THAT IS GOOD ADVICE , THANK YOU Nate.
Bu how many females out there, or harried rushed males, or businessmen, or Toyota Camry or Honda Accord owners, or owner of similar drive it and forget it cars,minivans, or junk heaps, that know nothing, and care l4ess about cars, will take the trouble to follow it.
true example of such a person:
(I had a g/f, very young widow and a total sweetie, in San Jose call me up about a year ago, in horror this one time, and said "The orange dash lightthat looks like an engine, came on in my Honda Odyssey, it blew up, OH MY GOD !!! MY ENGINE blew up, I need a new engine!! Or a new car!! What can I do???!!" and of course if was the CEL I told her over the phone, the
"Check engine" light usually only means emission controls issues, I explained, and sent her to a good Honda mechanic in her area that she now adores that took care f the issue for a reasonable inexpensive price and provided good service and a ride home, that I found on
www.yelp.com a consumer review site we use in California.) the car runs fine even now and she loves the shop and the service that they give locally to the minivan.
The temptation to "over-sell" is too much for somany shop owners, confronted with customers ignrance and trust, I guess
New car dealers, Firestone and Goodyear "service" centers, Midas muffler and Jiffy lube places (one Jiffy Lube one time tried to sell me a new transmission for my wife's Volvo in San Francisco!!!) all of them do it sometimes...
They do it because it so often works !!! Especially on people that don't take care of their cars, or who dont know or care anything about them. One woman I dated was a wealthy widow that actually seemed to believe me when I told her that the engine inside her then one year old $42,000 Buick Enclave was powered by squrirrels that ran around on an exercise wheel under the hood !!!!
She said for all that she knew it could be true.
And of course had never read the owner's manual. At 20,000 miles she had never even read the manual OR ever changed the oil even one time!!! I told her do BOTH right away, in the strongest terms I knew that were polite. Sometime fairly soon after that the driveshaft dropped on the ground, when she was going down the street in Roseville!
And people like this are everywhere, in this country, they vote, (usually Republican) they drive, they reproduce !!!! lolz
Last December my Mercedes was having some trouble getting out of first gear and a fairly local "German car" specialist told me immediately without even pulling the dipstick firstor looking at anything said I needed a new transmission at this mileage, it is $4,000, can we have the keys, please sign the work order.
I told them I could not afford it, and would have to non-op the car for a year.
I had heard them say business was slow and they were having tax trouble with the IRS, in casual conversation.hmmmmmm
I took it home,checked the dipstick, found it dry, and called my regular Mercedes mechanic in Sacramento and he said bring it on in, maybe it needs a good flush and service. (I admit I had run the car 40,000 miles that year and never checked the ATF dipstick.
With an SL R129 HD filter, a thorough flush and filter and new pan gasket modulator adjustment and new fluid, the car ran perfectly with a complete service, for $500 which included some other different repairs the car needed.
As opposed to $4,000 to replace the transmission I was quoted at the first place, which included 22 hours of shop rate labor, at about $95 per hour or something,
Creeps.
My car only needed a good ATF service that's all. .I have to stay with my Mercedes indie.
I might mention, he is a good guy and knows and loves to work on these.
At Chrismas time, in appreciation, I had stopped by the shop in my Grand Marquis (he joked that he thought the FBI had come!) and gave him a six pak or two or really really good Czechoslovakian beer, the best I could find, (Pilsner Urquell was nowhere to be found) and drove off.
He must have remembered, when I got into trouble a few months later....