He will be lucky to get 3 months out of that car without a major break down. And when it does break down he won't be able to pay the cost to fix it.
Types of Auto Repair Customers
- Thread starter The Critic
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edyvw
$50 site donor 2026
Why would he have major breakdown?
My local independent shop plays a very strong psychological game. They've told me no work was required several times and sent me on my way with no charge. They give me an estimate for work and then it's 10% less when I pick the car up due to some miscalculation. When I buy tires, they are always down selling to less expensive tires. They are big on playing the long game and it's always packed with cars.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2026
I see some of these everyday at the dealership. You’d be amazed that people with old beaters that pay dealership prices. My favorite are the people that try to argue over state inspections then you pull out the book and prove them wrong on everything lol.
Every field has both customers and businesses that range from awful to decent to good to great.
And although sometimes a customer and a business both mean well but just don’t align. It’s important to recognize this.
Although some people and companies are just trash and it is what it is.
As a company you can always choose your customers. If you are a massive corporation with 6000 stores one lousy customer that warranties their $30 brake pads every 2 months because they do Uber all day doesn’t matter.
But if you are a small business owner you need to be MUCH more careful because just one or a handful of bad customers can ruin you.
For example I’ve had potential clients ask me about a website and when I meet with them it’s very apparent it’s not going to be a good fit. Most often the issue is their budget or expectations are unrealistic.
I had a guy offer me $20/hour to go to his house and help him build a website like Bring a Trailer and teach him how to code at the same time.
I had a guy who wanted an entire social network tailored to artists created for $500.
Both of them were nice people, just out of touch with reality. I have had other people that were simply nasty to deal with or were never happy or tried to abuse the service.
But at the end of the day, the best thing you can do is be awesome and charge accordingly. Have integrity. While not taking BS from anyone. Over time you will end up with a group of great customers. And those customers generally are surrounded by other similar people who will then come to you as well.
And although sometimes a customer and a business both mean well but just don’t align. It’s important to recognize this.
Although some people and companies are just trash and it is what it is.
As a company you can always choose your customers. If you are a massive corporation with 6000 stores one lousy customer that warranties their $30 brake pads every 2 months because they do Uber all day doesn’t matter.
But if you are a small business owner you need to be MUCH more careful because just one or a handful of bad customers can ruin you.
For example I’ve had potential clients ask me about a website and when I meet with them it’s very apparent it’s not going to be a good fit. Most often the issue is their budget or expectations are unrealistic.
I had a guy offer me $20/hour to go to his house and help him build a website like Bring a Trailer and teach him how to code at the same time.
I had a guy who wanted an entire social network tailored to artists created for $500.
Both of them were nice people, just out of touch with reality. I have had other people that were simply nasty to deal with or were never happy or tried to abuse the service.
But at the end of the day, the best thing you can do is be awesome and charge accordingly. Have integrity. While not taking BS from anyone. Over time you will end up with a group of great customers. And those customers generally are surrounded by other similar people who will then come to you as well.
Yes, its amazing what people will think is a "fair" price for things. I used to do a lot of PC saves back in the day before smartphones took over. Someone screws up their PC somehow, I pull all the files they need off it, reimage it with whatever Windows it had on it at the time, and get it working again for them to use until they screw it up again. I remember people complaining about getting charged $50-$100 for work that would have cost them 3x that if they would have taken it to Best Buy or some local place that existed at the time. My answer was the same every time. Go find someone else to do it then for cheaper and see how that works out. Or have the tools, equipment, and knowledge to fix it yourself. Never did manage to find someone willing to do it for $20 that I can remember.
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You got the wrong people
Let me tell you about the people I used to repair computers for. Friends and neighbors.
- Go there, spend hours fixing and streamlining everything, tell them to NOT DO anymore whatever caused the issue (99% of the time - Google any astrology, lost love, or adult subjects and follow any of the links).
- Get called a few months later to fix again.
- Discover a computer in a state orders of magnitude worse than the first time you had to fix it. Discover security software wiped and replaced with expired trials and bloatware, OS dialing and fine tuning reset to defaults, high quality parts replaced with junk (video and sound cards usually), sometimes Ram halved.
- Inquire on, errr, the discrepancy.
