Comments on: My Dealership is Shutting Down!

By: KC

KC — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Oh, and Doug, I’m with you on the Honda/Toyota thing (as I own an Acura and a Toyota), but JLP has a Buick and that’s the one domestic brand I will swear by. My mother has driven Buicks since 1973, and my grandmother has driven them since the 50s (she’s 90 and still drives a Buick). Those cars are great. They take the miles and require minimum work. Of the 12 or so Buicks I’ve known my mother and grandmother to own, only 1 was a lemon, a 1981 Century. Other than that one car the rest have take up to 120k+ miles with few repairs.

JLP would do good to keep this Buick as long as its reliable and serves his family well. He can then buy another Buick or get a good Honda/Toyota (and I’ll add Nissan). Unfortunately for me my mechanic (as discussed above) doesn’t work on Buicks or else I might be tempted to get a Lacrosse.

By: KC

KC — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:51:21 +0000

Ask other Buick (or GM) owners where they service their cars – especially people with older models. This is how I found a great mechanic. Particularily listen to single women (or women whose husband’s know nothing about cars, such as myself) if they trust a mechanic, he’s good as gold. I have a mechanic now whom I will consult with before I buy a car. In other words, I’ll only buy the models he works on. When my husband’s car was totaled last year I gave him a list of cars he could buy that Dallas (our mechanic) works on. I told my husband to buy one of these cars and if he didn’t he was on his own as far as repairs went. My husband is no dummy, he bought a car off that list – he doesn’t want to go shopping for a mechanic either.

When I bought my Acura a few years ago I had it serviced a few times at the dealer – maily cause there was warranty work involved. They always found extra things wrong with it. I would take my car over to my mechanic, Dallas, and he’d check it out and say “looks good, I don’t know what Acura saw wrong with it.” In other words – I’m scared to go to the dealer, not my mechanic. All those shiny floors, clean waiting areas, and free food at the dealer – who do you think pays for that?

By: Doug

Doug — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:24:14 +0000

Or get a Honda/Toyota etc and not have to bring your car in as often.

By: mwaters

mwaters — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:05:08 +0000

hahaha…oh, you were serious. My nearest dealership is 170 miles away. Good luck with your garage search. Really like your blog.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:56:18 +0000

I heard an NPR story recently about repairpal.com It sounded like great idea. Wondering what a repair should really cost is the biggest concern for me. Angie’s List is another resource, but a lack adequate reviews for your area can still be a problem.

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:36:50 +0000

Car Talk has a good mechanic shop rating site. We found a local shop that specializes in Toyotas and Hondas there that charges about half the dealer price for various jobs.

http://www.cartalk.com/content/mechx/find.html

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:22:44 +0000

JLP

Things must be very different where you live. Auto dealers around us are all crooks that use FUD to squeeze money out of you they can’t make in selling cars. We’ve had negative experiences with 4 local dealers each a different brand.

I find that service departments in dealers play off of the fear that a local guy doing the work will void the warranty (untrue). Their parts are expensive (brand name oil filters?) when off the shelf ones are of the same quality. We’ve had experiences in being overcharged for labor i.e. 2 hours labor for 20 minutes work and one estimate of $650 for a job that our local garage quoted $500. A friend of mine in the business also knows first-hand that at dealers the experienced mechanics don’t get a lot of hours because of their pay and you’re likely to have some kid working on your car.

I do take our car to the dealer every so often for a cheap service (i.e. oil change) to see if there are any service bulletins on the car since the one thing I’ve found that the local guy can’t do is update the software on the car’s computer.

That said, I do admit there are shady local guys too, and it’s hard to find a good one on your own. Word of mouth always worked for us, so it’s good to know people that have lived in the area a while, but doing that investigating really paid off for us.

$.02

By: J:M

J:M — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:45:58 +0000

I totally understand what you’re dealing with. Situations like these is a perfect example of why I want websites like Yelp.com to flourish. Sites like those can be used to find decent and honest business reviews, and in your case garages. I used them to find the garage I currently use but I have to admit that the site still needs more people to review auto shops, body shops, etc. Especially when trying to be financially savvy, finding places that won’t screw you out of your hard earned dollar is very important.