Car Experts Please Apply Here!

[ShadowHM]

Garages like to advertise that they have a "trusted friendship" with their customers; this is absolute bunk... and generally a nice lead-in to them wanting you to just put-up and shut-up with any of their recommendations.  Your relationship with a Garage (and any other service-oriented repair business) should always remain adversarial.

Luck.

Maybe it is the word 'garages' that I am disagreeing with, as opposed to 'your regular mechanic', but we have had considerable success and comfort level with a specific mechanic for about 15 years now. He has seen us through a series of older cars. He replaced another trusted mechanic who moved out of the city.

But an adversarial relationship with a service provider just doesn't work for me. If they make me feel as if there is a need for adversarial relations, I move along. But having found a trusted one, I tend to keep them. Word of mouth from other customers is a better bet than phoning around, in my opinion.

And I don't think this attitude should be restricted to service oriented repair businesses. I feel the same way about my dentist and my family doctor. Shop around until you find a good one, and then work to make your relationship non-adversarial.

YMMV But this attitude works for me.