Need a car estimate or something fixed?
Yeah, I should put this on Yelp and probably will, after they play with my car tomorrow and I get an estimate. In the mean time, let me pimp Honest Auto Service up in Shoreline to you.
When I first bought my '94 Subaru a few years ago, I had no working knowledge of cars and was worried about the high mileage on it. My friends who play with cars for fun, amusement and sometimes even profit all recommended Honest Auto as the place they have their hobby and regular cars checked out for problems. I was dubious because, ha ha, it's called Honest Auto and the mechanic sterotype is to tack on added fees to whatever they're doing.
Not so! The car-inspection price was a tad higher than other places, but they went above and beyond the other places with fabulous, vunderfully personalized service. I took the car there and they gave it a super detailed inspection that resulted in a check-list but also a lot of hand-written details. The mechanic then explained the list to me in laymens terms, highlighting which parts of the car I'd want to fix soon and which were fine until later. When I asked them if the car was a good deal and if I should buy it, they went off the record and said "Yeah, the car has high mileage but Subaru owners generally drive them everywhere and don't have many problems with the engine. In fact, they don't sell them off that much because of the high MPG and low maintenance costs."
So I bought the car in 2006, and the only problems I've had with it so far have been flat tires.
I called Honest Auto again today because my AC has an electrical issue and only bunny farts out cold air instead of blasting it, plus I haven't taken Esme in for a tune-up yet and she could probably use the TLC. Honest Auto was like "No problem, can you come in tomorrow morning?"
The shop is on Aurora over by the Shoreline Sears, so I can just hop a 358 to work and back too. Sweetness is mine!
(I'm mainly posting this because I really, really, really hate looking for auto mechanics or other services that are important but I only utilize once a year. Dentists are included in this category.)
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Edit: When I dropped her off this morning, they had hauled out Esme's "adoption papers"--the report they did on my car when I was thinking about buying it in 2006--so they didn't have to spend much time re-examining the car between their detailed notes and me pointing out what I'd fixed and what was still the same. Less labor = less money = win!
My lovely Esme now has working air-conditioning, although I didn't expect the fan to be worn out and death rattling--rather, I was hoping a wire was loose. Le sigh. But the mechanic was great: he told me I didn't need to replace one of my belts that Jiffy Lube had said was going to make my car break down and I had to fix right away (although when I mentioned that August & September would have a lot of road trips, he added it back on the list), and he helped me prioritize what was getting fixed on my car now versus what could be fixed later.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: they sent me a hand-written thank you note about two weeks after my first visit. Aww.
When I first bought my '94 Subaru a few years ago, I had no working knowledge of cars and was worried about the high mileage on it. My friends who play with cars for fun, amusement and sometimes even profit all recommended Honest Auto as the place they have their hobby and regular cars checked out for problems. I was dubious because, ha ha, it's called Honest Auto and the mechanic sterotype is to tack on added fees to whatever they're doing.
Not so! The car-inspection price was a tad higher than other places, but they went above and beyond the other places with fabulous, vunderfully personalized service. I took the car there and they gave it a super detailed inspection that resulted in a check-list but also a lot of hand-written details. The mechanic then explained the list to me in laymens terms, highlighting which parts of the car I'd want to fix soon and which were fine until later. When I asked them if the car was a good deal and if I should buy it, they went off the record and said "Yeah, the car has high mileage but Subaru owners generally drive them everywhere and don't have many problems with the engine. In fact, they don't sell them off that much because of the high MPG and low maintenance costs."
So I bought the car in 2006, and the only problems I've had with it so far have been flat tires.
I called Honest Auto again today because my AC has an electrical issue and only bunny farts out cold air instead of blasting it, plus I haven't taken Esme in for a tune-up yet and she could probably use the TLC. Honest Auto was like "No problem, can you come in tomorrow morning?"
The shop is on Aurora over by the Shoreline Sears, so I can just hop a 358 to work and back too. Sweetness is mine!
(I'm mainly posting this because I really, really, really hate looking for auto mechanics or other services that are important but I only utilize once a year. Dentists are included in this category.)
---
Edit: When I dropped her off this morning, they had hauled out Esme's "adoption papers"--the report they did on my car when I was thinking about buying it in 2006--so they didn't have to spend much time re-examining the car between their detailed notes and me pointing out what I'd fixed and what was still the same. Less labor = less money = win!
My lovely Esme now has working air-conditioning, although I didn't expect the fan to be worn out and death rattling--rather, I was hoping a wire was loose. Le sigh. But the mechanic was great: he told me I didn't need to replace one of my belts that Jiffy Lube had said was going to make my car break down and I had to fix right away (although when I mentioned that August & September would have a lot of road trips, he added it back on the list), and he helped me prioritize what was getting fixed on my car now versus what could be fixed later.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: they sent me a hand-written thank you note about two weeks after my first visit. Aww.