How To Find The Best Mechanic - The Podcast

"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
06/30/2016 at 09:00 • Filed to: None

One of the questions I get asked most often is: How do you find a good mechanic? After all, I spend a lot of time talking about things that can go wrong when you hire a bad one. The answer is actually quite simple.

Even so, it takes a whole podcast to flesh out. You see, the answer is to ask around. And this is true in many fields of human endeavor. Want a good CPA or a good car salesperson? Again, ask around and get a referral.

To make sure the lesson is clear, I give some examples. How I found my mechanic, and how I stepped in to salvage a case when someone didn’t follow my advice, among others.

So, here is the audio:

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And the video:

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Steve Lehto has been practicing law for 24 years, almost exclusively in consumer protection and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! He wrote !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

This website may supply general information about the law but it is for informational purposes only. This does not create an attorney-client relationship and is not meant to constitute legal advice, so the good news is we’re not billing you by the hour for reading this. The bad news is that you shouldn’t act upon any of the information without consulting a qualified professional attorney who will, probably, bill you by the hour.

DISCUSSION (52)

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 10:10

This can’t possibly work. I get referrals all the time but I’m rubbish.

SteveLehto > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
06/30/2016 at 10:22

You need to do worse work!

Urambo Tauro > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 10:29

Another good thing to look for is where do the local police get their cars serviced .

Jay, the practical enthusiast > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 10:37

Great advice.

The manager of the auto parts store introduced me to his mechanic. Couldn’t be happier with the price / service / honesty.

SteveLehto > Urambo Tauro
06/30/2016 at 10:40

I hadn’t even thought of that but it makes sense. Who’s going to rip them off?!

For Sweden > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 11:10

The guy who knows where the officers sell drugs seized by other officers?

Wil Haginen > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 11:25

Hi Steve, would you share the name of the “best bodyshop in Michigan”? I’ve still got a few friends in SE Michigan area and I’m sure at some point, they’ll be happy to have the referral.

There’s a guy here in Houston (independent mechanic) who specializes only in European cars. And his rates reflect that. However, he’s so honest and good that I’ve been tempted to ONLY buy European cars just to ensure that I’ll be able to take it to him for service. It’s not just that he does good work, it’s also that he’s so honest that in spit of his high hourly costs, repairs might actually end up being cheaper than the original quote / estimate.

SteveLehto > Wil Haginen
06/30/2016 at 11:38

I hate to sound like I am advertising but since you asked, Autometric. They have a great reputation and they do AMAZING work.

Wil Haginen > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 11:40

Thanks!

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 13:43

We looked at providing the contract for our local police and they wanted a rediculously low labor rate. Like 2/3 or less the normal rate. They ended up giving it to the cheapest, worst place in town.

SteveLehto > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
06/30/2016 at 13:45

Makes you wonder how long that will last. Presumably they’ll end up with a lot of substandard repairs.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 14:06

The area is *uber* wealthy, one of the richest counties in the country. So the property taxes are crazy which means they get new cars every 2 years anyways. The repairs are definitely crap but they dont keep the cars long enough to matter.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 14:10

My parents website looks great, the yelp reviews are perfect, and every other place is great but we have found the best customers come from referrels. When people come offline they hardly ever seem to be as good as the customers that get us from marketing or reviews. Funny how it works both ways.

SteveLehto > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
06/30/2016 at 14:39

I wondered about that. When I went to the mechanic the first time, I told him who had referred me. I got the impression that it helped.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 14:47

We dont treat people different because where they come from but the “problem” customers are almost always from online and the good customers are almost always referrels from good customers. People forget businesses have customers they like more then others. Good customers have the extra mile gone for them.

StuntmanDan > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 15:10

Don’t listen to him! He’s a lawyer, they’re all crooks!

On a serious note, referrals are the way to go. I referred a friend to a mechanic I’ve known for years and he calls me excitedly every time he goes there to get his old piece of junk fixed. Every time I tell him to buy a new car, but at least he’s happy when he’s getting this one fixed.

