A Dying Species My car is babied. I don't drive it much, preferring to bike. I keep it on scheduled maintenance. I make sure it has the right types of fluids, adequate pressure in its tires, and generally try to keep it looking nice.

I was recently told by the dealership that the 60,000 mile service was coming, and I needed to have it done.

Gloom and doom would overshadow my car, making it sputter and shake, they said. Horrible things would happen if this service was not done.

But they could save me, they said. 1200 dollars and the problems would never appear.

It's a little like a protection racket. If you give us 1200 dollars, your car won't have these horrible problems. Or else.

I grit my teeth and started to save. I complained about it to a friend, and he suggested his mechanic. "He's an honest, above board sort of guy."

He's a mechanic. I distrust all mechanics implicitly.

I called him. I scheduled a time for him to look at my car and price out what needed to be done for the 60000 service.

He came back with a quote of 729.33. Much better. Much much better. Even included a new battery, which the dealership didn't.

Maybe there are such things as honest mechanics. Maybe I just found one. I hope so. Let's see how this goes.

Labels: car, mechanic

  ¶ 10:58 AM