Car Repair: Coordinating Your Visit to the Mechanic

It might be necessary to divide the responsibilities. Because most people have extremely busy schedules, you and your spouse might need to take off from work, or take the vehicle to the mechanic on the weekends. To fairly divide the responsibility, you should both look at your schedules and decide which person has the most time to take the vehicle to the mechanic for car repair services.

If you or your spouse will be near the mechanic at a certain time during the day, it could be more convenient to visit the mechanic at that time. You and your spouse might have to decide who will care for the children while the vehicle is at the shop. You should also decide if the services will take a short amount of time, or if it will take an extended visit. This will help you determine whether or not you will wait for the vehicle at the shop. The person who will have the children might not wish to wait for the vehicle for an extended length of time in the waiting room. If you believe that the maintenance will take only about 15 minutes or so, it might be worth it to wait for the vehicle.

For more complex problems you and your spouse might coordinate a method to drop off the vehicle and drive another family vehicle for the day, if that is possible. This coordination will take cooperation from all parties in the family. The entire family could drive to the mechanic in both of the family vehicles. They would then drop off the vehicle that needs the repairs, and everyone will then leave in the second vehicle.

This scenario is convenient for families that have two vehicles. In the case of one vehicle in the household, one person will most likely wait for vehicle in the waiting room. If the vehicle will take several days to fix, a friend or loved one might have to follow you to the mechanic's, and you can leave your vehicle at the shop. Your friend could then drive you home, or take you to pick up a rental.

It is sometimes more convenient to drop a vehicle to the mechanic's for car repair services earlier in the day, on weekdays. Usually, mechanics have more time to fix vehicles on weekdays, rather than on weekends. You might be able to drop the vehicle off and have it by the end of the day, depending on the services that are needed. If you know which repairs you need ahead of time, you can contact the shop and ask about the anticipated time that that the vehicle will be ready. The time might vary according to the number of vehicles ahead of you and the number or mechanics that are working on that day. The time of day that you bring your vehicle in for car repair services can also make a big difference. More people might bring their vehicles in for servicing in the evening than in the mornings when most people are working.