Hi ,
I'm looking for a mechanic to fix my daughter's car. She's a high school student so she's not loaded.I was hoping to find a mechanic who will do a good job, but not charge like a wounded bull, as most around here seem to do. We live in the inner west of Sydney.
Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Post above sounds great, if not, my wife has always had a good experience with:
Harold Park Repairs
233A Johnston St, Annandale NSW 2038
(02) 9660 2913 · hpr.com.au
Elios at Five Dock opposite the RTA, particularly Andrew is very ell priced. Andrew is lovely, efficient, and will go beyond the course of duty.
A vexing topic as an ozbargainer, and driver living in the inner west, who knows nothing about cars! A good mechanic is hard, because it's an service where you are semi-captive once you've gone there, and you rarely know exactly what they're going to charge until presented with the bill, and if you're not a mechanic yourself it's hard to evaluate how to good their work was until say a year has passed, and it's something we generally buy infrequently. End result is that it's easy to get ripped off, which impacts worst when you're young and don't have much free cash.
Following is personal opinion only!
Good:
* Franks automotive at Marrickville. [current choice, e.g. last car told me to sell it rather than bother servicing it because cost would exceeded car's value, i.e. refused business that was not in the customer's interest. Their costs seem reasonable to me]
* Summer Hill Garage [had to use them for an insurance claim once, seemed reasonable, although in fairness I wasn't paying, the insurance company was]
Poor:
* Advanced Auto Centre Sydney, st peters [most expensive service I have ever had by far, at over $2000, spun me a convincing story about how it would fix all the problems and be good for many years to come, which was proved comprehensively false, sold the car a year later just to done with it, was left feeling thoroughly ripped off by this mechanic, avoid at all costs IMHO]
* The mechanic at the service centre in Summer Hill, superior motors I think it's called [repeated evaded giving me a price over the phone, finally I said before I went there I said I'd have to go to ATM to get cash out, when I got there he gave me an evil smirking grin and said that it would be $800 - which was to the dollar the exact maximum amount that you could get out of at ATM at that time … I was a rather poor youngster too … felt rather scammed, never went back]
* Suttons city in Roseberry [fairly pricey, bureaucratic, and not great IMHO, but it's a car dealership, so probably not a surprise]
My general advice would be to consider something in Marrickville - I've used other places in Marrickville and they were fine too, and there seems to be a number of decent mechanics competing for business there, maybe the rent is lower so there's less pressure to try to get every dollar (speculation only), it's my rule of thumb now to reduce my chances of getting ripped off, even though it's not a particularly convenient location for me. Good luck!
Thanks heaps Ozbargainers for the advice/info.
No wonder I love Ozbargain!!!
Our family's mechanic has always been Harry on Marion Street, Leichhardt. Bit hard to spot as it's along a long row of houses, but it's blue… :P
https://plus.google.com/103280999449866736527/about
He's lovely, genuine, doesn't rip you off and does a great job.