1111111111111111111111 > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 20:40

Great show as always. I found my mechanic from a guy in another state who was into spec miata racing. I was on a miata forum, and mechanic is a spec driver, and mechanic is just down the street. Best service I’ve ever had.

1111111111111111111111 > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 20:41

Throwing someone a free plug is legit in my book. I try and do it whenever I get good service anywhere.

chaos-cascade > Urambo Tauro
06/30/2016 at 21:01

Disagree. Private business loves to screw governmental agencies. I took my truck once to the place that works on the local police cars here in Sacramento and wound up paying three times a reputable shop rate for a half ass work around fix.

DriveByComments > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 21:05

Does anyone else hesitate to give referrals?

I really don’t like to when it comes to things like this. Even restaurant suggestions are dicey because of value points, tastes, etc.

I just try and give a good description. I find hotels to be pretty easy in this regard or attractions.

I may have a good rapport with a mechanic and they may have a comfort level with my vehicle type and what I need to get done. If you go there and all the right boxes aren’t checked or if you end up being a PITA I feel like a failure a little bit.

I’ve had a lot of problems with dentists over my life. I found one that respected my time, wasn’t harsh/judgemental, didn’t push work on every visit. Eventually my whole family switched to this dentist, some of our friends did.

I then had another friend who asked if anyone knew a good dentist. I made a recommendation and it was a horror-show for all involved and probably had a bit of hard feelings.

Argentine jalop in Kosovo > For Sweden
06/30/2016 at 21:10

UH, are you Argentine too?

SteveLehto > DriveByComments
06/30/2016 at 21:13

There are also people I wouldn’t wish on my mechanic, if you know what I mean.

DriveByComments > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 21:20

Absolutely - I have friends/family that while fun & supportive in that role, can be absolutely ridiculous to the point where you limit some interactions and lower your opinion a little bit.

The types where everyone else is the problem because they really are the problem.

ArtistAtLarge > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 22:24

No such thing. All you can do is find the least worst.

shthar > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 22:53

Call the place. IF he sez he can get youy in that day, hang up.

If he sez it’ll be about a week and a half, that’s probably a good mechanic.

Good shops are always busy.

WRX-7 > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 23:21

I’m not arguing the point because this is absolutely good advice, but I feel like mechanics are a tricky area in that a lot of people probably have no idea if the mechanic did good work on their car or not. Most people out there (at least most that I know, I guess) can’t even tell me what all a mechanic did to their car, much less why they did it.

To give an example of this, I got a recommendation from someone I know to go to a particular mechanic who ended up putting the wrong spark plugs in my engine. It didn’t even occur to me that a mechanic could get something so basic wrong. The worst part is, I told the guy who recommended this mechanic in the first place, and he STILL takes his cars to this guy.

If I knew a bunch of car guys in the area, I’d bet I wouldn’t have any problems. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I ask four people I know, and I’ll get four different answers. Some of these answers, I know for certain, I wouldn’t agree with. Most’ll just take it to their manufacturer’s dealership.

Kris > SteveLehto
06/30/2016 at 23:37

I’m always careful to give vague suggestions to people who are simply price shopping mechanics. You want a reliable and honest mega nix, I can tell you where to go. You want the cheapest? Can’t help you. Mostly because people aren't ready to accept the sometimes inverse relationship between the two. You want the cheapest mechanic and the most honest? Better take some classes, buy some tools, and start doing the work yourself.

CharlieKellyKingofTheRats > Urambo Tauro
07/01/2016 at 00:15

Nope. That at least doesn't hold true where I am. Our police use a competive bid process and my parents ended up using the same mechanic as them. The guy was not a good mechanic. He was just willing to bid lower for a contract.

Standard_Deviation > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 00:17

Good mechanic story: I once owned a Hyundai Tiburon (sorry.) After it was out of warranty, I took it to my father’s long-time mechanic for a repair that I couldn’t tackle. When I went to pick the car up, he told me my ball joints were worn. I didn’t have the cash to get him to do change them, so I told him I’d take care of it myself on the weekend.

