How do you find a decent mechanic?

forgotmyname

Word of mouth or buy a fleet of wrecks and use them as sacrifices.

TrickyWicky

It's funny how many of you recommend word of mouth when the op has stated they don't really have anyone to ask.

I wonder how many of you actually understood the ops point of this thread.

Weird_Nev

TrickyWicky wrote: »

It's funny how many of you recommend word of mouth when the op has stated they don't really have anyone to ask.

I wonder how many of you actually understood the ops point of this thread.

They never meet anyone?
Colleagues?
Neighbours?
Local shop?

There's a whole community out there. You just have to ask!

My favored local garage is tucked away in an old dairy across the common. You'd never know it was there. I found it walking my dog, they had some interesting cars in there, they were happy to chat, hey presto i've found my local garage. I've since found out that they basically serve the entire local community. Which is why we all drive shoddy old cars.

wannabehermit

Hi thanks for all the replies.

colino wrote: »

OP why have you lost faith? Is he bad, too expensive or something else. If its just a communication problem, talk to him! Local, good indies are too hard to find to abandon for no good reason.

There's a few reasons:

Not doing work that we've specifically asked/doing work not requested - our Mondeo DMF was in dire need of being done (typical symptoms, massive vibration, iron filings all over the place under the bonnet, we had to keep cleaning the cam sensor because of it, plus all the usual 'text book' dmf stuff) but they said that was fine, couldn't even feel the vibration even though you could see it, even hear it if someone was talking in the car. Instead they changed the driveshaft, while that did need doing and we knew it needed doing we didn't want any other work done without the flywheel being done (wanting t sell the car and knew that would be impossible with a failing DMF). That car is now sat over at my parents going mouldy. Another time I was quoted £260 for welding for my Escort, so got them to do it, in the end there was more rust than they thought and it took them 2 days, but he still only charged the original quoted (which is one of the good things about him). He thought he was doing me a favour but I'd rather he'd just phoned me and told me it was a lot more than originally thought as I'd have just scrapped it. We have asked/told him several times with several different cars if something needs doing not quoted for let us know as we may not want it doing, or we may be able to do it ourselves. There are other examples, these are just the biggest ones.

ALso the MOndeo and our current car have both come out of there damaged, both big scrapes on the corner of the back bumper that weren't there when we went in and couldn't have happened between coming home from there and when we noticed them. The one on our current car happened only a few days after we bought her. Also our car we have now has a huge oil/grease stain on the passenger seat from when we had the cv joint repaired recently. And since that repair we're now getting a loud banging/clinking sound when we reverse.

micmac22 wrote: »

ask 10 local taxi drivers which garage they use i did 7 yrs ago very happy with service and prices.

There's really only one (massive) taxi company where I live and they have their own garage.

rev_henry wrote: »

Whilst on this subject, is there actually a thread for good mechanics? Maybe there should be one, split into areas, and we could recommend our mechanics, or not?

What area are you in OP?

That would probably be pretty useful for a lot of people rev, wonder if anyone could do one?

We're in Portsmouth. The previous owner always used the same garage and they look like they were pretty reasonable with cost and didn't do uneccessary work, but they're about 30 miles away otherwise I think I'd give them a try.

Weird_Nev wrote: »

They never meet anyone?
Colleagues?
Neighbours?
Local shop?

There's a whole community out there. You just have to ask!

My favored local garage is tucked away in an old dairy across the common. You'd never know it was there. I found it walking my dog, they had some interesting cars in there, they were happy to chat, hey presto i've found my local garage. I've since found out that they basically serve the entire local community. Which is why we all drive shoddy old cars.

DHs colleagues tend to use specialists or have company cars.

Neighbours - most use main dealers, except next door who have their own mechanic who is bloody useless. The son had a problem with his car which DH and I diagnosed within about 30 seconds, the mechanic came out and took him over half an hour of head scratching to diagnose the exact same thing as we'd said it was, so wouldn't trust him.

I don't really speak to anyone down at the school to ask either.


I think it may be the trial and error method. There's one down the road that always seems to be pretty busy with wrecks so we'll have a scout around.

colino

Fair enough OP I'd have got rid of him a long time ago too! Sounds like he only works, not well, in a narrow range of jobs he is comfortable with. The excess welding rings a bell with an old boy I took on and hankered for the good old days when just about every MOT needed the torch brought out.

Have to agree with the good advice above about personal recommendations. Someone who is local and has been there, and off the beaten track, usually is straight enough to be vfm and for him to sleep at night too.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Make specific forums are a good place to find make specific specialist indies, and as cars get ever more complicated the one man and his dog business is struggling to keep up to date with changes and probably cannot afford to get the specific diagnostics tools for each and every make.

Use your loaf when reading these forums, for instance on some forums it becomes blatantly clear that specific tuners etc are sponsoring or may indeed own the site, as they get mentioned in glowing reports too often, over egged the pudding as it were, so read between the lines too.

You can't just take anyones recommendation, people can be conned so easily and come back for more...they keep voting politicians in every 5 years...;)

forgotmyname

TrickyWicky wrote: »

It's funny how many of you recommend word of mouth when the op has stated they don't really have anyone to ask.

I wonder how many of you actually understood the ops point of this thread.

Its funny how someone presumes the orignal poster is a hermit and never leaves home. They said they know people that take their cars to dealers. Are these not mechanics then?

Sometimes a dealer is not as expensive as you think.

Usually they are to be avoided but there are exceptions.

I would rather pay £100 an hour at a main dealer than risk dodgy kev the mobile mechanic who only charges £20 an hour but is ham fisted and breaks more than he came to fix, Says hes popping off to get a part or a sandwich and doesnt return, Leaving your car in bits and undriveable.

property.advert

Why do main dealers charge say £30 per hour for bodywork but £90 for mechanics ?

(apart from ripping you off and simply because they can).

TrickyWicky

forgotmyname wrote: »

Its funny how someone presumes the orignal poster is a hermit and never leaves home. They said they know people that take their cars to dealers. Are these not mechanics then?

I'm making assumptions?

wannabehermit wrote: »

We don't really know anybody who could recommend a decent mechanic to us

Yeah some dealers are mechanics but not everyone can use them as most of them cost £100+ per hour. Thats why the op was asking. Instead of being helpful you've then accused me of making assumptions when its actually you making them.

forgotmyname

£100 per hour and quote under 1hr to do the work, Or £25 an hour and quote 5 hours instead.


Some garages will still need to put the car into a main dealer for ECU updates etc. So as i already
said it may not be as expensive as you think.