The Trouble With Grease Monkeys

"All fixed! That'll be $500,000." (photo from here)

If there is anything I hate more than paying for groceries is car repairs. I absolutely abhor the entire process from calling the repair shop to having to adjust my driver’s seat after some grease monkeys been in it. There is always some “surprise” repair that needs to be done which 90 percent of the time is a crock of bull.

As a woman, it is even more frustrating going to the repair shop because you can just see the condescending expression on the mechanic’s face before you even reach the counter to say hi. In my experience, being female = ten times the BS repairs that “really should be done or your car is going to explode on the freeway.”

For the past six years, I have been driving my cruddy little Ford Focus, which is inappropriately named Fabio – I thought it was sexy at the time I bought it, compared to the 1980s box I was driving before. Last week, I finally had work done to it that I had been putting off for oh…a year. I planned to buy a brand-spankin’, new car this year and didn’t want to put any more money into Fabio. Since I also have plans of Boyfriend proposing to me and buying a house together (like how that was worded?), I decided to bite the bullet and try to make Fabio last a little longer.

The previous mechanic who had worked on my car (and told me they could not drive me back to work after saying they could on the phone, forcing me to call a coworker to rescue me) gave me a laundry list of things that supposedly needed fixing. After having driven successfully sans breakdown for over a year without doing any of their “emergency” repairs, I questioned their reputation.

Confirming my sneaking suspicion that I was being played, I finally took my car in to get my brakes done. As I was begrudgingly forking over my hard-earned cash, I said, “I know I have a lot more work to get done to Fab-I mean my car.” To which the mechanic replied, “What do you need to get done? We did a full inspection and there’s nothing else wrong. Your car is in great shape.”

He showed me their inspection checklist to prove what a thorough job they did and even showed some areas that may need repairs eventually, but aren’t near the recommended stage yet. I actually was going to survive getting from A to B.

I told him even though they were on the pricier side repair shops, I appreciated that kind of honesty when dealing with my car and I certainly would be returning. He replied, “There’s no sense in doing dishonest work – it doesn’t serve anyone involved.” FINALLY! A mechanic who gets it! And didn’t treat me like a dumbass for having a kookah. I think we found a match.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but I may have found one grease monkey that can be trusted…until the next repair.