Do you trust other mechanics besides the car dealership?

[readyin07]

We took our car for an oil change at the dealership last week and found out we needed new tires and rear brakes replaced. I was aggravated b/c the tires are just over 2 years old and have about half the warranteed wear on them (I posted about it here). But they were having a sale on the tires that was decent so we proceeded to have the work done with them. About $1k.

We picked up the car Saturday and Sunday we noticed it was leaking pink fluid. I took it to the dealership and it looks like the water pump needs replacing. $850. 

I'm kind of freaking out. We just had another issue with our car a few months ago, we are in the process of getting our  roof replaced, we have a rat problem as I have also posted about here, our washer broke. And those are the "big" problems. It's just a lot of money going out. I am thankful we have it, but it has me in panic mode. For sure we are probably going to have to cut back on some of our summer plans, but that is life

So long story just to say that DH called a local battery/tire/mechanic that has done some minor work on his car. They have like 13 local stores in a few counties. They gave us a quote of about $350 to $400ish to replace the water pump. DH is going to talk to the dealership and try to haggle, but most likely we will use the other people. My parents always impressed upon me to just go to the dealership to make sure it's done right, particularly when it's the car our kids are transported in most. I'm being ridiculous, right? It's fine to have work done elsewhere.

[pantsparty]

I've had all my car work done at a local shop. The dealership is for suckers.

[jlt19]

I only go to a dealership if I'm under warranty.

[cabbagecabbage]

I trust other mechanics more than dealership mechanics. Once I find a good guy, I keep him and I love my mechanic who will give me the option to rig something, buy it used, or buy it new and let me know the difference in price and longevity.

[CurlyQ284]

I never trust dealerships. Never. Under warranty is the only reason I will go to dealerships.

I would search for reviews, you'll find a place with an honest reputation. I wouldn't go just anywhere. Or ask friends where they take their cars.

[deanlicker78]

I've never gone to a dealership for repairs. I mean, especially not now, because H is a mechanic.

[peggy]

May 2, 2016 12:11:45 GMT -5 pantsparty said:

I've had all my car work done at a local shop. The dealership is for suckers.

:Y:

Our guy is literally walking distance from our house and has a relatively small parking lot outside his shop. Because of this, he comes to my house to get the keys and then brings the car back to my driveway when he is done. Plus he's relatively inexpensive and very trustworthy. Between H, myself, my parents and sister we have six cars. They switched from another mechanic simply for the convenience factor. 

[MixedBerryJam]

I probably trust the dealership the least. I like to rec my mechanic by telling people about the time I was giving my old car to my brother, who was a college student and didn't have two nickels to rub together. I told the mechanic to look the car over, and anything that needed doing, or that he thought would need doing soon, just do it. So I basically gave him carte blanche on a 10yo car. Total he charged me: $65. LOL that I could ever have done that with my dealer.

[MrsPotatohead]

ditto everyone else - we have a guy my family has been going to forever and I trust them way more

ETA: I think the best way to go is ask your friends who they like, I wouldn't just randomly pick a place

[Deleted]

I trusted an independent mechanic over the dealership. 1. he gives me my computer readout. 2. He actually took his time with my vehicle and physically checked the issues instead of going off what my computer was spitting out.

Dealership said it was my water pumps : 600-700 dollars for new pump/ 75-150 dollars an hour for labor. They also charged 75 dollars for a leaf blocking a sensor. 5 minutes of labor and they didn't even let me keep the leaf.

Mechanic took his time and realize my computer was sending faulty messages because he saw neither pump leaking: 400 bucks and free 4 hour diagnostics.

I will forever go to independent mechanics.

[cabbagecabbage]

May 2, 2016 12:22:47 GMT -5 c7 said:

May 2, 2016 12:15:08 GMT -5 cabbagecabbage said:

I trust other mechanics more than dealership mechanics. Once I find a good guy, I keep him and I love my mechanic who will give me the option to rig something, buy it used, or buy it new and let me know the difference in price and longevity.

Like any mechanic? My problem is finding a "good guy." I go to the dealership because I'm afraid some random mechanic is going to mess things up. 

I realize this is a chicken/egg problem.

Just in general. I find dealership machinist are sales driven and most independent mechanics are looking for long term customers. But obviously there are crappy people too. I've always used recommendations.

[CurlyQ284]

May 2, 2016 12:22:47 GMT -5 c7 said:

May 2, 2016 12:15:08 GMT -5 cabbagecabbage said:

I trust other mechanics more than dealership mechanics. Once I find a good guy, I keep him and I love my mechanic who will give me the option to rig something, buy it used, or buy it new and let me know the difference in price and longevity.

Like any mechanic? My problem is finding a "good guy." I go to the dealership because I'm afraid some random mechanic is going to mess things up. 

I realize this is a chicken/egg problem.

I search reviews, word gets around when a mechanic is a good one.

My car was having major issues. DH thought it would need major work done (I can't remember, a new belt or something).

