Mechanics Point of View
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Ever wondered why you put your car into the shop and come out with a very empty wallet? It seems everyone has a tale of woe when getting their car repaired. I’d like to offer an opinion on this as I have been on both sides of the fence, having owned a mechanical workshop for a number of years and now having a back injury we have to get most of our repairs done for us.
First of all, setting up or owning a workshop is a very expensive exercise. $100,000+ for a modern, well-eqiupped shop. Tooling is also expensive as every year the car manufacturers like to chop and change their vehicles. Software updates were a common thing for scanners that were needed to read the computer systems. Gone are the days of actually being able to diagnose a problem with knowledge and basic hand tools, if a sensor is playing up on a modern vehicle most of the time you can only pin-point which one once you have read the fault codes logged in the computer. Unless you have seen that particular problem before it is very hard to accurately diagnose the problem without a scanner and the appropriate software for that vehicle. Parts prices are also on the increase as vehicles get more and more sophisticated.
On the other side of the equation I know that alot of operators like to squeeze as much out of each job as they possibly can. “You really shouldn’t drive this car until this, this and this are fixed” seems to be a sentence that mechanics like! Fair enough if the vehicle really does need those repairs done and done straight away but I know that some mechanics use this ploy to increase profits. My wife and I had a policy of informing the customer of any problems or potential problems and if they weren’t making the car unsafe we would get them back at a later date to repair it. That way we were allways booked at least two weeks in advance and customers weren’t hit with huge bills every time and best of all we never had to advertise, word of mouth kept us very busy!
There are definately valid arguments on both sides, but I think if you have a mechanic that you trust and seems to be doing a good job for a fair price then stick with them, but if you go in for front brake pads and come out with a completely rebuilt front end then you need to consider going elsewhere! If you ever have any car issues you would like a second opinion on, use our Advice page and post a question. Cheers.
Craig
posted in Automotive News and Views | 0 Comments
