pissed offOkay, before I moved to the suburbs, I had a reliable mechanic back home that never tried to scam me, and always told me the truth about my car. He went to high school with my mom, so he knew my family pretty well, and almost all of my relatives go to him to get their cars repaired. Also, if I needed something fixed on my car and it was hella expensive, then he'd let me pay in payments because he trusted me to do that. And, he knew where I lived and who my parents were, so there was no way to escape. Besides, back when I had my POS cavelier, I was a VERY good customer, so he knew I was always good for the bills.
Well, now that I've moved to the suburbs, I'm due for an oil change for my car. So,instead of driving about 80 miles back home to go to my regular mechanic, I just went to one of the small businesses out here (because I'm big on supporting local businesses) and by recommendation of a co-worker I went to this place called McClean Auto. The oil change fee is reasonably low, about 24 dollars.
That isn't so bad until they called me today and told me I should really flush my fluids. If I did that, suddenly my bill would go from $24 to $490. I was like: WTF????!!!!!!!!!!!
I told them flat out "NO" before they did anything, and then I called my dad. He told me he was glad that I did that because usually auto places like that will try to get more money out of you by telling you that your power steering and brake fluids need to be flushed. That's exactly what they told me.
And he said while some fluids need to be flushed like every three years or so, my new car, with only about 25,000 miles on it, did NOT need flushing.
So basically it was a scam. And my dad was like, "They probably told you that because they assume you don't know anything about cars since you're a woman."
I was like WTF THOSE BASTARDS!!!!
And although I am ready to soooo throw in the towel at that auto place, my dad said that MOST places do that. It's how they make their money by pressuring people into stuff like that.
And although it's true that I am a girl and know very little about cars, I guess those auto boys didn't think I had enough common sense to call my dad and ask him about it.
Yes, girls, thank goodness for our fathers.