- "OH, yeah, it went slow again so I paid a professional to fix it, he also sold me better video and sound cards, said he optimized the memory as well, I didn't see much of a difference, it worked for a while then went downhill, then I called you".
If you do it for free, it doesn't register as work done.
Yeah, I knew better than to do that. I always made them bring me the PC and I told them they would get it back when I was done. If they didn't like it, find someone else. Told them the price beforehand, if they didn't like it, find someone else. Friends, family, friends of friends, didn't matter. I had more than enough other stuff to do, I would fix stuff on the side for a little extra cash because I could. I didn't have to.You got the wrong people
Let me tell you about the people I used to repair computers for. Friends and neighbors.
- Go there, spend hours fixing and streamlining everything, tell them to NOT DO anymore whatever caused the issue (99% of the time - Google any astrology, lost love, or adult subjects and follow any of the links).
- Get called a few months later to fix again.
- Discover a computer in a state orders of magnitude worse than the first time you had to fix it. Discover security software wiped and replaced with expired trials and bloatware, OS dialing and fine tuning reset to defaults, high quality parts replaced with junk (video and sound cards usually), sometimes Ram halved.
- Inquire on, errr, the discrepancy.
- "OH, yeah, it went slow again so I paid a professional to fix it, he also sold me better video and sound cards, said he optimized the memory as well, I didn't see much of a difference, it worked for a while then went downhill, then I called you".
If you do it for free, it doesn't register as work done.
There were plenty of people who were appreciative but you always got the cheapskate that think they have some magical ability to negotiate. I'm not a car dealership, the price is the price and if you don't like it then find someone else.
And, of course, you would always get the people that a few months later screwed the thing up again and would want to bring it back and have me fix it again. For free, cause it shouldn't break again. Well, it wouldn't break again if you wouldn't be visiting all those sites I found on your PC when I was looking at it last time. Suddenly paying to get it fixed wasn't such a problem. They don't go to THOSE sites. Don't try to scam the IT guy folks, I know everything you do whether you like it or not. I'm not above blackmail if you want to be a problem.
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- 318
My wife and I are 'clients' according to the list. I didn't get from the list that clients are considered 'suckers' BTW, not sure why some people think that. As far as us, we do a lot of research on the shops that work on our vehicles and trust them 100% as they're always people that have integrity and are not out to upsell you and rip you off. I consider being a client a good thing. And as I've posted MANY times, developing a good relationship with a good shop ultimately saves you a ton of money because they don't rip you off, they care about your satisfaction and know you're just trying to keep your vehicles going as economically as possible, they own up if they make a mistake, and they're decent people.
When I was in private practice I charged more for a divorce than any other office. There were a couple of borderline crazy attorneys who practiced in the same area. If they represented the other party my fee doubled. I didn’t get many divorce cases but my mental health appreciated it.
I have a shop like that. I used to live 25 miles away, but now about 275 miles away. I'll still go there for major maintenance. I had an '03 Golf TDI with about 300k miles on it when I first used that shop; their TDI guru kept it running until just over one million miles when I retired it. I never argued about his diagnoses, never argued about the bill just paid it. I spent about $6,000/year and he saved me so much money it was ridiculous. Now I need to find a closer shop that I can trust 100%. I now own 3 other '03 TDI's -- one driven 20k miles/year by one nephew, another about to be donated to a different nephew. Maybe I can survive with just one TDI, as little as I drive these days.
I do my own work, but have to go somewhere for state inspection stickers.
The state capped the price at eighteen bucks in 2001 and hasn't upped it since. It takes an honest half hour to do the job, so shops lose money on each one they do hoping to get collateral repair work out of what they find wrong.
So I use chain tire stores with pretty good results. I know the book, briefly used to do inspections (at the worst chain around, LOL.) They probably look at me as a deadbeat for wasting their time, never getting the work they recommend, never using them to get my car up to par for a sticker.
They also spend all sorts of time entering my car into their database, they track me by phone number. I don't have the heart to tell them as soon as that sticker goes on, the car's on Facebook Marketplace. So they ask me about it the following year, even send me postcards that my beater needs an appointment.
But, yeah, you have to have a nose for deadbeats in any business. Chain stores have a philosophy of scraping the dirt for business so they keep answering my call.
