An Honest Mechanic

Picture above, exhibit A. Nope, not part of the crosswalk as it might appear. Instead, it's a huge crack in my windshield that spontaneously appeared overnight one night last week. I was home a few more days and it grew inches. Yikes!

Needless to say, a holiday season where spending is at its peak to honor loved ones, purchasing a windshield wasn't on my list of things to buy. Add it to the top of the list for 2011.  I've been thinking about it recently as it's one of the first things I'll have to take care of when I return to my CA home. The bright spot in all of this... I know an honest mechanic.

This past September my car, that I affectionately call "Stella," needed her 60K tune-up/check-up/maintenance... whatever they call it. She needed it. Ugh, about two of the worst things to go together - car maintenance & me. I'm sure I'm not the only female on this planet that feels that this is an area of extreme vulnerability. Thus I enlisted the help of my trusty friend Yelp when I started researching where I would take Stella for her check-up.

"Honda mechanic" I searched in my area. Thirty-five results returned. Excellent.

I read through the reviews and one immediately stood out: S & S Auto Repair. Over 60 people reviewed this place and they received an average of 4.5 of 5 stars. "If there's ever was an honest mechanic, it's Mr. Shew!," they said. Sold. I went and I'm happy to say everything I read on Yelp was correct. Mr. Shew and S&S Auto Repair provided me good, honest service. Never did I feel sketchy about what he was trying to sell me. Really, I felt like he was a grandpa, no frills, just said and did what I needed to keep Stella and me safe on the road.

Here's the icing on the good-car-mechanic-cake. He said my service was going to take 3 hours, be back at 11:15 am. I was prepared. I planned on walking to the nearest coffee shop for some breakfast and brought some magazines to read as I waited for Stella. He asked if I had a ride, looked around to see that I had none, then said this, "Take my car." I kid you not, he pointed to his car and said, "Door is open, key in the ignition." Um... I'm not sure how I felt about taking his car but when I thought about it, I lived less than 4 miles away and I could just drive home and drive back. It would be a much nicer morning than sitting at a coffee shop.

Granted, he was an older man and his car was a very humble Honda Accord made at some point in the 90's. But nonetheless, I went home, went for a wonderful morning run, made breakfast, watched some morning TV and even took a power nap all while Stella got her groove back.

So now, as inconvenient as fixing a windshield might seem, my positive experience makes me think that I don't have to be nearly as vulnearable as I might feel. I'll call and ask Mr. Shew. He might not be able to fix it himself (because as little as I know about cars, I'm not sure if mechanics fix stuff that's not mechanical...). If he can't do it, I'm sure he'll tell me the best possible person who can. I'll take advice (and the car!) of this honest mechanic anytime.