Trying to find a competent mechanic that is honest, AT ANY PRICE is just about impossible today.
This makes me really wonder.. WHO do I have do my timing belt and HOW do I find them?
The stealership clowns are forced to doing too quickly here. And the small shops are still banging away on crown Vic's and Chevy pickups so they don't even have a subscription to AllData for the right instrictions. Then, if I try to 'interview' a prospective shop they get their undies in a bundle when I start asking about their procedures. Almost as if they say to themselves "this guy isn't worth the trouble of doing it right, he even wants to KNOW about how we'd do the work"
Right you are SumpChump!
Your experiences are the same as mine, and I would imagine many other consumers. I had an issue with a shop I have used for a long time, not that I really thought they did great work, but because they didn't seem to be grossly incompetent. Well things change, over the past three or four years I noticed that they were making more mistakes, also I was lied to when I specifically asked this shop to install a specific OEM Denso radiator on my Honda. When I asked as to why they didn't honor my request, which I would have gladly paid the extra for, the service writer (wife of the shop owning mechanic) didn't say anything thing to excuse the issue.
They also left an oil filter a bit loose on my VW (they shouldn't have even been touching it as I didn't have an OC done) which caused a slow weeping leak luckily I caught it and tightened it up this just after they replaced a worn motor mount...but they didn't replace the one I asked them to, probably because it is more difficult to get to the trans mount.
The final straw with the so called professional shop I had gone to for over 12 years with two vehicles( and had my Dad going there as well) was when I had left a brief note about changing the ATF and oil change on this car. When I came back to get it I wanted to make sure things were good with the fluids so I opened the hood and was checking levels and work. The shop owner/mechanic came out and literally started barking and yelling at me as to why I was checking the fluids and was their anything wrong...When I tried to explain that I had some issues with the car when it was worked on at a place THEY referred me to he didn't reply, but then added that he didn't like my note and that telling him how to do his job doesn't work for him. I knew at that point I was done with this excuse for a professional shop. The amusing but unsettling thing was that all the instructions I left the shop for previous jobs had never been seen by the mechanic., the wife, indicated she had been keeping them from him, and must have thrown them out. My Mom called back the place to speak with the women and she complained that I shouldn't have left new parts for him to use (free and OEM) and that "her husband is going to say what he feels like" and he hates the internet, and by checking the fluids "I must not trust him"...
I should have dumped this place years ago but it really seems like there are NO better places to go. The auto repair industry is a disgrace and deserves the suspicion and contempt of customers.
$tealerships are just as big a [censored]. While there are some decent techs out there the number of hacks is far, far, greater, and then you have to balance that with the crookedness that seems to pervade the way most of them conduct business in general.