The state capped the price at eighteen bucks in 2001 and hasn't upped it since. It takes an honest half hour to do the job, so shops lose money on each one they do hoping to get collateral repair work out of what they find wrong.
So I use chain tire stores with pretty good results. I know the book, briefly used to do inspections (at the worst chain around, LOL.) They probably look at me as a deadbeat for wasting their time, never getting the work they recommend, never using them to get my car up to par for a sticker.
They also spend all sorts of time entering my car into their database, they track me by phone number. I don't have the heart to tell them as soon as that sticker goes on, the car's on Facebook Marketplace. So they ask me about it the following year, even send me postcards that my beater needs an appointment.
But, yeah, you have to have a nose for deadbeats in any business. Chain stores have a philosophy of scraping the dirt for business so they keep answering my call.
I do my own work, but have to go somewhere for state inspection stickers.
The state capped the price at eighteen bucks in 2001 and hasn't upped it since. It takes an honest half hour to do the job, so shops lose money on each one they do hoping to get collateral repair work out of what they find wrong.
So I use chain tire stores with pretty good results. I know the book, briefly used to do inspections (at the worst chain around, LOL.) They probably look at me as a deadbeat for wasting their time, never getting the work they recommend, never using them to get my car up to par for a sticker.
They also spend all sorts of time entering my car into their database, they track me by phone number. I don't have the heart to tell them as soon as that sticker goes on, the car's on Facebook Marketplace. So they ask me about it the following year, even send me postcards that my beater needs an appointment.
But, yeah, you have to have a nose for deadbeats in any business. Chain stores have a philosophy of scraping the dirt for business so they keep answering my call.
When it comes to something like that going to a corporate chain store is a good idea because they can absorb the waste of time (30+ mins of work for $18) better than a local place can.
Speaking of which I wish we had car inspections here. The smog test stuff they care about here is plain dumb in some ways. But a basic safety inspection would be very useful. We don’t have rust here but omg, the number of cars with pieces falling off or bald tires is sad.
Funny you say that. I'm in MA but our friends in NH just voted to discontinue vehicle inspections. I both like and dislike the idea.
On one hand in MA most shops do a quick safety check and scan for codes...nothing shows up and you are good to go! In NH the inspections are more thorough. It has been 20 years since I lived in and had an NH inspection done but they measured your brake pads, disc thickness, noted cracks on rubber suspension components, checked for fuel/brake line issues, etc. Everything.
The yearly inspection made sense when cars barely lasted to 100k miles and were constantly falling apart once they hit 10 years old. The yearly inspection was the only way that the negligent vehicle owners found out their brake lights had been out for the past 11 months, now at least the computer tells you!
I do think a "once in a while" inspection is good, especially for safety items like airbags, suspension components, etc. Will help keep cars safer overall. It will inform good people who had no clue something was wrong and force the bad people to actually improve their death traps. The yearly inspection has just become a profit generation tool for the state.
I'd rather see a much more thorough inspection required when purchasing a vehicle, then repeated every 2-3 years. It will help keep some cars more safer-ish and would actually provide a useful service rather than a 15 minute quick glance and take your money.
Fair enough. What about if safety inspection was required to sell the car? Since we already have to smog the car to sell it and every two years? And then also every 4 years if you are keeping the car?
I won against shop who said I needed accessory belt to pass inspection because it impacted power steering on a 2013 Acura ILX. How? Electric steering
The belt was eventually replaced howver at fraction of cost vs inspection station
I would agree with some sort of full inspection when a car is sold. I would expect this to be done prior to purchase by the dealer showing the vehicle is "ready to go" for the next 3 years and it would be baked into their "Documentation and Preparation" fees.
Private purchase....same inspection should be required but would be the responsibility of the purchaser.
After that if you still own the car a full inspection every 3 years would be better than a cursory glance yearly.
I would also be in favor of how those on the other side of the pond do it with their "MOT's". I'm pretty sure the inspection follows the car, not the owner. So you can buy a car and the ad will say "MOT is good until MMDDYYYY". Their MOT's are very comprehensive and accessible online to everyone. So you can look up a VIN and see what it has failed for in the past, what "heads up" that were given as recommendations at the last MOT, etc. I think they are good for 2 years over there.
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