I know there are many Do It yourselfers out there who do their own DIY car repairs. My husband is NOT one of those people. I used to work on an old Mustang that I had, and am comfortable with doing repair work on a 60s era car, but no matter how awesome of a car it would be, my guys want to have a vehicle with some modern amenities like ... oh let's see... A/C, power steering, seats that aren't pleather etc etc.
At the worst of the recession, when my husband lost the job that brought us to Alabama, we spent what we had saved up on a beat up, 90s model Toyota Camry. We had to, because he had been driving a company truck and we had to find something. The car definitely came with some issues but the motor was strong and it only had 75,000 miles on it. Now, I can hear many of you saying "That's young for a Toyota!" but those miles were teen-driven miles and the car was pushing 20 years old so we weren't delusional about making it last to 250,000 miles old. We used it to get us around town for errands and job interviews all the while the axles made a funny popping noise, the guy at the quickie lube place unplugged a crack that was in the radiator so it started leaking, it would sometimes not start and I'd have to have a jump, and the brakes started making noise. I bought some brake pads and brought them home. That was the first time I heard The Speech.
"I am not a mechanic. I am a technician."
So I placed an ad on Craigslist, offering $25 for someone to come over and do my brakes. Within minutes, I had 5 responses. I selected a guy who said he lived in our town and actually works for a shop as a mechanic. He showed up and fixed the brakes and said that when we got the new radiator, to give him a call. We did. He replaced the radiator and hoses for 50 bucks. By that time, we were filling the radiator up with water just to get around town and before we came home again).
He replaced the axles, the belts, the motor mount, and the wiper arms ("Those are not snowplows" he said after learning I tried to use them to wipe the snow off the windshield...) for $150. He said he'd do it for anything more than $50 so I gave him extra because I want him to stay willing to do the work.
Now, I have to buy the parts and I am OK with that. I didn't realize the markup that shops do on parts until I received an itemized estimate last month for a strut job, thinking it would be too hard for him to do in the driveway. The shop's estimate was over $900 for just the front end struts. Each strut assembly was listed at $322 just for the part so $644 for the 2 struts, not including labor, which was another $300.
I bought the struts at AutoZone for $165 for the pair. We borrowed a strut spring compressor tool from the loaner tool service there for free. He put my struts on for 100 bucks. The savings was phenomenal.
So if you are "not a mechanic" but need your car worked on, maybe check your local Craigslist. Ours has several guys who offer to do jobs at home, I got lucky the first time, you could too. And your bank account will thank you.
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