HOW TO FIND HONEST CAR MECHANICS

Finding honest car mechanics can seem daunting.

Mechanics can be staunch allies in your quest for maximum energy efficiency from your car. But when you turn your car over to service technicians, it is on a basis of trust. You trust them to do a competent job. You trust them to not overcharge for the job. You trust them to do only needed work. And you trust them to actually do the work they say they are doing.

But, do they deserve your trust?

While most mechanics are both honest and competent, the bad ones seem to turn up everywhere.

There are, it seems, endless ways to get scammed on auto repairs. And if you don’t know anything about the people you’re leaving your car with, you can’t know if they deserve your trust.

With all of that in mind, here are some suggestions that should help you find honest, competent car mechanics.

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GET REFERENCES

Without a doubt, the best way to find honest car mechanics is to get references. Ask your neighbors and coworkers. They may know the good mechanics to trust, and the ones to avoid.

One excellent and often overlooked resource is your insurance agent. If you use an agency based insurance company like State Farm or American Family, your agent can be an excellent resource. Local insurance agents know just about everyone in the area, and they visit with people talking about their cars on a daily basis.

While it is true that your insurance agent may also insure a number of auto mechanics (both good and bad), it's also true that they value your business as well. So most agents will try to always maintain a high level of integrity in all of their business dealings.

There really is no single foolproof way to avoid car repair scams and find the good guys. But one resource comes close. If you want to have the best chance of reading real, honest reviews, by people who live in your area, who have actually done business with the auto repair shop you're considering, check out Angie's List.

Angie's List takes a lot of the guesswork out of finding good mechanics by providing members with thousands of unbiased ratings and reviews from actual customers. While there is a small charge for using the site, you'll find the information priceless, and guaranteed.

No matter what other qualifications mechanics may have, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS find out what real customers have to say.

There is just no substitute for good references.

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CHECK TRUSTWORTY RESOURCES

Check with the AAA (American Automobile Association). They maintain a nationwide database of recommended auto mechanics that have agreed to operate within the guidelines set forth by AAA.

The BBB (Better Business Bureau) online has a nationwide database of businesses. BBB members have the BBB logo next to their name. While membership isn’t a guarantee of honesty, the fact that these owners join does at least suggest a willingness to submit to ethical scrutiny. And if you have a shop in mind, be sure to check the Better Business Bureau for complaints that may have been filed.

And the Ripoff Report maintains an extensive, easy to access, nationwide database of consumer complaints.

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CHECK FOR CERTIFICATIONS

Be sure that service technicians have qualifying certifications from organizations like the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence or the Motorist Assurance Program . Auto service technicians with these certifications have qualified through stringent education and testing programs.

Competency is no guarantee of honesty; so don’t rely only on certifications.

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DO AN ONLINE SCAM SEARCH

Before doing business with an unknown establishment you should, at a minimum, do an online scam search. It’s quick and simple.

Just go online to any search engine and enter the name of the business you are interested in followed by a term like ‘repair scam’, or ‘scam’, or ‘consumer complaints’. The entry might look something like this: trusty auto repair scam, or trusty auto consumer complaints. When you hit enter you may see a number of customer complaints about the business.

But there is a catch. Just because a business doesn’t show any complaints from the BBB or an online scam search, does not, necessarily mean that they are honest.

Why? Because most auto scams go unreported.

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A lot of scams are small in nature, like changing a filter that doesn’t need changing, or charging for a filter that doesn’t really get replaced. Very often, the customer isn’t even aware of the scam. When customers do suspect a scam, they usually aren’t sure enough to report it.

In most cases, the scam has to be for a lot of money, and charged to a customer with enough mechanical knowledge to confidently proceed against the perpetrator. That rarely happens, and scam shop operators take full advantage of that fact.

Another point to bear in mind is that a nationwide franchise or company will almost always have at least a few complaints due partly to the fact that they are big and deal with thousands of people every day. You can’t please all the people all the time.

But as you look at different companies and different car mechanics online, you will notice that some seem to generate more complaints and more severe complaints than others. When you see a pattern of large numbers of severe complaints, the caution light should go on.

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Educating yourself about your car, about the repair facility, and getting solid references will give you the best chance of finding an honest, competent mechanic.

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