SwimFinsSF

Auto Service

So does ANYONE know how to get estimates on auto work that you can trust when you’re not a mechanic yourself? I always feel like every time I take my car in for work that is more than an oil change I’m getting screwed and it just kills me. To mechanics work on commission?

So a little background I’ve got a Toyota 4-Runner thats got 173k miles on it and has been a trooper for me for 10 years – especially considering I’m reasonably bad at maintenance. A month or so ago my clutch started slipping – gradually at first up until last week it got to the point that I couldn’t climb hills without serious ‘issues’… I waited for perhaps longer than I should because I’m not rolling in cash right now after buying a house and I knew the clutch work would be expensive…

So I took it in… They quoted me bout $800 to fix the clutch awful but about what I expected… Well… they call me in the afternoon and said “hello? Mr. Steinauer? When we got your car up on the rack to do the clutch that there was a great deal of fluid leak all over the underside of the blah blah blah and we need to replace the blah blah blah and the short block blah blah blah and then in the blah blah and to do all this work that needs to be done its going to run you around $6k…”

HOLY FUCK!…

I told him that I was going to need to do some serious thought to figure out if I want to put that much money into a car thats really showing her age as it is. So I told him to finish the clutch work, change the oil, and put the car back together and i’d get back to him..

ARGGGG… So now i’m trying to figure out a) if the guy was being straight with me about the work that needed to be done, b) if the quote of $6k is in the right ballpark and c) even if I do this work will it make the car last long enough to get my money’s worth out of it? will this work make my car live for another year or two or is it time for a new one..

normally I’d say screw it – old bessie has been a trooper and its time to put her out to pasture and get a new pete-mobile… unfortunately, I just bought this house and my instincts tell me the bank is gonna get a good laugh when I walk in and say oh- by the way – mind givin me some MORE money – i want new wheels to go with my new house…

So I guess my meta-question is how does one find a good mechanic that you trust to not screw you over and who can make recommendations on the work that you need to have done NOW cuz your car might explode on the way home versus the work that needs to be done to prevent that explosion down the road but can be paced out with my other monthly payments..

Ughhhh… I HATE being an adult.. it was so much easier when my mom drove me around, payed the bills, and made me dinner when I got hungry… suppose thats the price of growin up though..

anyway… thats my rant for the day… GOD I hate mondays… I’ll try and think happy thoughts and focus on what they pay me for here..