Neighborhood shops offer friendly service.

08. Sep, 2011 0 Comments

By Bill Foster, Editor
I want to tell you about my auto problem and see you have had a similar one.
For no reason, that I know of, my battery was dead one morning. Could I have left a light on? I have only had my Pontiac a few months now and still haven’t learned everything about it.

I checked to see if I had Triple A. Yes, but it had expired. Did my insurance allow for road side assistance. Yes, $45 for towing. I needed a jump start. I had a battery charger but it didn’t seem to be working. I pulled up my other car besides it and got my jumper cables out.
Guess what: I didn’t have a battery under my hood.
Got the book out. Low and behold I discovered the battery is under the back seat. By reading the book I found there was a way you could jump it from the font end. Still no luck. Got in my other car to go seek help. One of my friendly mom and pop stores didn’t carry the battery I needed.
Then I went to my dealer, Richard Karr. Only answer I got was get a wrecker and bring it in.
Finally I stopped at another independent shop, Precision Tune, only a few blocks from home. Jeff Tanner sent a nice man out and got it jumped off. I drove to his shop at 4212 Bosque. There we started the search for the battery. Yes, believe it or not it was under the back seat. His man tested it with one of those computer tools that you have to have now to work on cars. Yes, it was showing age and should be replaced.
Only problem: he didn’t have that particular replacement in stock. He said it would be a few days to get it even though he is a dealer for them. He doesn’t mind you in the back shop with your car, unlike the bigger shops. Fortunately it wasn’t completely dead yet, so this gave me a few more days. Needed that too, in order to get my social security for August, and pray that the government sends the checks.

I had another experience with the big shops versus the mom and pop ones. I had a light on. Didn’t know what it was. But for a $140 they could put the computer on it and find out what is wrong. Again, I went to another of my friend’s shop on the Dallas Highway. Tom Breshears Automotive & Diagnostic & Repair. Tom put the computer on it, and apparently nothing serious was wrong. He said he would turn the light off for me. We assume I didn’t put the gas cap on right. He wouldn’t take any money.

Again I had tire trouble on my boat. Bryan McDonough came to my rescue. he pulled out a heavy duty wrench and was able to get the bolts lose on the wheels. He didn’t charge me anything. I was doing some favors for him. Bryan and his family run the McDonough Auto Service at 714 Panther Way. We met at church.

Facts of Life.
The big car makers don’t want the mom and pop shops to work on your car. They want you to go back to the dealer. You see, now days there are electronics that only can be checked out with a hand held computer And the car makers reluctantly sell the computer programs for a high price. There’s a national program out called ‘Right to Work’ to combat this lock on their services. But the shops we have mentioned have bit the bullet and got them.

Dunn’s Brake service has always been a good friend when I needed work on my car. Then there’s Freddy Kish’s if you can find Freddie. Oliver Bros. helped me long time ago. Midas muffler kept my Legacy going with a new muffler and some other work. The muffler was guaranteed as long as I owned the car I guess. I didn’t pay anything for a new muffler
Green’s Automotive Transmission has been a good advertiser. Lynch Auto Repair runs a clean, neat shop. Their dog guards the place at night.
We are probably leaving out some more good shops, but the point of this lesson is that don’t overlook your neighborhood shop when you have trouble with your auto. You’ll probably find them friendly than the big shops. Tom Breasher has closed his shop to work with other shops that don’t have the computer programs he has invested in.