abyssius
CEG'er
The repair shop I deal with in NY i completely honest, but it's one of those shops that most people would never take a car to........dirty, dead cars out in the lot, old equipment (in the bays, you don't see the $25K worth of diagnostic tools out back)........
But the line of mustangs and old corvettes that get worked on in that shop speak volumes.
These are the kind of mechanics I grew up with. I worked for one for about 10 years after graduating high school in the seventies. Unfortunately, with OBDII 'big brother' looking over your shoulder a new repair industry has appeared. Because the shop discussed in this thread has to buy all the 'fancy diagnostic equipment' they are driven by the need to exploit dollars from everyone who crosses their doors. I can understand that. If they had charged me $500.00 or even $600.00 to pull my lower intake and replace the 'o-rings', I would have been fine with that. DO the job right!
Instead, they squirt a bit of RTV on the problem, and charge me $400.00 to protect their bottom line. They probably looked up the man-hours to do the job properly, found a way to do it in a few minutes by bending up my accelerator bracket, then billed me for the legitimate man-hours. A quick $400.00 bucks made.
Ironically, if the 'fix' had worked and I got my inspection sticker, they would have never heard from me again.