I live in small town and it has been my experience that people get taken
not by the owner operated shops, but rather by the big, franchised units.
Not always the case, there is a Peerless intown that is very honestly run,
but my mother, when asked what she wanted for mother's day, replied "a
muffler"
So I told her to meet me at TMA who had a $20 installed muffler special
going. While I was waiting, she had msunderstood and gone to K-mart. In the
twenty minutes that passed in the mix-up, K-mart had scared her to death
telling her the engine strap bushings on the top of her motor were going to
kill her if she didn't have them fixed right then and there.
When we get to TMA and the actual muffler install began, the shop hand
came in to the waiting room and told me there was a hole in the exhaust and
to replace the pipe on her 1980 Buick Skylark would be $90. I went out to
inspect the hole and couldn't see it until he pointed to it. It was a 1/8th
inch factory condensate hole.
I find the owner operated shops usually try to fix things as they would
their own: cheaply , but good.
On the other hand... I bought a 1969 Roadrunner from this local shop. It
had no motor when I bought it. The car had been used in a 200 mile enduro
at the county fair, the motor seized, was freed up and re-entered the race.
Then the car crashed, putting it out of the competiton. As I'm paying for
the car ( $10 with a fresh air hood still on it ), a Plymouth Stationwagon
is idling in the bay, a steady stream of blue smoke rising from the
tailpipe. "Remember the RR engine that froze up?" I was asked. "It's in
the College Professor's wagon!" " We charged him $600 for the motor and
$400 for R&R!"
Life is strange, SDSteve
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