Don't Stress! Avoid Mechanic Confusion

Online, August 23, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Finding an auto mechanic that you can trust is a tough task for many. What should you look for? What should you stay away from? What are the issues that seem the most important but aren't really a factor? There are countless points to consider so here are a few tips to help guide you on your search for an honest reliable mechanic.

Thanks to the hyper online driven modern age we live in there are a wealth of online resources to help you weed through the tons of mechanics in your area. Cartalk.com is a great review of shops. You just need to enter your zip code and you'll find a slew of great customer reviews for almost any area of the country. Yelp.com is another great online tool to help you find real customer reviews and shops. Just make sure that when you're using online reviews to take a few bad reviews with a grain of salt. And on the same token, be wary of overly nice or sugar coated reviews. Those could be faux reviews and definitely won't help you in the long run.

Check around for your hourly rates. The cheapest quotes won't necessarily help you leave with the lowest bill. Some shops have creative methods of charging clients for additional services that any other shop would consider free. If there is a difficult diagnosis you may want to take your car to a slightly more expensive shop with more experienced auto mechanics because they'll be able to finish the job quicker. It's a good rule of thumb to remember that no shop charges as much as the dealership and many people will tell you that the non-dealer shops do a much better job than the dealership mechanics.

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