Choosing a Car Repair Professional

When you are in need of car repair, you need a shop or mechanic you know you can trust to do the job well, provide honest advice, and give you a fair price. Finding a good mechanic or shop is sometimes difficult. While you will want to start with recommendations from friends or family members, you also need to know what to look for on your own so you are confident you have the right company or individual.

The first sign of a good car repair professional is if the individual will listen to you describe the problems your vehicle has. A mechanic needs to listen to your description to begin to dissect the problem. Once you have thoroughly described the problem, the mechanic should do some diagnostics on your vehicle. Look for an individual or company who will not charge for visual inspections or diagnostics, if possible. This will help you save a little money. If the mechanic needs to use a tool to look into what is wrong with your vehicle, expect to pay a diagnostic fee.

The next sign of a good mechanic is someone who will give you a quote upfront. Because most shops and mechanics charge an hourly fee, it would be easy for the individual to pad your bill by claiming it took longer than it did to fix your vehicle. You would have no way to verify this. Someone who is willing to give you a quote is far less likely to pad the bill, because they have already told you their estimate of what it will cost.

A good mechanic will frequently quote a little more than what the job costs. This builds some leeway into his schedule if he finds an additional problem that requires more work for you, and it also gives you the ability to budget for the “worst case” scenario. In the end, you will be happy when the actual bill is less than the estimate.

If your mechanic finds something unexpected while doing the car repair that will end up costing substantially more than you were quoted, a good one will call you, explain the problem, explain your options, and allow you to choose whether or not you want this additional problem fixed. An honest professional will even allow you to come to the shop to see the broken part or problem for yourself and verify that it does, in fact, need fixing.

On the other hand, a poor mechanic is one who will look at your car to diagnose the problem, then start fixing it without your consent and without providing you with a quote. This puts you in a situation where you have to have the repair done, even if you decide it’s too expensive, because it is already underway. Tactics like this are the sign of an unscrupulous car repair professional.

Another sign of a good mechanic is one who has been in business for many years. People are quick to leave a mechanic they feel is treating them wrongly. If a company has been around for a while, they likely are doing something right. Also, a company who has been around a while likely has a few highly experienced mechanics in the shop. This benefits you, because these experienced professionals will have numerous other repairs to draw from as they work on your car repair or aid newer mechanics in the job.