The journey began several years back. I became disenchanted with the independent repair shop that had performed numerous repairs on the cars. One day after shooting the breeze with one of the owners, he proceeded to bad mouth one of the other well known HIGHLY RESPECTED german auto mechanics in town. In my book, if you do good work, there is no need to bad mouth the competition. The german auto mechanic that was being bad mouthed has spoke nothing but high words of praise to me concerning HIS competitor. He's a class act and doesn't stoop to mud slinging. If he ever becomes aware that this particular shop is dissing him, I'm sure he will stop singing THEIR praises.

One day the brake pad sensor light went on so I took it to the not so class act facility for an inspection. Both Meineke and Midas perform no charge brake inspections so I felt a little taken back by their offer to charge me a full hour's labor for a brake inspection. Especially since I had previously dropped major $$$$ with them on car repairs. If I were running a repair shop, I would offer a FREE bi-annual or quarterly inspection to both old and new customers. We all know that there is always something in need of repair and an inspection of the car would most likely generate additional business for them. Give 'em something free and the customer will feel obligated to keep coming back. Both Midas and Meineke have built empires using this philosophy.

So after being kicked around by my mechanic and listening to him bad mouth his well respected competitor, I began my journey into the world of DIY auto repair. Fortunately, I test well with respect to mechanical aptitude and am a quick learner. Now, I actually enjoy digging through the forum, reading repair manuals and getting good and greasy while lying on my back staring at the underside of a Mercedes Benz. My friends and neighbors think I'm nuts because they take their cars to repair shops and wouldn't think of getting a little grease on their hands.

To each their own, but I have both the satisfaction of knowing exactly how the repair was done and have learned a great deal along the way. Plus, I've saved major $$$$$ over taking it to the $80 - $100 per labor hour boys.