Required disclosures & documentation at repair shops?

[Blmpkn]

So, if a shop you trust fails your car for inspection, you have to find someone else to fix it?

Idk If consumer protection is the right term or not.. but yes. It adds a very healthy layer of protection for the vehicle owner. A scumbag mechanic can easily 'gain the trust' of a customer... even while ripping them off.

My buddy always used the garage that his mother had used for decades.. she trusted them.. so he trusted them. One year.. said garage told him his car was WAY too rusty and needed WAY TOO MUCH WORK to take a sticker, but they had a handful of similar vehicles that he'd be able to afford.. so he bought a new car (not from them thankfully)

I ended up buying the old car from him to part out.. it was an 02 civic with 160k on it.. just a baby.

When I got the car home and in the air, it didn't take me but a handful of seconds to realize his garage was run by shysters who were taking advantage of him. I then took the car to MY garage for an inspection who told me it needed front brakes, 2 tires, and the passengers side window regulator replaced.

I told him and his mother to find a new garage after I showed them the HONEST repair quote.. They did. I fixed the car in an easy afternoon.


My fiances parents have used the same mechanic, again, for decades. They trust him. So she trusted him.

Last year, the pulley on the ac compressor on her car pretty much fell apart and it was making a bunch of racket and burning the belt. Her mother as a Christmas gift paid to have their mechanic do what should of been a bare bones fix to the 250k mile car that had no hope of taking another sticker in a year.. just so it was drivable for a few months until the replacement car was purchased. He was told the plan.. as cheap as it can be.

The honest thing to do would of been to put a shorter belt on the car, bypassing the compressor. The ac hadnt worked in years, it was the middle of winter, and a replacement car is coming in the spring.

What he did, was charge her mother nearly 600$ to install a brand new compressor. He didn't even bother attempting to recharge the system. Shyster.

These are kinda apples/oranges comparisons, but they paint the picture.

Not every garage/mechanic is a scumbag.. But it's far too easy for one that IS to really fleece the shit out of their customers.


I bet the amount of money spent on fraudulent inspection work annually would boggle the mind.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Idk If consumer protection is the right term or not.. but yes. It adds a very healthy layer of protection for the vehicle owner. A scumbag mechanic can easily 'gain the trust' of a customer... even while ripping them off.

My buddy always used the garage that his mother had used for decades.. she trusted them.. so he trusted them. One year.. said garage told him his car was WAY too rusty and needed WAY TOO MUCH WORK to take a sticker, but they had a handful of similar vehicles that he'd be able to afford.. so he bought a new car (not from them thankfully)

I ended up buying the old car from him to part out.. it was an 02 civic with 160k on it.. just a baby.

When I got the car home and in the air, it didn't take me but a handful of seconds to realize his garage was run by shysters who were taking advantage of him. I then took the car to MY garage for an inspection who told me it needed front brakes, 2 tires, and the passengers side window regulator replaced.

I told him and his mother to find a new garage after I showed them the HONEST repair quote.. They did. I fixed the car in an easy afternoon.


My fiances parents have used the same mechanic, again, for decades. They trust him. So she trusted him.

Last year, the pulley on the ac compressor on her car pretty much fell apart and it was making a bunch of racket and burning the belt. Her mother as a Christmas gift paid to have their mechanic do what should of been a bare bones fix to the 250k mile car that had no hope of taking another sticker in a year.. just so it was drivable for a few months until the replacement car was purchased. He was told the plan.. as cheap as it can be.

The honest thing to do would of been to put a shorter belt on the car, bypassing the compressor. The ac hadnt worked in years, it was the middle of winter, and a replacement car is coming in the spring.

What he did, was charge her mother nearly 600$ to install a brand new compressor. He didn't even bother attempting to recharge the system. Shyster.

These are kinda apples/oranges comparisons, but they paint the picture.

Not every garage/mechanic is a scumbag.. But it's far too easy for one that IS to really fleece the shit out of their customers.


I bet the amount of money spent on fraudulent inspection work annually would boggle the mind.

This is why I don’t trust anyone who won’t willingly show me what’s going on and allow me to watch the work performed if I so desire. I’ve been on the receiving end before, saying something was fixed and not fix it, or shoddy work. But the best is the lies and deceit. I took a Bronco II that I knew had issues for an inspection. One shop was a friend’s recommendation and they gave me a literal laundry list of nonsense. I’m talking they were trying to tell me that the latch for the rear hatch was broken and needed replaced because it would only work to open the hatch in one direction but turned in two directions (I tried to explain that the other direction would open the rear glass had it been equipped with that option and they told me I was wrong). All the other complaints except the one front ball joint were equally absurd. The ball joint, passenger lower I believe it was, was indeed bad. They quoted me some absurd price like $560 because they claimed the book says it is a 4.5 hour job because they have to pull the front differential and all this stuff and I was like, no, look, literally look at this axle shaft slip joint right here, this is like a 2 hour max project if you’re really having problems and taking your time. Nope. Gotta go by the book. Fine, I’ll go fix this stuff myself.

Fixed the ball joint largely by myself in the local junkyard where I was friends with the owner one afternoon and took it home to a trusted mechanic (now retired) who looked it over, told me I had a bad body bushing, helped me change it, and sent me on my way with a sticker. Mind this was all back around 2004.

I do almost all of my own mechanic work these days. Still come across dishonest shops trying to tell me that something is wrong that isn’t and then trying to tell me I’m wrong when I tell them they are lying.