Maybe I am unlucky, who knows, but I have rarely had a good experience with auto mechanics in the US. In the end I often have to take the matter into my own hands, which costs me time, but usually I do not have the money to spend to pay what auto mechanics demand. For example, once when we were living in NY we had to replace the windshield wiper motor, I was busy with my job so V took it to a shop. They took out the motor and then wanted to charge an unbelievable amount of money for the labor. I absolutely refused. (Replacing the windshield wiper motor is a very easy, almost trivial, thing to do.) I went to the shop but they had taken the old motor out, put it somewhere in their shop, and refused to give it back to me to try to force me to pay them to do it. Instead, I took the car, went to an auto parts store and bought a new wiper motor, then to a junkyard and got an "arm" to connect the motor (for $5) to replace the one they took out. However, the junkyard lost the acorn nut that fastened to the end just before giving it to me, then couldn't find it, so I had to go to a hardware store to get that... Then put it in and hooked it up in something like 10 minutes. I even remember T « helping » turn the socket wrench to attach it (he was very little then). I could not get the core charge refunded on the old motor because the mechanics refused to give it to me (and I was not comfortable calling the police to get them to return my property because I had not paid them for the initial "labor"), but taking the core charge was still far cheaper than paying them to turn a wrench for a few minutes. If however, and this is a repeating theme, they had charged a reasonable rate (worthwhile, or possible, for me to pay them versus doing it myself); I would have paid it just to save time and fuss.
These and other experiences made me very apprehensive about going to a car repair shop in Germany. However, our car developed a funny oil leak from near the end of a tube next to the engine and we needed to fix it. We were living in an apartment without any tools, and I have yet to see an auto parts store in Germany like we have in the US. So we took it in, the guy there was very nice, took a look, replaced a part that cost 8 euros, and that was it. We asked to make sure, did we need to pay more for labor, etc., and he said it was nothing...! A total of 8 euros for the ring. We were both very pleasantly surprised. Later we took the car back to the same place and each time the repair was very reasonable and hassle free.
In contrast, we are currently attempting to get a safety inspection to renew the registration on our van here in Hawai'i. I made the mistake of assuming the auto dealer that I bought the van from had updated the safety inspection, but they had not. Then a letter from the DMV came in the mail and I was surprised that it cost $340+ for registration renewal. (Perhaps this is normal in the US; it has been so long I can't remember how much it was each year in NY). V took it to a shop for inspection and they wanted $1,000+ to approve it! I do not have this much money available to spend. They demanded new front tires that had a $500 price tag alone, and wanted to replace the two headlight units (the entire thing because the individual parts are not sold individually) for $100s of dollars, claiming that they were broken and out of spec, plus a few bulbs needed replacing...
So naturally we refused to pay them for the repairs (we couldn't even if we wanted to). They gave V a blue form and the woman at the counter clearly said that we give that to the DMV for a 30 day extension to get the repairs made and finish the safety inspection. If we returned to them the followup inspection was free. The front two tires were indeed worn. We replaced the back ones since buying the van and I planned to replace the front ones sometime in the next few months anyway, so we went to Costco and got them replaced for less than $300. Then we picked up some replacement bulbs for a few dollars and changed out one of the license plate bulbs (that I didn't know existed) and another anonymous bulb on a back light. That part was ridiculously easy.
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| Replacing a bulb on one of the rear light units. |
The headlights were claimed to be « broken » because back when I replaced the bulbs there were these funny wire clips that didn't want to go back in, and as far as I could tell didn't do anything important so I left them out. V's hands are smaller so she popped them back in. Obviously the entire headlight unit did not need to be replaced.
