Mobile Mechanic (August)

I called my usual shop to get a quote on an AC compressor on the Subaru. They said it'd be something like $1k-$1.8k (I'm not exactly sure).

Carrie called a guy she'd seen advertising frequently online. He was a mobile mechanic and came to us to take a peek. Carrie's car squeaked, so we suspected she'd need a belt replacement at some point. 

The guy stopped by when he was already in the area and took a peek at both cars (I crushed that wasp nest mercilessly after I spotted it). He said we won the A/C Compressor lottery: BOTH cars needed new ones.

I forgot exact numbers, but the Mobile Mechanic's top end quote was less than the shop's bottom end for mine. He'd fix both cars for less than shop's top end. 

"Sold! When can you come back?" Carrie said on the spot.

He came back the Thursday before beach week (about a week later). Being mobile, he has to look and order parts ahead of time. 

He was a friendly guy. Carrie was the main interface (and they even talked cruises and travel), but I heard about how he worked for years and years at a Volvo dealership "in the dungeon." He was getting out, about, meeting people, and having his own little work adventure now.

The Subaru blew cool for the price advertised when he was done. No long sweaty drive to the beach for us!

It didn't fix the squeak in Carrie's care like expected, though. That's when the mechanic noticed there was a strong negative pressure when the car was at idle. He had trouble removing a cap because of the suction ("In retrospect, the dipstick would have been easier," he said).

He didn't charge us for Carrie's car and asked for some time to do a little research. I did my own research online and found someone who said they had a similar effect from a failing crank seal. Mr. Mechanic came back and said something similar, but more specific to Carrie's car. Again, his quote was great. He couldn't come back out until the end of July, though. 

Saturday, July 29th, the parts were in and the mechanic came by again. He replaced a bunch of things and Carrie's car now runs squeak free....and he never charged for the new AC compressor!

We're happy with the guy and the work. He was happy to point out and explain everything he was doing. He noticed a possible future issue with Carrie's car and showed me pictures of the differences between everything in the car. It's not an immediate issue and he said as such. Yes, it's good marketing, but he's been transparent with everything (and haven't I mentioned at least twice that he no charged for the work he did replacing Carrie's AC Compressor? We didn't pay a thing).

I think we have our car guy for the foreseeable future. He can't always handle same day issues, but we have three cars. Carrie drove the truck while the sonic sat in the garage.

Today's the first of August and all of our cars are acting healthy. It's a blessing!