<henree21 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Pick a shop that employs technicians certified by the National Institute of
Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), preferably a shop that also has AAA
certification. A shop that goes to the trouble of going through the AAA
certification process and employs techs who take the time and effort to
become ASE certified is more likely to be honest and competent.

It is never a good idea to go to a repair shop and ask them to repair or
replace a specific component, i.e., the starter or starter contacts, unless
you are absolutely positive of your diagnosis. If your diagnosis was
incorrect, you have nobody to blame for the unnecessary work except
yourself. One should go to the repair shop and describe the symptoms as
clearly and completely as possible so that the technician working on the
vehicle can come to their own diagnosis and recommended repairs. When I
take one of my vehicles to a shop for service, I describe the symptoms, even
when I am pretty sure of the diagnosis myself. That said, having an idea of
the cause of the problem is a good reality check for the shop's diagnosis.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote


Another good tip is to have them write on the estimate exactly what problem
it's intended to fix. A couple times I've taken a vehicle to some place for
a specific problem, they diagnosed a bad whatsis, asked me to approve
replacing it, they then replaced the whatsis and the problem was still
there. If you have them state on the estimate what the specific problem is
you want them to fix, you have more leverage when you say "Please replace
the part(s) you took out, take back the new one(s) and I'd like a full
refund since you did not fix the problem and clearly this faulty whatsis was
not the cause of it."

I've never done that, but at a Precision Tune I asked them specifically if
replacing a certain part would fix the problem, and when it didn't, they put
the old one back in and gave me a full refund after very little pushing.
They tried to use the excuse that the part they replaced was indeed bad, but
I countered with the fact that bad or not, I would not have paid to replace
it if they had not told me it would fix the problem. In retrospect, I'm
amazed that worked since I didn't have anything on paper, just a verbal
understanding.

"Ernie Sty" <fake_email (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Good advice! Especially at an independent or chain operation.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote


Thank you.

"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote


Ray, I know you are aware of this but for people who don't know:

Poor mechanics (and maybe even good ones at times) will often guess at
what's causing the problem and replace the most likely culprit. If the
first part they replaced doesn't fix the problem they'll try replacing
another one. The problem is, they rarely take off the new parts and
re-install the old ones if the old ones were not causing the problem,
charging you full parts and labor costs for replacing several parts that
aren't defective (and the replacements might even be cheap aftermarket junk
what will wear out prematurely) so you end up paying many times what it
should actually cost to fix the problem.

And this is one of the LEAST dishonest things bad mechanics do. They have
all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. If they were as good at fixing cars
as they were at extracting cash from suckers, they could fix it by thumping
the hood, like Fonzie on the jukebox...

"Ernie Sty" <fake_email (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

technician. An automotive technician goes through the trouble to have
current training on automotive systems and is capable of diagnosing a
condition without having to shotgun parts.

Most people define "quality " as the absence of failures or problems, and
this is technically incorrect. "Quality" is manufacturing a part or
component so that it adheres to a design specification, which is not quite
the same thing as absence of failures or problems. A more accurate analogy
for quality would be consistency. A part that is defective is one that does
not adhere to its design specification. A good design will provide a part
that does not fail and that can be produced consistently, and good
manufacturing quality controls will yield parts that are consistent.

Toyota is probably the most consistent automaker in the world. As a result,
one finds very few one-of-a-kind problems with Toyotas, and under the same
operating conditions, the failure of a part or component is very consistent.
In other words, they all do the same thing. Technicians at Toyota
dealerships are consciously or unconsciously aware of this, so they tend to
be pretty quick at diagnosing a problem because they have seen it before.
On the other hand, they do not have as much experience diagnosing a problem
they have not run across before so they sometimes struggle.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)