you figure out if what they quoted you at was too high or reasonable, or they can tell you how to fix it yourself and you can save money.

That implied to "us" as the group on this forum, or are you just stating that you don't try to increase your client base around you by trying to smooth talk people?

 

getting 2nd quotes is, at least i would consider, the NORMAL thing to do. no i dont trust mechanics. the car industry is making it harder and harder for the everyday person to diagnosis their own car. Before you could do a majority of the work need to fix a problem with a simple set of tools, now you need an OBD II and $10,000 worth of equipment to open the damn hood. the majority of the drivers on the road today i bet dont even know how to do something as simple as change the oil. When its easy to throw in a “oh you’ll need a new Muffler bearing, but we recommend upgrading to the Kevlar type, and we have a sale right now, only $49.99”, and “oh ya your blinker fluid is low, that’s an extra $10 plus a $3 environmental fee, cuz god forbid we wouldn't want synthetic blinker fluid to get into the local streams and water ways.” Its too easy to rip people off when they don’t know any different. Even something as simple as changing the oil I stand over the “SAE certified” high school drop outs to make sure they do it right. A couple hundred dollars maybe something you will be willing to throw away on Kevlar muffler bearing and Synthetic blinker fluid, then by all means go for it. I would rather research and find out that I am just getting smoke blow up my and I need to go someone where else.

 

2 weeks ago my girlfriend's truck would not start. She was in a hurry and couldn't wait for me to come down to college and diagnose her f-150's problem. So she has her truck towed to the shop for a tune of 50 bucks. Fair enough. Then the shop calls her back, saying "this particular vehicle's starter requires significantly more labor to replace than all other trucks". It'll be 456 dollars to replace...using a refurbished starter. She calls me back, tells me her truck is at the shop, she doesn't have that much money and that she'll wait for me to come down at the end of the week to look at it. I did and here's what I found: The mech broke the terminal connections on the starter. I shoved the wires on and managed to get the truck started by smashing the solenoid with a hammer, I picked up a starter, and had her truck fixed in 20 minutes and it cost a total of 139 dollars. 139 + 50 dollars an hour would equate to roughly 200 bucks. Figure in and added 100 for a genuine Delco refurb and your still only at 270 dollars counting labor. NOT 500! I don't understand. I just don't. I fixed her truck with a minumum of tools in a lot just beside the stated mechanic's lot. I'm not implying that all mech's are crooked, but they will do anything they can to make a living, and if that means charging a young naive college girl 500 dollars for a starter replacement is ridiculous....not to mention they broke the damn starter terminals clean off the solenoid.

 

My mechanic just retired a couple of days ago. I'm gonna be a questioning PITA until I find a shop I like. I don't know shop A from shop B and none of them have 'honest' stamped on their foreheads, just as none of them have 'I've got the experience, skills and work ethic I need to solve your problem without a lot of extra labor time' either. As a consumer you hear constant stories about shops screwing people over and as a woman you experience it often first-hand in many arenas until they realize you know what they are talking about and can't BS you so easily. When I find another good mechanic I'll stick to him or her, not necessarily to the shop. If I find I don't trust a mechanic I won't go to him a second time, but as I've said, you guys don't come with stamps of approval.

 

Because when I take stuff to a mechanic I am more times than not really pressed for time.

Took my deisel blazer into a mechanic I USED to work for. They replaced the starter, leaving off the rear support bracket. The block broke at the outboard starter hole a month later. Guess who got hosed on that deal?

Having worked as a mechanic, loosing jobs because I wouldn't rip off customers and watching them get hosed is the exact reason I do stuff like: get a second opinion, ask for the repair parts back, have them SHOW ME what is actually wrong.

We were actually told by Sears when I worked there, "You should be able to get 10% for add on sales", from fluid top off, to parts located close to the area we were working in. When your changing tires, there is a lot of pressure to get brakes, shocks and what not. I saw guys take a squirt can and "make" a leak just to sell shocks. Not just at Sears either.

IF you can find an honest, trustworthy competent mechanic, treat him with kit gloves, he is a rare person.

 

That is why I stopped using the dealer for service work.

I do have a local ASE certified shop. They specialize in Toyota, Honda, and Acura. THe owner is a Toyota Tech and the head mechanic. They only use OEM parts and are cheaper than the dealer.

