Did you just buy a new car?
You might not think that you’re going to need to worry about doing much maintenance or many repairs to it. But studies have shown that the average person spends almost $1,200 maintaining and repairing a new car every year.
To keep your auto maintenance and repair costs low, it’s important to have a good mechanic by your side. But it can be tricky tracking one down, even though there are about 750,000 of them out there.
Learn how to find a good mechanic before you buy a new car so that you aren’t caught off guard the first time you need maintenance done or repairs made to it. Here are 7 tips to help you.
1. Ask People You Trust for Recommendations
About 95 percent of American households own at least one car. As a result, there’s a good chance that you know quite a few people who own cars. And all of these people have probably had to take their car to a mechanic at some point in the past.
Use this to your advantage! Ask around and see which mechanics in your area are most popular among your family and friends. You’ll start to hear the same two or three names over and over again in most cases.
This is the best way to find a good mechanic. It’ll provide you with everything you need to know about a mechanic before you ever bring your car into an auto repair shop.
2. Read Online Reviews for Auto Repair Shops
Are you having a hard time finding family members and friends willing to vouch for a mechanic?
Turn to the internet for help when trying to find out how to find a good mechanic. In 2019, just about every auto repair shop in the country has online reviews available for people to read. Check some of them out to see what people have said about different mechanics in your area over the years.
You shouldn’t necessarily trust the first mechanic with two or three good reviews to their name. But if you spot a mechanic that seems to get almost all good reviews from customers, they’re someone you should consider for your auto maintenance and repair needs.
3. See Which Services Different Repair Shops Offer
Not all auto repair shops offer the same services to their customers. There are some that only provide basic car maintenance services like oil changes and others that focus on specific aspects of cars like transmissions.
Before you fall in love with a mechanic, it’s important to take a look at the services that their repair shop offers. Read more here about some of the most common body shop repairs that can be done by the average mechanic.
4. Check the Credentials for Mechanics at Shops
In order to become a mechanic, a person needs to do more than buy a bunch of tools and set up shop in a garage.
They need to spend at least some time in school learning about how to work on cars. They also need to work with an experienced mechanic to get on-the-job training. And they need to obtain certain certifications to work on cars as well.
The best mechanics have a wide range of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certifications. By becoming ASE certified, mechanics will show customers that they’ve taken training courses to work on different parts of a car.
Most auto repair shops are more than happy to talk about their mechanics’ ASE certifications. Don’t be afraid to ask about which ASE certifications a mechanic has before you hand the keys to your car over to them.
5. Meet with a Mechanic in Person
You wouldn’t let a contractor come into your home and remodel it without sitting down and talking to them first. You also wouldn’t allow a doctor to perform surgery on you without having a conversation with them about it beforehand.
So, why would you give a mechanic permission to pop your hood and repair your car without meeting with them for at least a few minutes? You made a big investment in your car, so you should know as much as you can about the person working on it.
Take the time to meet with any mechanic that is going to be working on your car. Get a feel for what they’re all about, and make sure they seem like an honest person before you trust them to do anything to your vehicle.
6. Consider the Cost of Working with a Mechanic
When you’re searching for a mechanic, you should not choose whichever mechanic offers to fix your car for the cheapest price. For all you know, they could be the worst mechanic in the world and won’t stand behind the work they do.
Instead, look for a mechanic that offers fair and affordable prices on their auto maintenance and repair services. You can find the average cost for most auto repairs online these days and use that to guide you during your mechanic search.
You can also call around to different mechanics to get estimates on the work that needs to be done to your car. These estimates will serve as valuable tools when you’re comparing the different mechanics who work in your area.
7. Test a Mechanic Out with a Small Job
At the end of all this, you should have some idea of which mechanic would be a good fit for your car. Give them an opportunity to work on it.
But don’t trust them to perform a huge repair job on your car just yet. Start small with a basic maintenance job to see how they do and work up from there. It’ll give them a chance to prove themselves to you.
Know How to Find a Good Mechanic for Your Car
There is almost nothing more infuriating than realizing that you got ripped off by a mechanic.
Yet, it happens to people all across the country every single day. They walk into an auto repair shop expecting a mechanic to do great work on their car. But they walk out feeling like they paid too much money for poor service.
Avoid finding yourself in this scenario by knowing how to find a good mechanic for your car. You’ll feel a lot more confident in the maintenance and repairs that are done to your car when you have a great mechanic in your corner.
Read our blog to learn about how maintaining and repairing your car can help it last longer.