Don't Trust the Auto Dealer for Repairs

A month ago our 2002 Grand Caravan started intermittently making a thud when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd. It was at 41,000 miles, so 5000 past the warranty. I took it to the local Dodge dealer, Fury Motors, prepared for the worst. And that is certainly what I got.

Their service rep called, informing me in a rather chipper voice, that it was "definitely something major in the transmission." They wouldn't know without tearing into it, but the best guess was that it needed a "major transmission overhaul". "How much?", I inquired, hoping for a number in the 3-digits. Response: $2900. (Remember, this wasn't even for a replacement--only for a major overhaul!)

I was floored. I explained to him that I understood it wasn't his fault, but the car was barely out of warranty, and I was aghast that I could be looking at this kind of repair bill so early in the vehicle's life. I know that the auto maker's have "Regional Service Reps", who can negotiate split payments in egrerious cases of failure. So I asked if they could take my case to the rep. They replied that they were no longer allowed to do that, but would give me the phone number.

I picked up my car, paid the $90 diagnostic fee, and pondered my options. I decided a second opinion was definitely called for. I first just picked a transmission place out of the phone book, and made an appointment for later that week. The more I thought about it, though, the more I wanted to find the right place. In the meantime, the symptom appeared with somewhat diminished frequency.

Wherever I have lived, I have always looked for a small, independent garage. A skilled mechanic who owns his own shop, someone you can trust, and most importantly, someone who knows how to troubleshoot, repair and provide balanced judgement. As opposed to dealers and a lot of the major chains, who tend to quickly default to replacing major, expensive subsytems in their entirety. Historically for me, finding such a shop has been quite critical, because we have driven such "beater" cars.

I hadn't been able to find one here in Woodbury, but since we have much newer cars--for a while, both were even under warranty--I was hoping it would not be necessary. So I hit upon the idea of mining the web for references, which led me to Craig's List, something I had long heard about, but had never used. I trolled it, and found a reference for Evans Auto Repair in St. Paul. An inconvenient 20 minutes from my home in Woodbury, but in this case, well worth it.

I called Evans, spoke to the mechanic-owner, and he said it sounded like transmission, which wasn't his purview, but he could refer me to someone if I would like. I took him up on that, and he referred me to Trans-Auto, also in St. Paul. My initial conversation immediately showed promise--I described the symptoms, and Tom, the mechanic-proprietor, didn't say anything about overhauls or replacements. His offhand diagnosis was "sounds like a solenoid sticking". (I didn't tell him in advance what the dealer had said--I always keep by second opinions "blind".) Well, to bring a long story to its conclusion, he kept it a couple of days, experienced the symptom, found no major problems, and diagnosed a sticking accumulator solenoid.

He explained that the accumulator cushions the transition on downshift, but has nothing to do with transmitting torque to the drivetrain (makes sense). He said it was occasionally sticking. He said it would cost about $400 to replace it, but his advice was to hold off until/unless it got much worse.

I thanked him profusely, shared with him my opinion of the dealer (and dealers generally), and asked how much I owed him. For such excellent diagnosis, I would have been happy to pay $100+ (what the heck, I'd already paid almost that much for an utterly flawed one!). His response: Nothing, bring it to me when it needs work.

I've never been a big fan of dealers. I've always thought they charged a higher labor rate without much justification. Based on my limited prior experience (really just one experience, bad--$400 wasted), I also had concluded, as mentioned above, that they weren't much on fine-grained troubleshooting and remediation; just replace some major system. But because I had a car under warranty--first time ever for that--I had gotten into the habit of dropping it off at the dealer on the way to work. MIS-TAKE!

So, I more motivated than ever to use a reliable, mechanic-owned shop. The signal characteristics are:

• One or at most two-man shop.
• Out-of-the-way (low rent) location.
• Usually a substantial wait to have work done.
• Never charge for a diagnosis.
• Present advice and options, rarely a flat "You need major sub-system X replaced/overhauled".

(I'm not sure what has prevented Craig's List from becoming corrupted with fictitious postings, but it doesn't seem to be.)