My buddy at the parts store got me the ball joints for next to nothing. It was my first time doing a ball joint replacement. Said mechanic shows up at my house Saturday morning, required tools in hand. He shows me how to do it on the left side, then loaned me the tools for me to do the right side. Awesome!!!

Lesson here: if you want to learn how to fix broken cars, buy a Hyundai. And also, awesome mechanics are awesome.

cream wobbly > DriveByComments
07/01/2016 at 00:25

Precisely this. My mechanic is slow and steady, very diligent and precise to a fault, he works on one at a time of my family’s two cars so we’re never totally beholden to his schedule, we have a “spare”. I live a short walk from the shop. For someone who needs their car fixed in a rush I wouldn’t recommend him.

There are other places further afield can do a neat job at slightly higher cost usually in the same day. But I like the walk, and I like my mechanic and his grumpy boss.

ronmler3 > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
07/01/2016 at 07:30

Government is not best at doing things!!

Ivan Moore Bacon Wright II > Urambo Tauro
07/01/2016 at 08:08

Usually that happens at the City Garage, where they only work on City vehicles. Absolutely NO personal vehicles. They won’t even let you top off your tire pressure there, even if you are a City employee.

ronmler3 > Ivan Moore Bacon Wright II
07/01/2016 at 08:12

Where YOU live, anyway...

Ivan Moore Bacon Wright II > ronmler3
07/01/2016 at 08:26

And in many other municipalities as well, as long as they have their shit together to a certain degree. It’s a pretty common thing. Check with your local city government’s Department of Public Works to find out the answer. Truly sorry if yours doesn’t, as having a dedicated City garage saves our municipality a lot of tax dollars versus having to go through the process of getting bids from contracted mechanics.

ManchesterMoobs > DriveByComments
07/01/2016 at 08:45

I have an amazing dentist. Did a root canal with none of the bullshit that most places put you through, one session, as quick as it could be, took what the insurance I had offered,never saw a bill. Mechanics? Totally different mess. I have family in the business some of whom are known to be less than ethical. As such, and since the markers for being related are fairly obvious, i will have to move out of state to have “normal” dealings with a mechanic.

npc58501 > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 09:03

You know what’s harder than finding the best mechanic that you can trust?

Finding the best mechanic for an electric car(most dealers even for the same marque won’t even touch it).

Man these things are hard to figure out when something goes amiss(they practically never do) and I’ve been on a team that has built two electric cars from scratch!

14FeistyFieSTa > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 10:32

Great podcast as always Steve. One thing to note is that when you do get a referral, maybe just double check that that place you were referred to is still owned by the same people.

I bought a car built for trackdays from a friend of mine, and when I replaced the tie rods I asked my friend for a suggestion to go get an alignment. He said the mechanics at this one place knew his (now my) car, were into racing themselves, were awesome guys, etc...

So I go there and tell the guy at the counter what I want: just a front alignment for toe (BMW e30, rear isn’t adjustable and front camber is fixed). I specified that I wanted toe to 0* on both sides. We agreed to 1/2 the price for a normal 4-wheel alignment (but didn’t get it in writing... my mistake!).

Come back later to pick up the vehicle, and they had done the alignment wrong. Literally, this place has ONE job: alignments. It’s literally in the name of their store. Yet the mechanic didn’t know what “0 degrees toe” is, he thought it meant to just put toe in the middle of the manufacturer recommendation specs (in this case a bit toe in on both sides). I spent about a 1/2 hour arguing with them about how that’s not what I asked for, and he kept trying to say that that’s what “0 toe meant”. I told him I’m an automotive engineer and I work on chassis components, I know what toe is!

On top of doing the job wrong, they charged me full price (4-wheel alignment) instead of the 1/2 price we had agreed upon... Turns out shortly before I came in, this place was bought out by a new owner and they had hired all new (incompetent) staff.

88 Tracer > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 10:43

CarTalk Mechanics Files is very helpful when finding a mechanic, especially when moving to a new area. A rare miss in your usually great podcast. As a lawyer, your comments on non-lawyers discussing the law are great!