So, we made all the repairs for ~$310 instead of the $1,000+ they wanted, and went back in to get the safety approval. They asked where the receipt was, so we gave them the white piece of paper that had the info from our first safety inspection, but what they actually wanted was the blue form for a receipt. We told them we sent it to the DMV (I mailed it along with a form from the DMV, asking for a safety form, and a check for the renewal) as we were told. They said they needed it for the followup inspection and denied saying we should send it to the DMV. The woman behind the counter, the same one as before, said, oh no, we should have "walked" it into the DMV and showed it to them for the extension, not mailed it to them. It had the things that needed to be checked on it...(i.e. the "cheat sheet") and they absolutely had to have it for the free followup inspection. Whatever, we paid another $20 to do the inspection without the blue form they told us to send to the DMV and walked to get something to eat while waiting. Then, when they were done they had found all these new things that were wrong that they didn't see before. Two more (tiny front parking) bulbs needed replacing. I asked why they didn't see it the first time and they said that we must have knocked them loose when we worked on the headlights (implying we should have had them--the professionals--do it, but it was pure nonsense, the bases are not even in contact to be knocked loose..) and, surprise surprise, the headlight units again needed to be replaced. This time it was because the plastic was too foggy to properly aim the lights for alignment. But they could do a special "headlight restoration" procedure for us, that was cheaper than replacing the units. Still this was 100's of dollars. I asked why the headlights became so foggy between our visits and they didn't have a snappy, lay the blame on us, answer for that one. I was irritated and let V to finish talking to them while I walked out to the the garage and had the guy show me exactly which bulbs needed replacing now. Then we took our van and went home.
I picked up a sandpaper adapter for my drill and some fine sandpaper disks and grinding compound, all for just under $20, and using my drill sanded down the headlight covers then polished them to get rid of the foggy plastic layer. (Why it fogs over so bad I have no idea, the plastic over the bulb next to it stays crystal clear; it makes me suspect this is engineered obsolescence to sell more units over time.)
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| Before. |
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| Part way thru grinding. I'm starting to get worried at this point. |
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| Finished product. Crystal clear! |
Then I pick up replacement front parking bulbs, but they don't fit. I used the computer key at the store for the make, model and year of our van to pick them out, and went back and double checked to make sure, but it gives completely the wrong bulb. (Later I checked online and other people have reported this as well--for years now. How hard is it to fix this on a computer system?) You have to buy these bulbs in pairs (as another way to sell more) so we had an extra bulb from the rear plate light that we replaced. We popped the plate light right in the socket for the front parking light and it worked. So we bought another pair (for the one more we needed) and put them in the front parking lights. (They were burnt out and, by the way, after seeing them on we realized they had never worked since we had the van; not "knocked loose" as the mechanics blamed.) The right one was easy and took V 5 minutes. The left one required the intake hose, battery, battery pan, fuse box, and half the air filter be removed to pop it in. Again, why can't cars be designed better⸮ If there were just a few more inches of room all the extra steps, that are not particularity hard but are irritating (now the clock has to be reset...), would be unnecessary.
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| Stuff removed and pushed out of the way to replace a light bulb. |
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| Stuffed back in... |
So finally everything is fixed again, except for the headlight alignment, and we take it back, for the third time, for the alignment and safety inspection form. There are a lot of comments like, we don't know where you took it to get this done... Implying we should have paid them more to do what we did. Anyway, it is in the shop and we are waiting nearby when V gets a phone call that the inspection is done. When we walk back we see that they parked our van in the lane out front, not even in a parking space, ready to drive away, rather than leaving it in the garage or in a parking space as before. They say we need to get the headlights aligned; we already knew that from the last inspection. I thought that was what they were doing while we were waiting. I ask them to please go ahead and do that, align the headlights. She acts surprised so I try to be polite and ask them to please go ahead and align the lights. We need to hurry and get the safety inspection done because we are running out of our 30 day extension for registration renewal. Then the woman says there is no extension for registration, saying "if you're late, you're late" flippantly. I say that is not what we were told here before. And she says we are wrong... So I say, we are new here to Hawai'; can you please explain how this is supposed to work. (And I am trying my best to be patient and polite.) She said we do the inspection, you have 30 days to get it fixed, it comes back from the DMV, we put the stickers on the car, ... I asked, what comes back from the DMV? She says, I never said that. I say, those were your words, you just said it comes back from the DMV. I just want to be clear so I know what I am supposed to do (is "it" transmitted electronically by them, by mail, do we