awsome repair guys

[evilfarmer]

background: I am a sorta mechanic * i know how to read the manual on fixing things with cars* and my dad has always worked on our cars and taught me a lot of what he knew. We have a 95 Camey.

Wed. 7/28

My fiance had been looking at getting a dog and found an adorable sheltie *mini collie* at a pound about 2 hrs from us. We left that morning and were having a beautiful drive toward the corner of Virgina and Tennessee. We get to about 30 min from the shelter on I 26 and the car starts revving but not increasing in speed..I figured we would look at the engine once we got to an exit with close places to stop vs exit with things several miles from exit..we crest a hill and the engine dies. i watch the temp gauge go from being dead center to spiked high then the fiance hears a pop. We pull off to the side of the road and white smoke pours out of the engine. We pop the hood and see that the radiator reservoir tank is blown apart and we can see the radiator.

I called the insurance and they helped me find a near by tow company...the very nice tow guy showed up an hour later and i asked him to take us to the nearest good mechanic *insurance would reimburse us for some of the tow* the guys at the shop were really nice and told us that they could look at it later that day or the next morning..by this point it was 1pm

We finally get to fiance's granddads at 6pm and home by 10pm..I had gotten a message from the auto shop guys but was just to tried to deal with it.

Thurs 7/29
Called the auto shop guys and was told that the engine started just fine so they could replace the radiator for 295. I call dad who is out of town and he told me that its a good price due to new radiator costing 125 or we could tow car home on Friday. I had noticed a sign at the shop stating storage couldn't be over 30 days and was 20 per day. I told him i would rather just bring the car home and we work on it in case it also blew head gasket or water pump. I head in to work for the night

Fri 7/30
Get off work and head home so fiance can get to eye doc apt. and daddy comes to get me. We get there with no problems in about 1hr and 30 min due to taking 11w instead of taking 40e to 81 to 26..we go into the shop and I'm all ready to pay 60 in storage and possibly more due to them assessing car for me. the auto guy gives me my key and radio face back and says don't worry about looking over the car..I asked about the storage fee he said don't worry. I had never been to this city before this and these guys were the nicest guys Ive ever met.. they even helped us load the car onto the tailor we brought..Car is now home and i crashed into bed for a bit..

I have always heard horror stories of using mechanics instead of doing the work yourself but if I'm ever near the corner of Virginia and Tennessee i wont hesitate to go back. The shop name was Street Gear.

[Howler]

Nice to hear a mechanic doing the right thing! I've found some around here (in Detroit and N of...) that are great.

[bean]

If this was Texas, I would say you'd run into my regular mechanic for the past 13 years.

He started out as a dealer mechanic when Honda passenger cars came to the US in the mid-late 70s. Opened his own shop in the late 90s.

He's DAMN proud of his work (his hourly labor charge is as high as, sometimes higher than, most Honda dealerships, and he only uses OEM Honda/Acura parts - his "book rate" for off the street folks is $90 per hour). But he charges "honest labor" instead of "book labor". Lets say you're getting both brake pads and rotors done - book labor would state a couple of hours for each, even though the labor can easily be combined. He's a lot faster than your typical dealer mechanic too - he charges you his actual hours spent on the car. Say he spends an hour and a half replacing my brake pads, calipers, and rotors on the front, but the dealer book says it's 6-8 hours plus.. the dealer would have easily nailed me for over $1000, he hits me for a couple of hundred.

The guy is fixing to retire, I've known him since he was in his late 30s and he's in his early 50s now, and while he'll admit to charging for "headlight fluid", "muffler bearings", and the like, and pulling some scams while working at a dealer, he's the most honest guy you'll ever meet now.

Best example: had a 1988 Honda Accord DX - back when the DX and LX had a carburetor - a really really horrible carburetor with nearly 50 vacuum lines (yes I counted) under the hood, the carb was also made of plastic and every single one of those vacuum lines connected to it. It was jerking really bad and would constantly stall, couldn't break about 25-30 mph floored in 2nd gear (manual transmission). He told me flat out he hated these cars and the carbs on them and would only touch it if he could replace the entire intake manifold + carb unless it was something stupid simple.... quote? $1100 (I paid $1200 for the car). He strongly suggested I tow it to the nearest junkyard or set it on fire.

An hour later I picked it up and he charged me $25 to replace a mixture screw that had backed out. Basically 20 minutes of labor and nothing else, but he swore it would be the last carb'd Honda he'd ever touch (this was almost 10 years ago and he still swears he hasn't touched another one of those bastards).

He doesn't advertise at all, has 2 shops fully staffed by factory trained Honda/Acura mechanics, and both shops are always so swamped that even getting an oil change takes making an appointment at least a week in advance. Found him on the cartalk.com website in 1997.