Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I heart my mechanic

I think one of the great underestimated blessings of life is having a mechanic who's competent and trustworthy and doesn't overcharge you. Car repairs have so much potential to be stressful because the average person is at the mercy of his or her mechanic, and the average repair is not cheap. When you take your car in for an oil change and they say you also need $500 worth of other work done, you might suspect you're getting taken for a ride, but how would you know for sure?

The service station my family has used for years is just wonderful. When I take my car in for any reason, I ask them to give it a once-over and fix any problems they see. When they find something, I know it's legit. Once, when Matt and I lived in Fayetteville, my car broke down and thanks to AAA Plus I actually had it towed all the way to this service station so the people I trusted could diagnose the problem and fix it.

The other thing I like about this service station is its old-school vibe. I wasn't around 30 years ago, but I get the feeling it hasn't changed much. They have a full-service gas pump, and you have to go inside to pay with a credit card. The women behind the counter chain smoke all day long. There are always a few old men there, just chatting with the employees and customers and generally chilling. They sell Cokes in glass bottles. They're closed on Sundays.

Sometimes I'm tempted to keep this place on the downlow. If everyone knew about it, everyone would go there, and they might be forced to hire new people and raise their prices.

But it's too good not to share. So if you live around here and you want a great mechanic, ask me.

1 comment:

Jodi Ohl said...

LOL--love your description of the service station. I use a nice older gentleman that banks with us and has a service station in town (just not the best part of town). He's very honest, too. I've gotten taken before and it's not fun. I hate being ignorant about anything, especially cars. Being a woman with car problems is like being asked to get raped!

My X-BF fixes cars, but I dred having him fix mine anymore because I feel like it's just asking him to come back into my life again. He is good at what he does, and thankfully he did teach me a few things about the basics so I no longer feel at the mercy of mechanics.