Your car can be considered as an extension of yourself. Its color can reflect your personality, bumper stickers reveal a little bit of your humor, customized decals show your style and its model alone can say a lot about your lifestyle. The time, effort and money you’ve spent on your car make it a significant part of life. So when the time comes that it needs a repair, you shouldn’t leave it in the hands of an amateur.

Tips to get the best car mechanic

Ask around and do your research

Word of mouth is the cheapest and oldest method of marketing. Ask relatives and friends about their experiences with local service centers. If a repair shop and its mechanics have a quick processing, performs quality repairs and at fair charges, someone you know is bound to recommend them.

Search on the internet

The internet is the best place to get information. Google with its massive database provides the maximum number of search results. However, to get the result and make Google useful, one needs to provide extra filtering information while searching. Once you type “auto repair near ‘zip code’ ” in the search field, the result normally shows the repair shops along with their addresses on the right side of the listing. The sponsored ads are listed at the top of the page. The reviews and scoring system are the results of Google’s scoring system.

Training and Certification

A certified mechanic needs to have attended training workshops and sessions to improve his knowledge for a specific type of car services such as engine repairs, brake work, and collision repairs. This ensures that the mechanic has a deep understanding of your car’s problem and knows what he’s doing.

A good mechanic isn’t too eager to charge

Although service centers make more money with more repairs to be done, a good mechanic people can trust will not recommend unnecessary repairs for “potential” problems. He shouldn’t be too enthusiastic to present expensive repair options, but rather discuss possible solutions to fit your budget.

Choose the labor fee based on clock hours

If the car repair is offered with a free oil change car owners might give in without asking too many questions. Make sure to compare prices of parts and labor charges. Some mechanics charge labor fees based on industry standards. Try to choose a mechanic who charges to actual clock time.…