Took it to a guy with good reviews, it turned out when my DH changed the oil, he walked away while it was draining to do something else and wasn't paying attention and it didn't drain so when he put new oil in it had WAYYYY too much oil. They drained all the oil out and put in new oil and threw in a state inspection because my sticker was expired and I paid $35 total. I put good reviews everywhere I could.

[emoflamingo]

I only go to the dealership if it's under warranty, but my dad is pretty handy so he does most of my work for me.

[readyin07]

I feel better. I mean, my parents will use other mechanics for "their" cars, they just always felt safest telling me to have the work done at the dealership

I'm sure I sound crazy. I just feel like we can't trust anyone or go with the first person whenever we need a repair done anymore. We had springs break on the garage door at the home we rent out. The tenant had to get her car our so she just called the first listing she could find. They let her out for $100 and then quoted a repair fee of $1500. We do happen to have someone my family has used a bunch for garage doors and he did it for less than half and said that some of the stuff that they included (like brackets) in our quote was absolutely unnecessary. So I now feel crazy!

[Kit]

I don't trust dealerships....I often find they are way more expensive than another local mechanic/shop.

[FastHands]

May 2, 2016 12:30:37 GMT -5 readyin07 said:

I feel better. I mean, my parents will use other mechanics for "their" cars, they just always felt safest telling me to have the work done at the dealership

I'm sure I sound crazy. I just feel like we can't trust anyone or go with the first person whenever we need a repair done anymore. We had springs break on the garage door at the home we rent out. The tenant had to get her car our so she just called the first listing she could find. They let her out for $100 and then quoted a repair fee of $1500. We do happen to have someone my family has used a bunch for garage doors and he did it for less than half and said that some of the stuff that they included (like brackets) in our quote was absolutely unnecessary. So I now feel crazy!

This is all the more reason to ask around for a mechanic rec! Do you even know who is working on your car at the dealership? Do you know if people are happy with his work, or how long he's been working?

[MeMyselfandI]

Yeah, I don't take mine to the dealership either. They tried to tell me that my back axle was broken when actually, my car was designed to have a slightly bent axle. You'd have thought they'd know that.

[dirtyred]

May 2, 2016 12:15:08 GMT -5 cabbagecabbage said:

I trust other mechanics more than dealership mechanics. Once I find a good guy, I keep him and I love my mechanic who will give me the option to rig something, buy it used, or buy it new and let me know the difference in price and longevity.

We have a repair shop right down the street from us.  When my DH was having a problem with his old Taurus, he took it to the dealer.  Dealer told him what the problem was, said they had to take out the entire dashboard to fix it, and it would be around $900.

Took it to the shop down the street.  Guy tells him the same stuff the dealership did but also added that (with a big smile on his face) instead of taking the dashboard out, they could just reset this piece of equipment and it would solve the problem and would cost $36.  Which repair would we like to do?

Funny how the dealership neglected to mention the reset option.

[readyin07]

May 2, 2016 12:35:42 GMT -5 FastHands said:

May 2, 2016 12:30:37 GMT -5 readyin07 said:

I feel better. I mean, my parents will use other mechanics for "their" cars, they just always felt safest telling me to have the work done at the dealership

I'm sure I sound crazy. I just feel like we can't trust anyone or go with the first person whenever we need a repair done anymore. We had springs break on the garage door at the home we rent out. The tenant had to get her car our so she just called the first listing she could find. They let her out for $100 and then quoted a repair fee of $1500. We do happen to have someone my family has used a bunch for garage doors and he did it for less than half and said that some of the stuff that they included (like brackets) in our quote was absolutely unnecessary. So I now feel crazy!

This is all the more reason to ask around for a mechanic rec! Do you even know who is working on your car at the dealership? Do you know if people are happy with his work, or how long he's been working?

This is a good point. Most people here seem to use a dealership from what I can tell. I think the thinking is it might be more expensive but it is backed by the brand so if they screw something up, they are good for it.

Like a friend of mine used a mechanic Her family had known and used before. He had a death or illness in the family and basically left her car in pieces for WEEKS. She doesn't have much money and had no recourse. He ended up putting the car back together but she got a new one bc she didn't trust him at that point. Obviously that is an anecdotal extreme but it plays into my whole "I don't trust anyone" thing

[pandorica]

I love our local shop. I trust them and it's SO much cheaper than the dealership. And they once gave us a discount for being fans of the same college team!

[agnes]

I work for a dealership and H is an independent mechanic. Quality of mechanic is just the luck of the draw sometimes. Like H and I have both worked with some really good mechanics and then some not so good ones. But independent shops tend to be less expensive.

[Aquatica]

H is a mechanic so he deals with everything car. We're currently only using the dealership for warranty work but if H deploys he'll line a mechanic up for me. H doesn't trust dealerships and prefers local non-chain shops because they are usually more honest.

