Car trouble oh yeah (ooh, an obscure Adam Ant reference!)
I've come to the conclusion that the best way to find out if a car repair place is on the level is to refuse the service they suggest. A few days ago I took the Pathfinder in to get the tires rotated and aligned (for the first time in almost 3 years, oops), and of course the mechanics found other problems. 1,200 bucks' worth of problems. Turns out a rear axle seal is leaking into a brake drum, which makes it slippery (making it an anti-brake, you could say). In consultation with
stinky_monky, I decided to shop around for the seal and drum repair. The repair shop, which I was already a bit suspicious of because as I walked in the door a salesman was talking a woman in line into spending over $1,100 on tires and services for her minivan, laid on the whole "wow, I wouldn't drive a car in that condition" routine and refused to give me an itemized work order that I could use to shop around. So, needless to say, I won't be going back there (except for my triannual rotation since I bought the tires there), even if I can't find a better deal elsewhere.
To complete the story, I guess I should say that I looked through the car's records when I got home and found that the leaky seal problem had been pointed out to me in August of 2005 by the mechanic I always used in Sacramento, and I've been driving around with that problem ever since (including the 2,500-mile drive to Ohio). So I'm not going to stress too much about it. We'll just try to save up some money over the next few months and take care of it when we can (and the timing belt will need to be checked/replaced). We don't drive it all that much except during snowstorms anyway.
stinky_monky, I decided to shop around for the seal and drum repair. The repair shop, which I was already a bit suspicious of because as I walked in the door a salesman was talking a woman in line into spending over $1,100 on tires and services for her minivan, laid on the whole "wow, I wouldn't drive a car in that condition" routine and refused to give me an itemized work order that I could use to shop around. So, needless to say, I won't be going back there (except for my triannual rotation since I bought the tires there), even if I can't find a better deal elsewhere.
To complete the story, I guess I should say that I looked through the car's records when I got home and found that the leaky seal problem had been pointed out to me in August of 2005 by the mechanic I always used in Sacramento, and I've been driving around with that problem ever since (including the 2,500-mile drive to Ohio). So I'm not going to stress too much about it. We'll just try to save up some money over the next few months and take care of it when we can (and the timing belt will need to be checked/replaced). We don't drive it all that much except during snowstorms anyway.