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Take Your Car to a Dealer or Local Shop? |
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Written by Tony
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Sunday, 30 March 2008 |
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Late last year, the heater stopped working one day. The lights worked and there was no fan and it was winter and it got cool in there. I had to get it fixed quickly and decided to try a local shop for 2 reasons. First, it was closer to my work than the Acura dealer. Second, I thought it would be less expensive than a dealer.  As it turned out, it wasn't just a blower fan (I had chceked the fuse myself before taking it in, of course) but it was a transistor. This transistor was just a small box with a plug on it, found under the glove box in my 2002 RSX. Well, the part was like $80 but the final bill came to $350. Since I didn't go to a dealer, they had to take a lot of time to dianose the problem. I even got one call after they had used 2 hours asking for more time since they could not find the issue yet.
What I learned here is that I should have taken it to the dealer instead of a local shop for this one. Yeah, it seemed just like a blower motor or something, but with all the electronics in cars today, it can easily be more than that - especially when you look at the climate control system in an Acura (which has a thermostat and does auto climate control - like on a lot of new cars today). The dealer wouldn't have taken 2 hours to diagnose the problem. I'd guess a half hour or less. The local shop had to buy the part from the dealer, so the price would have been about the same for the part. So this has taught me that I need to think very carefully about where to take my car if it's not for simple maintenance like brakes or exhaust. I think I could have saved money going to the dealer in this instance.
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Well, I'm set for winter now. The car has the best winter tires available... Bridgestone Blizzaks.
I went to Weber Tires in Sun Prairie (New Bristol). They normally don't carry that tire, but they gave me a comparable price and they don't charge for mounting, so it was a good deal. The amazing part to me was that I ordered them and just gave them my name, no deposit required. I got there and got in line by them putting my name on a list and they knew who I was. They put the right tires on. There was no computer system keeping track of it, just good old paper. They did a nice job.
There was a wait. I waited 2 hours. If you're going this time of year, be prepared to wait. I got in about 2:30 and was about last on the list since they close at 5. They started turning people away after I got on the list. I heard that on Saturdays, they open just after 7am and there's a line of 30 or more people waiting to get in and they stop taking people by 8am. It's first come, first serve so get there early.
Check out Weber Tires. They take Visa, Mastercard, local checks and also cash, which I happened to pay.
The new tires are mushier and give a little. They're not as great as the performance tires that I had on before, but that's snow tires. In the spring, I'll get new rims (nice!) and performance tires - which can just be for summer use, so I'll be looking forward to that!
-T
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From The Blog...
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Wow, the worst light beer is Sam Adams. The worst Starbucks coffee drink has 660 calories. The worst drink of all is something I wouldn't drink because of the milk content but it's over 2300 calories - find out what it is:
The 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America
They say if you want to lose 10 pounds, just cut out the soda but they're also saying that the average person drinks 2 liters of soda per day... what??? I'm down to just 8-12 ounces, so someone else out there must be chugging gallons if the average is 2 liters. What the heck?
-T
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