If you charge $60 for a decent alignment, and tell me that you charge $60, that's okay by me. But if you decide that I need to pay first ten bucks more because you were too dumb to know that the car had four wheels that needed aligning and THEN decide to stick each and every customer for another five bucks "because the Big Boys do it" I am gonna get pissed, and I fail to see why I should not be pissed. It's not like these clowns are going to use that $5.00 to enrollSilvestre el Salvadoreņo in Blue Cross.

In Miami the wages are LOWER than in Gainesville and the degree of expertise is lower as well. I would wager than not one of the people I spoke to in any of the shops had ever even finished high school down in Zamboanga or San Chrindongo de las Iguanas, which is not to say that they might not do a decent job.

But when some clown tells me that he is gonna stick me for $90 (no, eight-nine-ninety effing five" AND I am going to have to get a ride to take me back from his shop AND take me back when he is done, I am going to assume that that clown neither needs nor wants my business.

As for the guy that buys a brand-new car every four years, he is paying through the nose and you know it. Extra for interest, higher insurance and he is still waiting and waiting for the stealership to finish his car every time he needs his oil changed. It takes me less time to change the oil than to drive to the dealership, and I know what oil I am buying and that it's done right. I just don't have an alignment machine.

Cars are not TV's yet. Hyundai is on the right track with cheaper cars and a ten-year warranty, but it's still a Hyundai. I suppose in 2030 we will be driving hybrid cars made in China. And the dealership and the banks will get an ever bigger piece of the total pie. It's a race to the bottom. I didn't make this world, I just live here. And when I get screwed by some dolt who tells me the law says he gets to screw me and I know he is bloody lying, I am gonna diddle him back.

Who wouldn't?
Our MBCA club has a meeting at the dealership here. The manager comes and greets us and reminds us that we get a 10% discount on parts. So, I decide to buy a couple of small parts and save a two hour trip to Finishline. The Parts Guy says he has never heard of the MBCA OR the discount and the manager is out to lunch and come back at three.

Yeah, sure. And I am going to buy a car from these guys?

I see nothing wrong with allowing capitalism to do its competitive thing by calling around to check on prices. I know that it's a 30 mnute job, I know that the guy doing it is not making more than $15, and he is not going to be the owner of the shop or even a relative.

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Semibodacious Transmogrifications a Specialty

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo sedan 171K (Rudolf)
1985 300D Turbo TD Wagon 219K (Remuda)

"Time flies like and arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana"
---Marx (Groucho)