How to Find a Good Mechanic

Video Transcript

"I'm Dave Erb from Dave's Ultimate Automotive in Austin and we are going to be talking about how to find a good mechanic. Well I would say if you are in Austin come to Dave's Ultimate Automotive but if you can't get to us here is a few key things to finding a good mechanic. First of all I would change that phrase to finding a good shop. There's not a good mechanic, mechanics work for shops and mechanics move around a lot so if you are displeased with a shop at one place because of what a mechanic did you may go to a different shop and he may be working there now so what you need to do is find a good shop with good ownership and good management that stands behind their work and trains and employs good people. Is every shop perfect? Absolutely not but it is about how you are taken care of when something doesn't go right. Do they go above and beyond? Are they constantly training, constantly trying to get better, offering value not just price? So I guess it really comes down to what you are looking for out of a shop. Is it the cheapest place in town? Is it the person who stands behind it the most? Who has the best reputation, who offers the most services, you know, one stop shop, what are you looking for out of a shop? And then of course the best way to find a mechanic is word of mouth. When you find someone you are settled on ask around. If they are a good mechanic or a good shop and they've been around for a while people are going to say good things about them. The internet is a great way. If someone doesn't like someone they are going to immediately get on some of the internet blogs, internet reviews and tell people about you. They're going to say good things or bad things. So that's a great way to find out what other people are saying about a mechanic. But once again when you look for a shop look for a mechanic first decide what you are looking for out of a mechanic. It should be somebody who has been around for a long time, who is dedicated to doing a great job for you, who is about the service and the value and understanding that things go wrong and how do we take care of those things when they go wrong. Then striving never to let those things go wrong again. So that's more about a mechanic, not the technical skills of repairing a vehicle but how they take care of you and how they take care of problems if there are any and how you feel about the shop when you left the shop. Did you get a great value from it, did they give you great service, did they make it easy on you? Those are the things I would say to look for in a shop."