have to take a form...?). (This is beginning to feel like the everlasting "missing forms" mystery in Germany. I wish I carried a tape recorder for these situations.) She acts flustered, stares at my shirt for a moment, then starts over at the beginning in painful detail, talking to us like we're children. We check your car, you have fixed what is wrong, then take the yellow form to the DMV, there is no 30 day extension, .... on and on. Finally we get to the headlight alignment and that it will cost ~$40. I sign the work order and she takes a copy. There is another copy still laying on the desk so I ask if it is my copy. (Not having the right copy cost us $20 at the beginning of this.) She and the other woman at the desk ignore me entirely; I'm right there in front of them. Instead they start talking to V about F, is she heavy to carry; blah blah blah, and are making sounds and faces at F. I ask again if this is my copy pointing at the paper. Then V picks it up and asks, "is this our copy" and the other woman finally says yes. ? There is some weird passive aggression going on. I ask, can you please tell me how long it might take. She reluctantly says 40 minutes while looking away from me and the other woman calls out loudly for us to wait there in the waiting room because it is nice and cool with air conditioning (I'm suspecting this is an indirect way for them to say we are not from Hawai'i and work out some passive aggression). We go out the door to walk around for a while during the wait and are about 20 feet down the sidewalk when a guy comes running out holding, what else, one of the clips from the front headlight. He says to V (not me) "this just fell out" when they opened it up and it will need to be put back in. V said, it's easy, you just pop the two ends in beside the bulb and tighten down the screw next to it with the stubby phillips head. He pauses for a second staring at the clip, because this response from V was not what he planned, then says without eye contact, it will cost an extra $50. V looks at me and I say that's it; we're going somewhere else. We take the clip from him, go back in take our keys, and drive off to look for the DMV to get some answers from their side.
What gets me in this last part is that we tried to pay them to align the lights. We already paid them $40 for three safety inspections, when it was supposed to cost $20, and were about to pay $40 more for the alignment, but they tried at the last minute to jack that up to $90 so we walked out. If they had just done what we had agreed on they would have made more money. ?
We don't know where the DMV is so I drive to the library next to ask the security guard. The difference between talking to the people at the auto shop and the security guard are like night and day. He is friendly and polite and gives me the directions. I thank him and am on my way. No fuss, no drama.
At the DMV I try to explain what is going on and show the woman behind the desk the form from the inspection. (Later, V describes her as unengaged and dreamy.) At first she is confused and thinks we are shipping a car here from another state. I tell her no, that I bought it here in Hawai'i, ... Later, she says all we need to do is get the headlights aligned for the safety check. We explain that we are trying to get the safety check, with three attempts already, but that each time we go they are finding new things wrong to fix. She seems to ignore us pointing at the latest safety check form and saying no, it says here you just need to get the lights aligned. She does not directly answer our question about the non-existent 30 day extension. She just says that we need to pay an amount for registration that is higher than before (with the late fine added). I say I already sent them a check and can I have it back first before paying again. She asks if the check was cashed yet; I say no. She asks if I have had it returned (hmm...); I say no. She says, well it was probably just lost in the mail (as if this is a perfectly acceptable excuse). Anyway, while she was polite, it is clear that not much more clarity will come from the DMV office, so we return home and V puts the headlight clip in, again, and tightens the screw holding it down securely.
I look up reviews from other people on Yelp for the auto mechanic shop we went to--a national chain. They are given the lowest possible score and many people described the same problems we had. So I look up a mechanic in the area with a high review score--not a national chain. We drive to his shop and I make an appointment for a safety inspection for Friday afternoon. My fault, I should have done this to begin with.
To be continued.
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Update: We went to the new shop this afternoon; locally owned, not the national chain. Everything was much more professional. He said it would be ready by 4pm; it was ready at 3:45. Cost $15 for the inspection, period. They were very clear and courteous and told us exactly what we have to do next; 1) take the blue form to the DMV to renew the registration, 2) bring it back to them and they put on the new stickers. Simple, clear. I know exactly where I am bringing the van next time. We then drove straight to the DMV but were 5 minutes late. They closed at 4pm and are not open again until 8am Monday.
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Update: Monday morning, we went to the DMV office, showed them the blue form and wrote a check. They gave me a new registration and a sticker to take back to the inspection station. (Why can't we just put the stickers on ourselves?) We drove to the station and they put the stickers on the van and gave us a yellow and pink form. I asked what they were for and they said the pink one was to keep in the van as proof of inspection and the yellow one was to give back to them when I get it inspected again. (Who says Germany has more paperwork than the US?)
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