Finding Honest Repair Shops

   9 Ask if the repair facility uses brand name parts when repairing your vehicle. Brand name parts are typically engineered to original manufacturer's quality or better and often carry warranties.

   10: Choose an auto care center that provides a customer satisfaction policy. Such policies allow you peace of mind, not to mention saving you money. Once you've selected your auto care center, a good rule of thumb is to give your technician time to do a good job for you.

   When you find a good shop and mechanic, stick with him. You'll probably see an ad in the paper for a cheap brake job or cheap tune-up and will be tempted to go for the savings, but cheap work could very well end up costing you more than your regular mechanic would charge.

   Another important thing to keep in mind is that everyone makes mistakes. You have, I have and so has your mechanic. It happens. A good mechanic will stand behind his work and if he should make a mistake, he will stand by his work and do whatever it takes to correct it. When he does, you know you have a good man under your hood. It's also important to be a good customer. I don't mean good in the sense that you always go to him when you need service and repairs, but by being a reasonable person. Don't bring you car in at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon and expect a tune-up, oil and filter change and four wheel brake job and expect it done because you're leaving on vacation the next day. Yes, it has happened to me, he had the car packed and the wife and kids were all standing around waiting.

   If you had a repair done and two weeks later something else goes wrong, don't go back screaming and hollering. I had a customer with a 1986 Ford Thunderbird that I fixed an electrical problem with his A/C. Three weeks later he came back with the A/C not working and all he did was scream at me, threatened me with a lawsuit and made some disparaging references of my parentage. After I brought his car in and checked it out, I found that his high pressure A/C line had popped and all the Freon leaked out. When I showed it to him and explained that it was not related to the electrical repair I did, he was very apologetic and quite contrite.

   Finding a good mechanic can be a daunting task, but once you find him you'll find that in addition to quality work, he also brings you many miles of trouble free driving and a lot of peace of mind.

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