If you're looking for “how to find a quality mechanic?” Here are some tips and things to look for and your next mechanic:
1- Check out repair shops specialized in your vehicle's brand
2- Ask your family members and friends
3- Search for a trustworthy mechanic near me
4- Ask for the mechanic certification
5- Review information on the Better Business Bureau
6- Check for warranties
7- Consider convenience
8- Review big business fleet service
9- Ask the right questions
10- Try the mechanic
Building a strong relationship with a trustworthy mechanic helps you maintain your car and extend its lifetime. When you have such a relationship, the mechanic will know your vehicle inside out, and it will take you less time explaining what's going on with your vehicle to your mechanic. He will immediately know what the issue could be.
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Before you even build the relationship, you first need to ask yourself, “how do you find a quality mechanic?” Unfortunately, there are plenty of available mechanics out there, and it's hard to tell which one is trustworthy and which one has the right level of experience to extend and strengthen the relationship with.
This article provides you with our expert opinion on what you should look for when selecting your quality mechanic. Once you ensure the items that we will highlight, you should be good to go with the mechanic for all your upcoming car issues.
What's the difference between repair and maintenance?
Before we dive into the details about finding a quality mechanic, it is important to differentiate between two important terms in the world of vehicle maintenance: repair and maintenance.
1- Car maintenance
When we refer to the term vehicle maintenance, we indicate the scheduled maintenance post in your vehicle's owner’s manual that your vehicle needs to perform to prevent major damages. For example, oil change and tire rotation are considered one of the common scheduled maintenance that your vehicle needs to have.
2- Car repair
On the other hand, vehicle repair refers to the situations where a new car faces some sudden issues requiring fixing. For example, if your car started making some weird noises or if the tailpipe indicates heavy white smoke coming out of it, this is an issue for the engine. Therefore, you need someone to inspect the problem and fix it immediately to get your vehicle going.
By understanding the difference between car maintenance and car repair, you can immediately tell that it is OK to perform car maintenance at any dealership or typical big independent shops. Simply because these types of maintenance do not require advanced mechanical skill sets, many owners perform these scheduled maintenances by themselves without even needing a mechanic.
On the other hand, car repairs are those tasks requiring advanced mechanical skill sets. Think about measurement engine problems add significant head gasket damage is for example, not every mechanic will be able to fix the issue. In fact, there are many common chances where inexperienced mechanics tried to fix the problem and caused other further complicated issues by mistakes. Thus, it is very important to ensure that the person who does the car repairs is trustworthy to prevent paying thousands of dollars on unnecessary problems.
How to find a quality mechanic, and what should I look for in a mechanic?
As we indicated before, car repairs require advanced mechanical skill sets. Since car repairs have to do with sudden mechanical problems, you won't have the right time to search and spend your due diligence looking for a trustworthy mechanic because all you need is to get your vehicle going.
Therefore, being proactive about selecting a trustworthy mechanic is a must. You must spend time now building a relationship with a good mechanic in cases of major car breakdowns that you're not prepared for.
Finding a trustworthy mechanic is not as simple as putting on Google something like “trustworthy mechanic near me” or “quality mechanic near me.” The process is much more complicated than that and requires detailed research to figure out the trustworthy mechanic yourself.
The good news is that our team conducted an in-depth review of all available recommendations by automotive experts on things to look for in your trustworthy mechanic. Let's take a look at the results of our review:
1- Check out repair shops specialized in your vehicle's brand
One of the best stars to find a trustworthy mechanic is to start with a repair shop that focuses on your specific brand. Repair shops specialized in certain brands will have deep experience in your vehicle, and they will know exactly the common problems that your vehicle might have.
Once you start visiting the repair shop for some of your scheduled maintenance, you will immediately notice the big names in the shop and the skilled mechanics you can build a relationship with. The nice thing about these small repair shops is that there is a very strong customer to mechanic interaction, which means you will most likely deal with the same person repeatedly., there is a very high chance of enhancing the relationship with this mechanic.
2- Check with your family members and friends
Another way to check for a good mechanic is through your family members and friends. So, for example, if you have a friend who's been in the automotive market and who dealt with a lot of mechanic problems in there in his vehicle, it might be a good start to ask them.
Learning more about your local mechanics from your family members helps you decide which mechanics to go with. In addition, many of your family members ran through issues with their vehicles during their lifetime on their cars. Thus, you will most likely get good advice from them.
3- Search for a trustworthy mechanic near me
Although we mentioned that there is no such thing as called “trustworthy mechanic near me.” You can still rely on the Internet to get an idea about good mechanics around you.
