IMO: Unfortunately... finding a trusted pro for maintenance and troubleshooting is hard to find. If you have one...very lucky... and hope they are young and not near retirement.
This. I started wrenching on my own junk because I was young and broke. I’m no longer either of those, but having the knowledge I have (which is nothing impressive, but also not naive) I’ve been less than impressed by 100% of the work I’ve paid to have done on vehicles.
That’s a large part of why I still do my own work. $100-150 an hour for incompetent work is just something I can’t be ok with.
A buddy recommended his shop to me, suppose to be a big Toyota guy and a mom and pop type place, so I felt their shop out are here’s how it went:
- Stopped by two different occasions after work and the shop was locked up, no one there, during business hours.
- Finally got a call back a week later and the owner told me they don’t work on Lexus vehicles (but primarily do Toyota and Subaru) so clearly not an intelligent man
- After convincing him he could put blinders on and pretend it’s a Tundra with the 1UR-FE in it, we tried scheduling a time for him to look at and he went on about how he’d need it for two weeks, he couldn’t guarantee any results because it’s not a Toyota (?!) and “don’t be surprised if the bill gets into the thousands”.
I politely told him I’d have to reconsider. This was a friends personal recommendation on the shop he felt was competent and fair.
I also stopped by a 100% Toyota only Independent shop in town, with great reviews, to get a quote on my valley pan repair and was quoted $2,400. The owner there said the reason was because they refused to do the job without replacing all the knock sensors, for no logical reason.
As Acrad said, if I could find a fast and competent shop I’d be a happy man, I just haven’t found it and that leaves me to be the incompetent fool working on it, at least I’m cheap though.