I agree with you Bob. I too don't understand why people continue to take they vehicles to shops they don't like. However, one thing I have realized about a lot of people on YT, is they live in inconvienent areas.

That is, only one dealership, no independent shops and they have little options. You couple that with limited knowledge and YT becomes an excellent place to not only learn about your truck, but help sift the poo from the truth.

 

I have a good mechanic and I trust him but what I don't trust is the billing practices of mechanics. I do my buddy's accounting work so I know what I'm talking about here.

For example, a standard brake job at the dealer has a time approval of 3 hours. If the mechanic (dealer or independent) does the work in one hour, he still charges the 3 hours. At standard rates of $80/hours, you've been charged an extra $160 b/c this is the "allowed time" for this type of work.

I think this is B.S. If you charge an hourly rate, charge me for the hours that it takes. If you are unqualified and it takes you 10 hours, that's a problem. Therefore, make sure you understand what the mechanic is doing, get an estimate ahead of time, and if the estimate is gonna go over, make sure he/she calls you for approval. My two cents.

 

i am all about 2nd and 3rd and 4th opinions (usually found here). if i were anywhere near you Mr.Bob and i had previous dealings with you, you could be damn sure ill be back for you to do any work that i couldn't. my dad has been going to the same mechanic at three diff locations for 15 years and he is very happy and i dont think he has been ripped off (this mech just flushed my trans, something i cant do) but my dad asks me what i think about 1/2 the time and he can afford to pay some one to do it.
if i were a female i would be ever more suspect, heres 1 reson why... PepBoys in santa barbara (1993) installed new struts on my gf rx7, then took it over for new tires and an alignment at a diff shop (trusted). 3 weeks later (~200mi) go back to PB to discuss the uneven wear, NOT OUR FAULT she was told. i go back w/ the alignment specs and receipts and get into an arguement w/ 4 diff mech who blamed her driving habits and this and that. finally talk to the shop manager who lays into me about their expertise and how the other shop is to blame. so... i get the store manger to look and 30 minutes later decides it needs to go on the rack for an inspection. within 5 minutues its diagnosed as having the struts improperly installed (gee really). they will fix for free(damn right you will) but not new tires or realignmnet (oh yes you will). what I ended up with was 2 new tires, realignment, full refund of the strut labor charges, and they fired mechanic and shop manger (i watched , it had got ugly between us). if i had not had any experiance w/cars she would have been srewed for all of this and still had the problem afterwards. there are plenty more stories like this where she tried to help me and got a differnt answer and higher est than i did. i always send her in first now to catch these dirty ba$tard$ /
don't get me started on a stealer

i hope all the good mechanics read this and are not 'getting a 10% fluid top off fee' from the stupid. i agree it is sometimes needed, but if autoshop was required w/ drivers training this would not be such a huge problem.

 

I now only take my car to the mechanic to get a second opinion after my opinion. I've grown not to trust many mechanics and can't even find a shop that I would want to let work on my vehicles regularly. They always will press you to get this or that done when a lot of the stuff they say isn't neccesary at that time. I've has mechanics at Pepboys tell me they couldn't finish a brake job until I buy some new rotors from them. Once I took my old Nissan Sentra to a shop to find out why it would cut off when I'm driving. I told them to call me before they started working on it but they never did. When I got there they charged me $50 for putting a vaccumm hose cap back on that I had knocked off. I don't know if that is standard but there's no way that I'll pay someone that much money again for a 5second job. I'm so glad that I know how to work on cars now.

 

we have a fantastic mechanic, kind of spendy but dead honest. When i first got my runner before i knew very much about cars i took it in because it was running ruff and had sporadic acceleration. I took it in at 8am and i got a call at 3pm to tell me that the problem has not yet been figured out but that he (the shop owner was going to work on it personally now) 4pm i get a call that it is done and i can come get it. I get there and the owner tells me it needed a o2 sensor, a TPS sensor and a few vacuum lines were cracked, he says he is really pissed that it took his guy 7 hours and never found the problem so he charged me for 30min of labor + parts because he figured that is how long the job should have taken. All though they screwed up they were willing to admit it and make it better and they even showed me a bench test of the old tps and o2 sensor and the new one so i could see that the old ones were actually bad.

