Say you felt a vibration, heard a noise, or saw a leak, what do you do next? Do you choose?
1. The shop able to look at your car the soonest.
2. The shop accepting your extended warranty.
3. The shop advertising on a billboard, direct mail, in the newspaper, online, TV, or yellow pages book.
4. The shop allowing you to provide your own parts.
5. The shop at the dealership of your car’s manufacturer.
6. The shop belonging to the biggest name chain (Car-X, Firestone, Goodyear, Midas, Pep Boys, Precision Tune, etc.)
7. The shop closest to your home or work.
8. The shop employing ASE Certified technicians
9. The shop focused on cars like yours (Asian import, European import, etc.)
10. The shop having the most convenient hours: open early, late, or weekends.
11. The shop installing aftermarket upgrades: body kits, entertainment electronics, interior, navigation systems, performance, sound system, wheels, window tinting, etc.
12. The shop new in town.
13. The shop offering financing of repairs or accepting credit cards.
14. The shop promising the longest warranty.
15. The shop providing bumper to bumper service.
16. The shop quoting the lowest price and/or best coupon offer.
17. The shop rated highest or positively reviewed on websites.
18. The shop recommended by family, friends, and/or neighbors.
19. The shop specializing in whatever problem you are experiencing: brakes, exhaust, oil change, transmission, tune-up…
20. The shop sponsoring bowling, softball, or racing teams; or youth sports.
21. The shop willing to use “junkyard” or “salvage” parts.
22. The shop with the best customer comforts: A/C, clean restrooms, comfortable furniture, community involvement, free coffee, %26quot;green%26quot; policies, loaner or rental car, magazines, neatly organized shop, shuttle service, TV, waiting room, wireless internet, vending machines, etc.
23. The shop you have been going to for years.
24. To contact a %26quot;back-yard%26quot; or %26quot;shade tree%26quot; mechanic willing to the work at a discount.
25. To fix it yourself or with the help of family, friend, or neighbor.
26. To sell or “trade-in” at the first sign of trouble.
Feel free to choose as many as apply. Please add comments or detail explaining your reason for selecting each option or add your own criteria.How do you decide when and where to get your car serviced?If you have been going to a shop for years and they've treated you well, then go there. Otherwise look for a good mechanic through websites that rate them and friend recommendations. Do not ever take your own parts to the mechanic. Let him install his own. That way if something goes wrong, whether it's the parts or the labor, it's his problem to fix it. If you provide the parts and something goes wrong, he can blame the parts you provided and not do anything.How do you decide when and where to get your car serviced?first 17or18 then 9. ask around look for somebody who's mechanic is well experienced and has a strong buisiness, has a good memory and is borderline OCD. stay away from chains, mexicans, dirty back alley shops, and anyone with 2 or more bad reviews in a year.How do you decide when and where to get your car serviced?Save your self the trouble take it to the dealership, some people and companies will offer lower prices, but most rance from 80-90/hr of labor, and you can bring your own parts to a dealership, but it never hurst just to get a friend to give it a look, and maybe guide you on the right direction.You cannot go wrong, and try your owners manual maybe it might be something you can do your self, most imporant follow the owners manual suggested servicedates %26amp; the proper action for each case. Preventive maintenance is all it takes, happy driving hope this helps.How do you decide when and where to get your car serviced?CHB You have many well thought out legitimate concerns that have crossed the minds of many at one time or another.
I would hesitate to advise any person to have dedicated mechanical items and specialized services on a relatively new car no other place than a new car dealer. That goes for regular oil changes also.
Be careful of low dollar suspension, brake and tire care. Read tire reviews on tirerack.com. Make decisions about tires for your average year round driving.
It's not often who fixes your car but the quality of parts.
autopartswarehouse.com, partstrain.com and rock auto.com have quality parts.
Stay away from chain brake shops. They often corner you into brake rotor replacement and hand over inexpensive Chinese junk parts and charge exorbitantly. They gladly have their fat hand out for top dollar prices for off-shore parts when you could have had American or Canadian items.
As a rule private independent mechanics have more on the ball than do chain stores also.
Who gives a crap about restrooms, internet and magazines. I'd rather have more knowledgeable people working on my car and *my choice of parts.
Many new car dealerships allow you to carry in your own specific parts as long as they're not box store junk off-shore items.
Cary in your favorite brand engine oil at any new car dealership. They'll install it for you and the work will be done by trained certified mechanics.How do you decide when and where to get your car serviced?if its minor maintence then i just go to the chain shops like firestone, wal-mart or whatever, if its major i go ASE certified and ones with no BBI complaints, ask the mechanic alot of questions so he knows what hes talking about,
