The Car Care World
How to Get Your Car Fixed Without Being Taken for a Ride
by
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HOW TO GET YOUR CAR FIXED
Regular readers may have noticed that this is not a do-it-yourself advice column. It has been an attempt to smooth the way for you to get your car fixed by professionals. There is very little on modern cars that can be fixed by normal people. It takes abnormal people, like mechanics, who didn’t listen when their mothers told them they should learn to type in high school. Everybody, including me, is nervous about getting work done on a car by strangers. We know there is an inherent opportunity for fraud or incompetence, and we worry that we might be victimized by an unscrupulous operator. Even professional mechanics, if out of town, will get the feeling that their car’s breakdown is leading to an emotional breakdown. His good working knowledge of mechanics might help him separate a factual diagnosis from B. S., but lacking the correct tools and test equipment, said mechanic has to trust someone else to bail him out and get his family back on the road for their vacation. Sometimes a mechanic’s spouse or friend calls from another city with a plea for help, because their car broke down. Unable to help because of time or distance restraints, the mechanic has to give advice on how to get it fixed by someone else. His method of choosing a place for them is the same as if he were the one who had the breakdown. That method of choosing is worthy of consideration. No, it’s not a coin toss.
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About the Book
We all need mechanics, yet half of us don’t trust them. The Car Care World is a collection of humorous factual auto advice columns. Easy reads, these pearls of wisdom are written in consumer-advocate style by an experienced mechanic. The sometimes contentious viewpoints of owners and mechanics are discussed with humor. Some of the reasons for the distrust are explored, and some solutions are offered. The reader will begin to understand whom to trust and when to trust them. This is not a book about how to fix your own car, although hundreds of repair tips are presented, along with solid advice about necessary and unnecessary repairs to today’s cars. It is a series of stories that will enlighten you about getting a car fixed by professionals without being duped, whether you “know cars” or not.
About the Author
Larry DeHays is a college graduate, a US Navy–trained electronic data systems technician, a Vietnam veteran, and a field engineer with the Apollo Program, which landed men on the moon. At twenty-six, he was the youngest station manager in the NASA network. He then brought those skills into the automotive repair field. He has spent forty years “turning wrenches” and talking with the public about car repairs in his service center, in a small South Florida town, where these highly popular weekly columns appear in the local newspaper.