Monday, January 3, 2011

Car Trouble

I have a pick up truck. It's called "The Wimpy", because it is. I don't drive it fast or often. I'm not a 'car (truck) person'. I use it for the shop to haul stuff, for ride support, to collect parking tickets, and to go mountain biking. In the last couple of weeks I've been to three different garages (the alternator blew up the battery, the e-brake was broke, it needed to be inspected, etc.), and I had pretty terrible experiences*.

I was told by the first two garages that I needed a bunch of work done before I could get a passing inspection sticker. Fair enough, I guess, it's an old truck. I asked them why I needed the work done, because I'm not a 'car person' and I wanted to know more about it. I couldn't get a straight answer. Like the information was too special or complicated to share with me. It was frustrating.

I'm usually on the other end of the repair transaction. In this case, I really didn't like it. I try to treat everyone fairly here in the shop (outside the shop, I can't make any promises). If you want something explained, I'm happy to do it.
Even if you're not a 'bike person'. There's no special club you need to be in, and if you're interested, bikes are not too complicated to learn about. At the very least, it's another chance for me to talk about my favorite subject. Want to know more about your bike? I'll tell you all about it. Want to know how I install those brake pads? I'll show you. I'm putting this post up here so you can help hold me to my word. Ask questions, please, please, please. If you don't want to know about bike, and you just want it fixed, that's fine, too. I'll fix it. Fairly. I promise.




*I ended up finally taking it to Zohrab at Somerville Auto Service. He was great, and really honest. "Don't take your truck to -----------. Those guys are Monkey Fighters. Nothing needed to be replaced, only adjusted. They steal from people."

2 comments:

  1. Bikes or cars, an honest mechanic is priceless.

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  2. You should add Zohrab to the Car Talk Mechanic Files (http://www.cartalk.com/ct/mechx/add_shop.jsp)

    ReplyDelete