Archive for January, 2007
01-18-2007
Why I hate car repair!
OK, this is going to be all about why car places can completely suck, ESPECIALLY if you are a girl. And in the long run, this post will sing the praises of one car place, Wings Stuff, on Bannock in Denver.
I’ve got a nice little 1997 Subaru Impreza wagon that I love, and I try to take care of it: get the oil changed regularly, have fluids and tires checked, etc. I really don’t know much about cars. Changing the wiper blades and filling up the gas, oil and windshield wiper fluid are about where I top out. I’ve never learned how to change my oil, and considering that I can pay someone else to do it cheaper than I could do it myself (when you factor in recylcing the oil costs; I looked into a few years ago when one of my girlfriends offered to do it for me), that’s just fine and dandy with me. I have better things to do than crawl around under the car.
Now, of course, being mechanical, things occasionally go wrong with cars, or parts wear out. I had a problem with my rear wiper; it didn’t work. I ignored it all summer, since I didn’t need it, but with the recent huge dumps of snow here in Colorado, it would have been handy.
So, while I had it at Firestone for an oil change last month, I asked them to look at it. I’d been told once by someone I know who works on Subarus that with the hatchback wagons, a lot of times the wiring gets messed up over time with the opening and closing of the door. After about 5 minutes, the Firestone guy came back and said his tech was having trouble finding the problem, but in the meantime here were a lot of other things that needed fixing, to the tune of $300. Thanks, but no thanks. Find the problem with the wipers. After they had it there for about an hour and a half, they still couldn’t, and I had to leave.
This particular Firestone is around the corner from my house, so a few days later, I brought it back in to have them check out the wiper. After 40 minutes of rooting around, they told me the motor was dead and they could fix it for about $350. Not that critical, I told them, and drove off.
This is my second Subaru. I used to have a 1983 GL Wagon. One night about 11 years ago, I started to have trouble with my car, and I had Sears, who were right next to where I worked at that time, look at it. They said it was the alternator, but I remembered having an alternator go bad once before, and it didn’t seem like an alternator. One of my co-workers recommended S-Wings stuff. Said they only worked on Subarus, and knew what they were talking about. I called them, spoke to Kevin, and he said he knew what it was, some spring part or another, and cost about $90 to fix. Since then, I’ve always tried to go there for repairs, despite the fact that they are out of the way.
So, about 2 weeks after leaving Firestone, I decide to go to Wings Stuff and have them look at the wiper problem. They do so, explain that it is indeed the wiring, and fix it for $85!!!
$85, or $350, for a repair that wouldn’t have even fixed the problem. Amazing. So, I’ve lost all faith in Firestone. I may still let them change my oil, since they are close by, and they do make decent tires (”The tires are the things on your car, that make contact with the road . . .” yada yada yada) but that’s it.
You know, if you can’t take the time to actually figure out what’s wrong, why bother? And every time I go to a car repair place EXCEPT for Wings Stuff, I feel like I’m being taken for a ride. It’s like, the men (always men) see a girl walk in and decide how much money they can take from her without even looking at the damn car first.
I guess the moral of the story is that it can really pay off in the long run to hunt down a smaller place in your area and establish a relationship with them. Trust is everythng when it comes to my car; Wings has continuously proved over 11 years that they are worth my trust. Good luck on your own hunt!
Posted by Candace in Rants | 1 Comment »