Entry bubble Frustrated by Car Repairs?

By: Nicole | May 02, 2008 | Category: General

Car MechanicA coworker stopped me in the hall last week and said, “Girl, I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it to that conference yesterday.” Even though she’d just paid for tire rotation, tire balancing and wheel alignment at her local repair shop, her entire car began to shake violently while cruising on a major highway. She was 50 miles from home, so she used her cell phone to find the nearest dealer repair shop. There, she learned that the original tire and wheel maintenance had not been performed. $800 later the car was back on the road, but it was an unnecessary reminder that a good mechanic is hard to find.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy solution when searching for a mechanic. The FTC and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) publish brochures with tips about finding a good repair shop. Both agree that word of mouth is still the best way to find a trustworthy mechanic, but sometimes that’s not enough.

ASE Blue SealThere are other ways to research mechanics. Look for the ASE Certified Technician seal awarded to individual technicians who pass standardized tests. You can even search online for repair shops that have earned the ASE Blue Seal, which requires that at least 75% of the repair shop’s mechanics have an ASE certification. The Motorist Assurance Program is a nonprofit that also gives its seal of approval to qualified repair shops.

In addition, there are consumer review services where you can read the real life experience of other customers. The radio program Car Talk offers this service for free. Consumers' Checkbook and Angie’s List offer ratings and consumer reviews for a fee (but the money might be well worth the peace of mind!).

Needless to say, my friend won’t be taking her car back to that local repair shop. She could file a complaint with her local consumer protection office. I’ll write more about that in a future post. For now, do you have a repair shop experience you’d like to share?

| Comments [10] | envelope Email This Entry | Tags: auto  automobile  automotive  car  engine  fix  mechanic  repair  technician 

 

Entry bubble Vehicle Fuel Economy

By: Sommer | December 07, 2007 | Category: Home and Family

In August, we traded in my husband’s beloved sports car for a new – well, new-to-us – car. We finally decided it was time to become adults and get a 4-door with some hauling capacity. Being new homeowners, we continuously found it difficult to haul more than groceries in our sports car and 2-door coupe. And forget about picking people up from the airport, that required us to bring both cars – one for people and one for luggage!

Initially my husband drove the car to work. Since I only drive about 4 miles per day – round trip to the Metro – the coupe was fine for me to cruise around town in. On the weekends, though, it was such a treat riding in the new car with its heated leather seats and sunroof.gas pump

We were very impressed with the car at first because, since it’s an all wheel drive wagon, we expected it to get SUV-like gas mileage. To our pleasant surprise, our average miles per gallon with my husband driving the car 30 highway miles round trip to work and on various weekend outings was about 23 - 24 miles per gallon. So, when I started driving the car a few weeks ago (since gas is getting more expensive) I thought it would be a great test to see if it was actually better, money and gas mileage wise, for me to drive the car my short 4 miles a day and continue to use it for weekend driving. Since the car has a neat dashboard gadget that automatically calculates average miles per gallon I was ready to see what happened! How disappointed was I to watch my mpg relatively plummet?!?! Now, as it stands today, I’m down to 17.7 miles per gallon!!! YIKES!

Based on the information on fueleconomy.gov I’m right at the average mpg for city driving which makes me feel a little better. The newly revised EPA MPG Estimates give the car a range of 17 mpg for city driving and 24 for highway which averages out at about 22 mpg. 

I guess I’ll start following some of their recommended tips for improving gas mileage and see whether my average mpg changes or not.

| Comments [3] | envelope Email This Entry | Tags: auto  car  economy  gas  mileage  sommer  vehicle