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Things that your mechanic never tells you


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  • 1 year later...

The difference in the quote and actual price to repair LOL!

It would surprise you how many mechanics break things when they're working on your car. The part is usually replaced/repaired and the customer never finds out. I see it all the time.

The way some of them treat your car on a test drive. I spent a while in a garage here in Dubai but I wasn't happy with a lot of things so I left. The way the workshop foreman and business owner drove customers cars was shocking. Just because it's a fast car doesn't mean you're supposed to rag it to the edge. Drive it, check the fault, look out for any other possible faults, that's it. There was at least one accident with a customers car when I was there. I don't know how many times it happened before.

Mechanics will rarely tell you that they can't fix your car. Some of them will keep it for weeks and weeks trying different things and hoping they can diagnose the problem. I know of one garage here that has had a customers 4x4 for over 6 months. I figured out what the problem was pretty quickly as I'd seen it before but hey, I don't work there and they didn't pay me or ask for my opinion.

They won't tell you that they used cheap, Chinese pattern parts on your car and charged you the same price as the genuine article. Before you go into a garage, tell them to keep the box/bag the parts came in and give it to you when you collect your car. Especially things like brake parts and bushings which tend to wear out faster if they're cheap and nasty. Also ask them to keep for you the old parts which came off your car. I've seen mechanics saying they changed parts which they didn't, doing things like wiping the outside of an oil filter clean and telling the customer they changed it. I actually saw one garage in the UK getting caught out, the customer marked the old oil filter with a sharpie before he left the car in for a service. The garage billed him for an oil and filter change. When the customer came to collect the car, he pointed out to the foreman where he had marked the old oil filter. The oil had been changed but the filter hadn't. There were some very red faces in the garage that morning!

 

But in me saying things like this, please don't think all mechanics are crooks or they don't know what they're doing, this isn't true. There are plenty of decent, honest, hard-working people out there who just want to fix your car without ripping you off. For me, nothing gives me greater satisfaction than getting the job done, getting it done well and seeing the customer happy. A smile is worth a thousand Dirhams.

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Wow buddy, what an amazing secrets you've shared.......!

When someday you open your workshop, do let me know and I will be your first customer based on your honesty and enthusiasm shown above. I am serious.

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I like the idea of telling them show me the boxes of what parts they put in to make sure it's original and not fake parts they replaced. I am sure with fake parts they will make more money now and also invite another future visit. I think this happened with me once and I was not in a position to doubt, as I didn't asked for boxes.

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@harryd I would love to start a business like that but sadly I'm skint. Technicians salary is pretty low in Dubai, especially when you consider the amount of specialist stuff we're expected to know and the fact we have to constantly read, train and keep up to date with new technologies. However, if someone else wanted to take on that idea, I'd be more than happy to help.

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