Secrets—they’re toxic to a healthy relationship. Best option is always honesty, even if it hurts. Your relationship with your mechanic is as important as your relationship with your vehicle. If your mechanic decides to keep secrets from you, your car may end up getting damaged. The worst thing about it? You don’t even know what happened to your vehicle.
Despite receiving professional services from your mechanic, it’s not an excuse not to learn more about your own vehicle. You can start learning the basics of repair and maintenance for your car and have your mechanic deal with the more complex problems.
But for some, like mechanics, there are things that they’ll never share with you to gain advantage. Take a look at these 5 things mechanics don’t want you to know.
1. They Want You to Believe You Should Bring Your Car In
When we talk about the auto repair industry, we are talking about a huge profit industry. The auto repair industry roughly brings in $150 billion per year. YES, I said billion!
Believe it or not, the largest portion of that profit is from routine maintenance and minor repairs. This is why you tend to receive estimates for other things when you bring your car in.
However, what they don’t want you to know is that this routine maintenance and minor repairs can be done by yourself. All you need is some basic tools and helpful videos from YouTube. Or better yet, there are plenty of repair shop software readily available for download online. Step by step break downs and what you’ll need. Nothing too fancy, just the basics. Mechanics don’t want you to know this because then they can’t make money off you.
Being able to do these small tasks will save you hundreds of dollars!
2. They’ll Scare You To Stop Using Your Car Unless You’ll Spend
Aside from telling you to bring your car in, you should also watch out for strategies that scare vulnerable car owners and eventually get them to spend money for a repair or replacement. For instance, your mechanic may tell you “If I were you, I wouldn’t drive this another mile” because of “a component in need of replacement.”
Oftentimes, this situation is a tactic to bag your money by offering their products, the replacement part, their services, and the replacement installation. To be more aware of your car components, it’s worth making a regular checkup and maintenance schedule that you’ll follow.
Moreover, you can find personalized car care services from reputable mobile mechanic companies that’ll deliver their services right at your desired location and schedule. Some of these mechanics will even remind you first about the servicing.
3. Certifications Don’t Mean Exactly What You Think
Anytime you get certified in something you should be happy to show it off. You’ve probably seen many Mechanics that proudly display their certifications in their business’s. The thing is, they don’t mean what you think they do.
Taking nothing away from the work Mechanics do, but a certification from an entity like, ASE (Automotive Service of Excellence), means they passed a hand-written exam. Doesn’t mean they are now a professional, it just means they have passed an exam in an area of automotive repair.
You’ll see car dealerships and even repair shops try to entice you with saying their Mechanics are certified. Trying to convince you to use their shop over someone’s who’s not certified. It tends to gives these places more credibility over other shops. But we all know now that it only means they passed a test.
Would be terrible for certified Mechanics if more and more people found out that there isn’t anything too special between Mechanics that are certified and those that are not.
4. Secret Second Opinions
When you bring your vehicle to a Mechanic, they most always hand you a quote for the job. We’ve all experienced this, we know that dread.
Interesting to know, Mechanics don’t want you to know that getting a secret second opinion can yield you better pricing.
All Mechanics would rather take the smallest profit from you than not receive one at all. But your biggest mistake is making it easy for them to do that. You see, most of us get a second opinion anyway to find the lowest price. The mistake many make is to not tell them at all that you’ve already received a quote from another Mechanic.
This is that horrible mistake. If you tell them what the first quote was they have the advantage. You have given them all the data they need. What they can do, is simply beat that price just enough to ease your mind. Thus, generating a profit from you. Something it may have not done if you didn’t mention it.
You should always get multiple quotes and never share them with the other mechanics at first. This allows you to gage not only differences, but give you the power to control the price…somewhat. If another Mechanic has a lower price, tell one of the other mechanics that. Now you may receive an even lower quote, saving money.
5. Fluid Flushes Are Easy Money Makers
Remember that all Mechanics are salesmen, or saleswomen. They work primarily on commission. This means they will try to sell you on anything they can.
Fluid flushes are gold mines for Mechanics. Why? Because they don’t do any of the work. They use machines that do all the work, and they reap the benefits.
You’ll come to find that Mechanics will always mention and recommend getting your brakes lines or transmission lines flushed. Even if they don’t even need it. Just for the sake of getting money. They’ll try to sell you on why you do.
They don’t want you to know this. It takes always from the easiest work they don’t even do. It’s like asking you to solve a math problem, but you use a calculator to solve it instead of solving it in your head.
When it comes to fluid flushes, stick to your vehicles auto manual on when it’s time to change.
Bonus Secret: There’s A Guide That Shows What to Charge for Repairs
Well, there are many guides that get published every year that go into detail the pricing for each auto repair job.
It makes complete sense why mechanics don’t want you to know this. Then they can’t charge whatever they feel like for each repair. Its common practice for Mechanics to go with “their gut” on what they feel is a fair price. But it actuality, its far off.
These guides are there for Mechanics and they continuously ignore them. As well as not even letting you in on their existence. But the guides show the exact number of hours it should take, how much each repair should cost, the pricing for labor. It’s a blueprint for them.
So, it’s clear to see why mechanics want you to keep bringing your car in for even the smallest things. Make sure to keep asking questions to your mechanic to gain more knowledge and insights into their intentions. It’s a money maker machine. Let’s not be fooled ever again. Use this hidden knowledge to have the inside edge on your Mechanic.
Photo by RyanMcGuire, CC0 1.0