EDIT: Steve got his post up while I was typing. Sorry if this is redundant.

Guys, we've gotta be realistic here. We essentially are asking a shop owner to bear the expense of owning/leasing a piece of real estate, owning/ leasing/ paying installments on equipment needed to handle jobs that may or may not come in, be aware of and deal with various consumer laws, environmental regulations, and increasing OSHA type rules, pay insurance to cover him when you sue him because you sprained your ankle over a tire anyone could have seen, plus insurance in case he or one his employees does what you and I do with have our DIY repairs - damage something that we weren't working on, plus meeting payroll and withholding taxes whether enough money has come in to meet all the above or not. Not to mention that the shop has to deal with the fact that the dealer can do all of the above with more resources. Plus, a generation of newer cars that are highly resistant to being worked on without equipment and information that the manufacturers won't give them. Don't get me wrong - I DIY everything I can because I am in fact too cheap to pay my indy for jobs that I can do adequately myself. But, for times when I don't have the time to do the repair, or the skill to do it, I happily pay him. I even have provided my indy w/ parts, and told him to bump up his hourly rate to compensate, because I WANT him to be there when I need him. As it is, there are only two shops in my area that I would use. I recommend them whenever I can, and support them with my business when I need to turn to pro. Auto repair has some fraud of course, but I like to think the folk here can smell that out and wouldn't deal with those shops.

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Tjohn

82 300 SD
77 450 SL (gone)