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What do mechanics hate?

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
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New Honda Civic commercial:

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I could fill this page with things I hate but here are a few of the top ones...
1.Road salt!
2.Engineers that have never worked on cars themselves.
3.Customers that watch those commercials, then stand in the service drive ripping (Insert auto brand here) a new hole because it broke, as every car inevitably does. More so on cars owned by people who see things like that and decide regular maintenance must not be necessary.
I generally dislike Hondas as well. To be more specific, I dislike a certain group of people that own Hondas (And Volkswagons). The cars themselves are rather well built.
Disclaimer.... Most of the owners are fine too.
 
Ben;

About that Honda mechanic and owner thing.
Don't hate us all, some have a couple of good traits.

On the other parts of your list :iagree:
And add Uneducated service advisers.

Dave :cheers:
 
that's why I put my disclaimer.... I know a lot of Honda owners that are great people. But there's that one group..... You know the ones....
And YES! Uneducated service advisers are high on my list! they do no good for the customers or the tecs.
 
"Uneducated service advisers"...

How 'bout ASE certs, four years on the line and a Dale Carnegie course as prerequisites?? :jester:
 
That's a start Doc, how about parking their ego at the door too!

Dave :savewave:
 
I found more ego issues with service managers than with the writers, most times.
 
DrEntropy said:
I found more ego issues with service managers than with the writers, most times.
Me too. Took Envoy in 4 times for same problem - cruise control not holding speed, downhill increase at excess of 15 mph and "burping" on level road surface. They said or rather service advisor says there is nothing wrong and that I should expect some increase in speed going downhill and that they test drove it and found nothing wrong. I finally decided it wasn't worth being degraded so I just quit. Interestingly had a new battery put in car and now cruise control is operating without any problem. I'm not mechanically astute but I think that the amount of electrical current and the computer sensor might have been a factor? Bottom lime I got treated like I was demented.
 
judow said:
DrEntropy said:
I found more ego issues with service managers than with the writers, most times.
Me too. Took Envoy in 4 times for same problem - cruise control not holding speed, downhill increase at excess of 15 mph and "burping" on level road surface. They said or rather service advisor says there is nothing wrong and that I should expect some increase in speed going downhill and that they test drove it and found nothing wrong. I finally decided it wasn't worth being degraded so I just quit. Interestingly had a new battery put in car and now cruise control is operating without any problem. I'm not mechanically astute but I think that the amount of electrical current and the computer sensor might have been a factor? Bottom lime I got treated like I was demented.

whole other issue likely there also - women don't tend to get treated real well in shops. One solution
all female shop
 
Now hold on there.... Most of what I consider the BEST customers I have are women. As long as you are honest (and a decent mechanic as well) women are loyal customers, much more so than men. My 2 cents worth anyway. What I hate.. But (insert internet parts provider here) has it cheaper... How much to install the (cheap off brand) part I already bought elsewhere, based on a "free" check engine light scan at the chain parts store...
 
I agree Jesse. Or better yet, the one we had last week, older gentleman, went to buy all his own parts and we had to wait to finish fixing the already started car till all his ordered parts came in.
Shop I worked at a while back had the solution. Sure we'll install the parts you bought elsewhere, but there's absolutely NO warranty, and the labor rate is 150% our normal rate. Didn't do too many jobs with customer supplied parts.
 
jessebogan said:
Now hold on there.... Most of what I consider the BEST customers I have are women. As long as you are honest (and a decent mechanic as well) women are loyal customers,

Not suggesting women aren't loyal customers - or even that they aren't your BEST customers. Am suggesting (on the basis of my wife's experiences over the years as well as the experience of many friends) is that women are more likely to get ripped off, and that because of this women find many shops intimidating. Don't like it, just sayin.
 
We'd quote the same price as if we got the parts... then when the guy/gal asks why it's the same even if they supply parts, answered:

"Try takin' two eggs to McDonalds and ask 'em to make you two 25-cent McMuffins."


:devilgrin:
 
As a lady, gents, I do think that often we are treated as less than. In this case, however, I think they just didn't have the answer so they chose not to acknowledge the problem.
 
Used to work with a lady that got taken coming and going by a dealership. won't mention the brand but by 48k mile the car had been given 6 sets of plugs and wires, 2500 for brakes all round and was burning a quart of oil every about 40 miles. I told her to get the service history and the amount of junk stuff she'd been charged was criminal. Had her get on the phone with them, since the car was back in, and told her to request a compression check since my suspicion for the constantly fouling plugs and the oil use was a bad cylinder or cylinders. They actually laughed as I listened in and said that was obsolete diagnosis and besides, couldn't be done without replacing the plugs and wires, again. Had her go get the car and said find another place to fix it. Another dealer found that the engine was bad, probably from new, with 2 cylinders out of 4 showing minimual compression. At least the manufacturer paid part of the replacement cost, but she'd paid round 5k for work in the 3 years she'd had the car.
 
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