 

I have a mechanic I have used for all my non-toyota vehicles for 10 years (the Runner does not break down!!). I trust him completely and have never considered a 2nd opinion. If I was new to a mechanic I would get more 2nd opinions.

 

4Runner4Christ... I love the name and link at the bottom of the page... its really nice to see that!!

Here is the secret that a lot of shops miss... honesty... If you do good honest work for a good price... then you will never run out of work....

 

they did a show (20/20 or something) on this exactly. they purposely caused a simple problem like this and took the same car w/ a hidden camera to about 11 shops. 10 found 'other' problems that needed $$$ to fix and some did not even find the problem created! 2 fixed the problem for the standard rate (not really unfair since this is their livelihood) and 1 guy popped the hood found the problem fixed closed the hood and it was free.
i think this was Mr.Bob in disguise.
when they went back w/ photo evidence 3 refunded $$ for the overcharge for services not rendered and 2 still denied any wrong doing.

 

Everyone has their horror stories about mechanics charging extra. As stated above, some people are good at diagnosing a problem, and others aren't. I typically take my vehicles around to get a second opinon.
I can't tell you how many times I've had brakes inspected and been told that my vehicle was so unsafe that they could not legally allow me to leave their shop without signing some stupid form becuase I was that far below standards only to go across the street and find out that there was no problem at all.

Here is my best horror story, and this is the reason that I always get second opinions.

I bought a 95 4 runner, which had a minor, but noticeable oil leak--this was on top of the engine. Occassionally after a long, hard drive, it would smell like burning oil. I cleaned off my engine regularly, and it was always oily and dirty. I checked the oil regularly, but it never was low, and the indicator light never came on. I took it into the local dealership to have it looked at, since I figured they would know Toyotas the best, and have the original parts to fix it. They came back with all sorts of stories, including a rear main seal leak. I could have nearly bought a new engine for what they wanted. So I bought all the parts from them and then found, through a local 4 x 4 club, a guy about an hour away that would take a look at it. When I told him about the rear main seal leak, he nearly dropped a load in his pants.

 

Because mechanics, and their bosses are dishonest people by nature, and want to make as much money as possible.
Duh You're a mechanic you should know that LoL!


Go to a Lexus dealer, Then go to a Toyota dealer, then some blah mechanic, then a mechanic you really trust.



You find out that 3 of the 4 I just listed are untrustable for repair work.

 

This makes two of us. What really burns my hide is you go through all that work to look at it, talk with them and get all the prices and then they go somewhere else cause it was $60 cheaper and they wonder why they have problems with their car!

James

 

couple hundred $ job can still be WAY over bid.

When i had the stearing rod recall done on my truck the dealer wanted $125 labor to install the damn idler arm (not to mention the cost of the stealership arm)

took me 5 min with my impact and pickle fork, just like it would have took him.

I have a mechnic i take my truck to on occation. (that i trust) Last time I had it in i was suffering from major starter contact problems. he wanted $70 to put a new starter on. I would have JUMPED at that price. had he not wanted to put a $250 rebuilt starter in instead of the $14 contact rebuild kit.

I didnt do THAT because i couldnt in right mind ask him to spend 3 hrs fighting a starter out around my headers i put on when he didnt relize that the starter fix (an 1 hr book job) would have taken 3 times that. (i ended up haveing to finnaly fix the contacts about a week later after the starter flat out refused to work, and it took me about 3 hrs includeing takeing a motor mount loose and jacking up the motor.)

I trust his diganostic skills, just not his billing practices.

(but then again im usually not the one asking how to fix stuff hear, usually ANSWERING those questions, im more than a bit handy with my own wrenches)

 

The dealer and small garages are two different things for the most part. You got to remember that whoever you bring your vehicle to has ALOT of bills to pay to keep the business open. People see $70 an hour and think it is too much. If they were to do the exact same thing, open a small garage, then most would know why it is $70 an hour or whatever it is. I don't believe for the most part that manual labor should be cheap nor do I believe it should be more than most. The way I look at it if they price is too high then fix it yourself. Can't? Then you see why garages have to charge certain rates. If you can do it better, faster and quicker then mechanics would be out of a job.

James