Originally Posted by AC1DD
Originally Posted by demarpaint
Probably because 80% of the so called mechanics today are hacks. The same can be said for other tradesmen as well unfortunately. There are several good mechanics who reside on this board, Trav, clinebarger, and The Critic come to mind, as do a few others. If they were close to me I'd probably use or recommend them to people. Aside from that finding one can be a challenge, I got lucky and found great tech at a local Jeep dealership. He has been great handling recall and warranty work. He's a great guy, a neat worker and very knowledgeable. I make it a point to take care of him when he does work for me.
I think it's MORE than that, far more, and many of them are also fraudsters as well. Heck I bet that 50% or more of the time most work people pay for at most shops is NEVER actually done at all, with many jobs only being partially completed, with just enough done so the customer will never had a clue.
Fact is that the overwhelming majority of auto repair shops and mechanics are hacks and/or thieves.
I can't say I totally disagree with you. There's good and bad in every profession, and I like to try and give the benefit of the doubt to people. I worked in 5 different dealerships in sales over a three + year span. During that time I had dealings with service, and independent shops, a lot of dealings. I could write a book about botched jobs, damaged cars, and comebacks. People would often come back into the sales department screaming at the salesman about how incompetent the service department was. Once in a while I'd get threatened, I laughed those off. I already knew there were some real hack mechanics working in their own businesses and for dealerships, what surprised me was the percent of these hacks was higher than I thought.
I will say again, I know with 100% certainty the member mechanics I mentioned earlier in this thread are what I consider to be experts and craftsmen. I would have no problem using any of them. I had the opportunity to become friends with Trav, good friends in fact. I've seen him work on a car of mine a few years back. He is a truly gifted mechanic, in fact the best I've seen.