No one ever wants to deal with a car break-down and, they always seem to come at the worst time. Whether you’re driving to a job interview, about to go on holidays or if you’re meant to be at an important appointment. Sadly, our mechanics can’t prevent all breakdowns, but here is how you can save money and time the next time you're in a sticky spot.
If your car is going to a mechanic because of a mysterious issue, the mechanic is much the same as your doctor and has to ‘diagnose’ the issue.
Like your doctor, if you really want to save money and time when visiting a mechanic with a breakdown, give the mechanic a great description. Diagnosing a problem is always much, much easier when you know the situation that caused the problem or even the problem itself.
For example, if we told you that we think the tap in your house is broken, you would start looking into why the tap was broken. However, if we told you that no water was coming out of the tap, you would probably see if the water was turned off from the main.
Provide lots of details about the issue and be prepared to answer questions too. What the weather was like the day of the issue, what time of day, if there was anything unusual about the car beforehand and even any recent work that you had performed.
For example, if your car is not starting and you recently had a fuel filter replaced, there may be a direct link between the 2 things.
As for answering questions, a good mechanic will always want to know more about the issue before diagnosing it. Whether it happened once or multiple times and if you were doing something you wouldn't normally at the time..
Being upfront about these things and providing information is where you will save money. As mechanics are paid by the hour, providing this information can help lead them directly to the problem instead of wasting time (your money) looking for different problems.
Remember, mechanics aren’t going to be upset if you were doing something silly at the time as well. If you were trying to drag race a Toyota Corolla and you shifted into the wrong gear, let us know. We’ve probably done something much worse in our personal car.
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