Photo: How to choose a good service station in an unfamiliar city (Getty Images) Author: Konstantin Shirokun
A modern car is too expensive and full of surprises to trust its maintenance to strangers. How to choose “your” auto mechanic or “your” service station in a new city?
Read about several ways to recognize the right auto repair shop in an unfamiliar region in the RBC-Ukraine article.
Any experienced motorist will confirm how important it is to have a mechanic you can trust “one hundred percent”. If a car owner does not have such a person or such a workshop, he always risks, firstly, paying extra money for unnecessary work, and secondly, getting a car that will fail again after repairs, and on a road far from home.
But be prepared for the fact that you won’t be able to find a reliable car service right away – you’ll have to look around in a certain way and, so to speak, experiment.
How to find the right service station
Keep in mind that there are no auto repair shops in our country that are frankly unsuitable for cooperation – competition and market relations quickly lead such enterprises to bankruptcy. However, it is still necessary to “filter” the workshops, because most of them will be those that do not meet your specific needs. For example, one will be too expensive, the second will not know your car model, the third constantly has huge queues (which is often a good sign), the fourth will not have its own spare parts warehouse, and so on.
When searching for a suitable workshop, in each case you need to rely on the specific breakdown that needs to be fixed. When contacting local residents, fellow drivers, do not hesitate to voice your problem, because often small auto repair shops have a certain specialization, that is, a range of work that they perform especially successfully.
Hints on the Internet . The browser will give a whole list of the nearest service stations, plus there are all-Ukrainian sites for selecting car services by various criteria. Among such sites there are effective projects, but you cannot rely on them completely – simply because they may not know all the workshops around you.
Network service stations . One of the most reliable options, but it will not be the cheapest. In addition, there are only a few all-Ukrainian networks of car service stations, and they do not cover all regions. It also makes sense to call the official dealer of your car manufacturer: this option is probably the most expensive, not available everywhere, but reliable, so keep it in mind as a last resort.
Local colleagues . We warn you that the opinion of an ordinary motorist is often subjective, therefore, as sociologists say, the sample of respondents must be correct. Ask about the best service station from drivers of approximately your financial level and who have a car of the same brand as you. Keep in mind that taxi drivers are not always a good consultant in such matters. It is very good when several fellow drivers recommend one workshop to you at once.
In a spare parts store . Where you will buy parts for repair, you can also find out about the workshop where the spare part will be installed on the car. The advantage of such a reference is that local auto businessmen – especially in small towns – often cooperate and value their own reputation, so their advice can be sincere.
With my own eyes
The last selection barrier may be a personal visit to the service station that you more or less liked in absentia. It is easy to evaluate the cleanliness and order at the enterprise and around it. The presence of an orderly parking lot, a waiting area for clients, a TV, a coffee machine, green lawns and flowers should play, as they say, in the plus. Take a closer look at how clients are greeted at the order desk, how quickly the car is accepted, how the communication between the receiver and visitors continues, and finally, what kind of appearance will the serviceman have when he comes out to pick up the car or, say, to the smoking room. Reliable information will be provided by the client who immediately, in your presence, picked up his car from repair.
In brief
When looking for a reliable auto repair shop in an unfamiliar locality – or perhaps in your own, but for the first time – put the financial issue last. The main thing in such a situation is to get quality work done. And you will be able to find discounts or low rates later, when you gain more experience and have a wider circle of familiar drivers in the given region.
Materials from Autocentre and Motor were used in preparing this article .
Let us recall that RBC-Ukraine recently reported why pedestrians are not always right.