SteveLehto > 88 Tracer
07/01/2016 at 11:18

Wait, you want me to plug a competitor?

Just kidding: I love those guys.

slapya > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 12:32

I found my mechanic shop by asking at the local parts store that supplies parts to most of the shops in the area. The people that work at that parts store have worked there for years, and I just asked them where they took their cars.

88 Tracer > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 16:22

I think they are complimentary goods. Also asking novices for a good mechanic is hit or miss, likely you and me judging what is a good doctor.

Matthew Urso > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 17:11

A very good friend of mine, who was also a top notch mechanic recently died, and I felt like a dick because i almost immediately thought to myself “fuck, NOW who do I bring my car too”

SteveLehto > Matthew Urso
07/01/2016 at 17:31

On the other hand, it shows how important he was.

torque > npc58501
07/01/2016 at 18:21

Electric car forums or eco/green car forums would be my go to here.

I had a similar problem years ago & found a good mechanic from recommendations at a Forum repair GTG (get together) where a bunch of us got together to help each other repair our cars. In my case another forum member was an experienced amateur mechanic and walked me through my 1st timing belt (and water pump) replacement.

Several forum members at the GTG recommended a local mechanic in the metro area, whom I’d go to anytime I needed help diagnosing something or when something needed repairing for which I didn’t want to tackle. I didn’t use that mechanic often, but when needed it was a Godsend.

Matthew Urso > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 22:43

The thing I loved about the dude was how much pride he took in his work, and how he’d get annoyed that the other guys he worked with didn’t take their job as serious as he did.

AntiSpeed > SteveLehto
07/01/2016 at 23:19

I sometimes fantasize about finding an abandoned garage like that and running a little one-car racing team out of it. How much would a place like that cost?

200 Touring > SteveLehto
07/02/2016 at 01:52

I worked retail for nearly 24 years straight, I know exactly what you’re talking about Steve! Some customers are great, and when I lost my job nearly a month ago, I let some of them know I was no longer with that business, there are others that I will not miss in the least, although I do feel sorry for who ever at that store might have to deal with them.........especially the drunk guy that only seem to be respectful towards me and had himself banned by the store’s previous owners.

200 Touring > 14FeistyFieSTa
07/02/2016 at 01:59

Last couple alignments we had done was at a Firestone that a customer of my former employer works for. When he did the alignment on my 200, I’m not sure what he was happier about, the lack of rusted up hardware on the car, or being able to describe what was going on with the suspension with somebody who he knows that knew what he was talking about and not looking at him like some clueless kid who was trying to screw them over.

SteveLehto > AntiSpeed
07/02/2016 at 08:00

Probably not much. I took that picture in Glendora MI. The town is tiny and there’s not a whole lot else there.

TireMan > shthar
07/02/2016 at 08:10

The other side of that, for some reason every customer expects their car fixed in one day. Doesn't matter how large the job or how late it comes in. I attribute the attitude to the Internet and its' instant gratification.

radcalimom > SteveLehto
07/02/2016 at 19:38

Your mechanic is also a good person to ask if you are thinking about purchasing a particular car. Because they may see that model more frequently for whatever reason and can let you know that it could be a problem. I have had that happen to me and it saved me a potential headache! They can also refer you to a body shop they know.

By the way have listened to most of your podcast and have forwarded more than a couple to my family and friends. They are just the right length with enough information for a non-lawyer to take in. And the stories....have forwarded a couple just for the stories in them!

elkris > SteveLehto
07/03/2016 at 05:12

Avoid at all costs dealers that have fancy merchandise store fronts, cafes, or a “service adviser” as a liaison between you and the actual mechanic. Those dealers hire mechanics straight out of high school, or still in college at minimum wage. They have literally zero experience, required to purchase their own tools, and generally a vehicle is returned with more problems than it went in with.

In addition, they are rated how quickly they ‘fix’ a repair rather than spend quality time really fixing a repair. This is why you sometimes get a car back with the problem not fixed, because it’s been in their possession too long.