today i had to face the fact that my car needed repairs. once of the hardest things for me is to search for a good and honest mechanic in my area. my experiences has always been that mechanics always try to rip you off. during my years of expirience in dealing with car mecanics is that they first give you a reasonable quote and then they start to add more things on the list once they have the whole car apart so you have no choice but to spend more money. also i've noticed the differences between races. for example:

Caucasians - White mechanics are for the most part helpful and knowledgable. most white mechanics i know are mechanics people they love what they do. they enjoy working on cars so you benefit because they enjoyment is getting your car fix.

Hispanics/Latin: The many mexican mechanics i've expirience also are knowledgable of their work. Most of them open their shops because the like working on cars, not because of the money. if you go their shops, you will most likely not see very expensive equipment. Usually this means they dont make much money because they dont charge as much. my expirience has always been that they work with you to try to fix your car as less costly as possible. once i went to this shop and my car needed a egs valve, but i told the guy i could not afford it because it was brand new. he suggested i buy a used one from the junk yard, he knew a local wrecking place and found the part for me. and saved me half. its those little details that really make a difference and it shows he was not in the bussiness to make alot of money but rather to help people. i will always remember Jose (that his name)

Asians - i've also taken my car to asian shops. and its been my expirience that asian people are very money driven. they in the business of auto repair. its all about the money, if a parts cost $95 dollars.... its $95 dollars, no more, no less. they are not as flexible as the caucasians and mexicans. i've had a really bad expirience once with an asian shop with my transmission. at first i was given a quote of $900 and once it was all over, i ended up paying $3500 with a really bad work.

Middle Eastern - Twice i've taken my car to a middle easter shop, i took my car because my car broke down and i had not much choice. i did not get any flexibility at all. they treated me like crap, bad customer service. i guess they knew i had to choice, either i let them repair my car, or leave me stranded there where my car broke. they took advantage of the situation and told me i needed this and that until it all amounted to $1500 from a broken coolant hose. the other time was when i was getting my smog check, they said i didn't pass the test, and i needed a fuel injection cleaning, right after the cleaning was done, i passed the test. the weird thing is that the only thing they did was spray some chemical on the throttle. that was it, and it cost me 150 dollars just for that spray. they didnt even connect a can to the intake manifold like how the other shops do when they clean your fuel injection.

anyway, its hard finding a honest person who can work on your car. i realize that they are there to make money. sometimes i do aggree on things like changing my oil or changing my fuel filter. or something small like that. but i hate it when they scare you when they tell you.. well if you dont replace it now, it will break later.. like trying to put fear on me so i can give in. they do this specially to women. thats why if you are a woman, always bring a friend with you, they will take less advantage of you if you are there with someone else. if you can bring a guy friend.

i dont know why you are visiting this post, but if you are, i would really like to know your expiriences so we can learn from each other.

thanks