There are common websites that provide you with customer feedback about certain mechanics to select the mechanic around your area with the best customer feedback. You might also want to check websites like Angie’s List, Consumer Reports, and probably cartalk.com.
Quora is also a great website to get an idea from people who asked similar questions like yours. You might even want to post a question on Quora asking for a trustworthy mechanic near me and specifying your vehicle's brand. You'll be impressed by how helpful the community is and how much information you can get in no time.
4- Ask for the mechanic certification
Most good mechanics and high-quality repair shops must have National Institute certification. They probably might even have ASE-certified mechanics. This certification is a clear indication that the mechanics are high quality and they are trustworthy as well.
5- Review information on the Better Business Bureau
If you want to take the question “how to find a quality mechanic?” More seriously, you can even check the Better Business Bureau. Go to www.bbb.org and check what information is available regarding local mechanics. The website will provide you with details about customer feedback and ratings that can help you confirm whether other mechanics are high quality.
6- Check for warranties
Another way to confirm whether the mechanic is trustworthy or not is by checking for warranties. Certain high-quality mechanics will provide you with specific warranties that might vary significantly depending on your region. These warranties are some backups in cases of problems after repairs.
7- Consider convenience
If you heard that a specific repair shop or a certain mechanic is trustworthy, that's not the only information you will need. This is because some mechanics might be very far away from your house, which means you must drive for a couple of hours until you get there. Obviously, this is not very convenient, and you probably might want to go with a little lower quality mechanic to prevent lengthy commuting.
Also, certain repair shops in urban areas might be busier than others, which will give you a lot of headaches until you schedule your appointment. In addition, you will most likely need to drop your vehicle for a couple of days until you get it repaired. Thus, sometimes you want to go with a smaller repair shop outside of the urban areas close to you but won't be as busy.
8- Review big business fleet service
Another simple trick that can help you define the high-quality mechanics around your area is reviewing the big business fleet services. Typically, larger businesses like governmental agencies or delivery vans rely on high-quality repair shops and mechanics to conveniently repair their vehicles.
Do your research to check where these larger fleets and big vans get their service done because that could be a good place to start and trust. However, keep in mind that some of these places might be very high quality which means that their error rate is more expensive than you can afford. Therefore, go through the list that we indicated in terms of items that can help you answer the question of “how to find a quality mechanic?” And consider doing a balance between value and quality before making a final decision.
9- Ask the right questions
Many people might underestimate the value of interviewing the mechanic before relying on him as a trustworthy long-term mechanic. However, that is one of the first things you must do when getting your vehicle repaired at a certain location by a specific mechanic.
You need to ask some questions, and once you convert about the answers, the mechanic is most likely trustworthy. So let's take a closer look at some of these questions that you need to keep in mind when interviewing your mechanic:
- How many years have you been in business? What type of mechanical repairs have you done before?
- Do you provide any warranty, and what if something goes wrong with the vehicle?
- Are you an ASE-certified mechanic, and where do you get your training done?
- For parts replacement, do you use aftermarket, new, used, or OEM parts?
- Do you have certain parts created by your brand?
- Are you specialized in certain vehicles brands? Have you worked before with a vehicle like mine?
- Are all your inspections paid, or do you offer any free inspections?
- What are your labor rates?
- What type of payment do you prefer, and do you have any payment policies?
10- Try the mechanic
With your understanding of the difference between car maintenance and car repair, you can expect what we mean by trying your mechanic. We mean that try testing the mechanic by performing some of the common car maintenance that does not happen suddenly.
Check out the service and see how convenient the mechanic is. Consider monitoring your vehicle after the scheduled maintenance and see if there are any symptoms of car issues. Do not rely on the mechanic immediately for your repairs unless you are comfortable with the customer service and happy with everything.
When selecting your mechanic, automotive experts always suggest that you consider starting small and monitoring how things go over time. Once you have a good friendly relationship with your mechanic, it is a very clear sign that this mechanic should be your long-term quality mechanic.
Conclusion
Searching for “how to find the quality mechanic?” It is one of the first things you need to do to maintain your vehicle and peace of mind regarding sudden car problems. This is because you know that your vehicle will be in good hands, and your mechanic knows your vehicle inside out, so it will be easy for him to detect the issue quickly.
The good news is that automotive experts helped many customers by providing them with recommendations regarding their question of “what should I look for in a mechanic?” For example, when searching for your quality mechanic, you need to look for shops specialized in your brand, check with your family members, search online, consider reviewing their certification, look into the best Business Bureau, consider reviewing any available warranties, and others.
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