[chimera]

I only go back to the dealer for warranty repairs. I did go more often with my old one, but they were much closer (Ford vs Subaru) and ran oil changes specials all the time that didn't exclude my vehicle.

I did swap independent ones when the father at the first passed away for two of the cars - 3rd still goes there as they did most of the mods, we found a closer one for routine stuff.

-side note I'm not very happy with him this week over stuff with DH's car. He was told it was leaking oil and the clutch was slipping (298+k miles on original clutch) he said the leak was very minor and nothing to worry about at this point as the seal is due next big round. Ok. DH drove it last week after picking it up Tuesday night by Friday commute more leaking and the clutch (new) is doing the same thing. It goes back in tomorrow (seriously should have been today!?!! He was told Friday)

[chimera]

I only go back to the dealer for warranty repairs. I did go more often with my old one, but they were much closer (Ford vs Subaru) and ran oil changes specials all the time that didn't exclude my vehicle.

I did swap independent ones when the father at the first passed away for two of the cars - 3rd still goes there as they did most of the mods, we found a closer one for routine stuff.

-side note I'm not very happy with him this week over stuff with DH's car. He was told it was leaking oil and the clutch was slipping (298+k miles on original clutch) he said the leak was very minor and nothing to worry about at this point as the seal is due next big round. Ok. DH drove it last week after picking it up Tuesday night by Friday commute more leaking and the clutch (new) is doing the same thing. It goes back in tomorrow (seriously should have been today!?!! He was told Friday)

[CrazyLucky]

We go to the dealership. I just traded in my Prius, but before that, had no problems. It had 170k miles on it. I had to replace tires a couple of times, brakes once (at 160k!) and a wheel bearing. So if they were going to rip me off, they did a poor job.
I still feel very "fish out of water" here. I'm asked pretty often if I'm from around here, and the whole area is pretty conservative. So I would worry a lot about being tricked for being a woman at a local repair shop.
But no, there's no reason you HAVE to go to a dealer. Ask around. If your friends and neighbors trust the cheaper guy, go with him. I just disagree that dealerships are the devil.

[cat98c]

Same as everyone else, I'd rather go to the trusted guy who I found through word of mouth than go to the dealership outside of warranty.

We had a rattle on our car that I was pretty sure was the heat shields. Took it to the dealership and they said all of the shields needed to be replaced, to the tune of $700. Took it to my local guy who tightened everything for $125. It's been 2 years and the shields are still in place.

[Deleted]

May 2, 2016 13:29:09 GMT -5 CrazyLucky said:

We go to the dealership. I just traded in my Prius, but before that, had no problems. It had 170k miles on it. I had to replace tires a couple of times, brakes once (at 160k!) and a wheel bearing. So if they were going to rip me off, they did a poor job.
I still feel very "fish out of water" here. I'm asked pretty often if I'm from around here, and the whole area is pretty conservative. So I would worry a lot about being tricked for being a woman at a local repair shop.
But no, there's no reason you HAVE to go to a dealer. Ask around. If your friends and neighbors trust the cheaper guy, go with him. I just disagree that dealerships are the devil.

I have a Prius with 114K miles on it. The dealership has very much ripped me off. I was charged 300 dollars to change out a 12 dollar headlight bulb.


Obviously this is all case by case. I've just had far better luck at non-dealership mechanics. And I don't think it's the mechanics but the policies the dealership mechanics have to abide by?

[LeggsBenedict]

the order in which I trust things:
1. my brother
2. my diagnostic computer
3. car forums
4. mechanics
5. dealerships

[blackcat]

The only time I go to the dealership is for my oil change/tire rotation every 5k miles, because the Toyota place always has coupons for oil changes and because they have a nice waiting area with wifi and refreshments.

I take my car to a local mechanic who operates out of a self storage unit. Not even kidding. He is honest as hell and people always talk about him on nextdoor.com. I took my car to him twice after the dealership told me I needed things repaired (the latest one was the leaking transmission fluid pan and new brakes), both times he called me back to come get the car because they didn't have those things wrong with them. Also? The dealership tells me sporadically over the years that I have a bad power steering fluid leak and that I need a new rack and pinion to the tune of $900+. Every time I tell them no. Funny, though, if it was leaking, wouldn't you think the fluid level would go down, and eventually after so many years, my steering would've gone out. None of those things have happened. They are full of shit. I don't let them do any repairs.

[kris356]

I go to the dealership. Mostly because the dealer has spent a crap ton of money to train people to work on my car and have the diagnostic tools needed, especially if it newer since there is a lot of shit going on and they are in the know about issues that may not be recalls but are known. Plus, I have a service contract and it doesn't cost me anything if it is covered.

DH is a mechanic and I take my car to the dealer and he bought a service contract on his new car. Can they rip me off? Yes, but I question them if I think it is out of line since I worked at a dealership for 20+ years. You are definitely going to pay more at a dealer, but you are paying for the training and equipment.