How come every other car enthusiast on internet has a professional mechanic level car knowledge...

When I actually started to learn about cars (i'm not bad with working things, idgaf about cars until they started racking up mad bills)

Years of hackjobs became evident: Hoses repaired like shit rather than replaced, non-critical fasteners not reinstalled after disassembly (won't kill you but the noise will drive you mad). These all from independent "automotive professionals"

Also, you pay a mechanic $60 an hour, minimum usually. 40 Hours a week x 52 weeks.

That means $60*2080=$124,800

Once you've learned your own car

You're learn they're all really similar

>flat out incompetent
The few competent blokes can afford to be honest.

For those of us who don't have the tools or time, what is the recommend way to find a mechanic? Local independent shop?

i think you are giving """"professional mechanics"""" too much credit. their experience and aptitude does not give them as much of an edge as their bay full of tools, a lift, and an 8 inch thick factory service manual do.

be social, go out and talk to mfs. the reliable ones are the smaller ones that are struggling cause they care too much to fuck up your car

most 'professional mechanics' just do basic car maintenance at a dealership. most of them have never taken apart a motor and only know what their dealership tells them. theyre not the type of people to be able to think critically or problem solve. theyre your equivalent of an indian customer service rep reading through a prerecorded list of steps for the closet issue they can find relating to your situation that they have documented by their superiors.

for instance, i blew the shitty motor in my a4 launching it too many times at the dragstrip. i went home, ordered a motor out of a newer model, threw it in in a weekend, and it's been running without a single hiccup for over a year now. i had multiple (3) 'ase certified master audi technicians' on audizine tell me that what i did was impossible, and that in order to do what i did id have to do an entire ecu swap with full wiring harness, new transmission, and entire new dash wiring, etc. that it wasnt even remotely possible without replacing half the car. even after walking them through my process step by step with pictures and videos of the swap and the car running perfectly fine and even putting down better times at the dragstrip they still didnt believe me.

theyre trained monkeys turning wrenches for a paycheck. theyre not enthusiasts, theyre not passionate about their work, and they dont get the intimate knowledge youd get by owning a single car and working on it for years at a time, since theyre always jumping around from model to model doing nothing more than routine basic maintenance.

dont mean to offend anybody here, i certainly dont speak for all mechanics. just most. there are certainly some great ones out there that really know their shit.

Most mechanics were enthusiasts at some point.
They now tell you to never turn a hobby into a career.

They aren't, Professional bullshitters would be more accurate.

I was getting my brakes done for my Saab and basically found out they put conventional oil in my engine since it kept overheating and making noise. Literally told those retards it takes European grade oil. I taught myself ever since then. I'm sure there's a lot of good honest mechanics and techs out there but there's too many hacks that it's not worth the risk.

Honestly go to your local parts store and ask what some good local shops are. They all run commercial departments that work with local auto shops and dealerships and generally will tell you the most honest places to go to.

Because if you don't touch every nut and bolt at least once the car will never understand your feelings and it will end in a one-sided lovers' suicide careening down a mountain

my dad taught me how to work on cars from when i was a toddler, been helping to restore cars since i was 3 years old, restored my own first car at the age of 12 which i learned to drive in (subaru brumby)
also don't trust mechanics.
take my current car for an example, the mechanic who worked on it just after i bought it put all new hose clamps and what not on all the hoses but did every single one of them up so tight that every one of them was broken, but wait there is more, instead of replacing the water pump gaskets he bogged them up with gasket sealant meaning the engine needed a new water pump within 2000km (he was paid to put new gaskets in btw, i paid for all new rubbers front and back, engine and gearbox oil, oil filter, air filter, fix the hoses few other odd bits) he also broke one of the brand new power steering pump lines with the hose clamp because it was too tight and he says he changed the oil filter and air filter but i highly fucking doubt it considering how dirty both the air filter and oil/oilfilter were when i dropped the oil and pulled the air box apart which btw also had every clamp on it broken.

yes i did get a good refund from the mechanic but still what a waste of my fucking time i had to do it myself anyway, lesson learned.

nice try. toddlers cant learn how to do anything except not shit their pants, retard.

i stopped shitting my pants the day i turned 2 actually.
sorry you were a slow learner user.

dont lie to me. youve shit your pants in the past year.

yeah i thought it was a fart but it was a shart, admit it you did too thats why you brought it up.

of course, i shit my pants on average once every six months you pussy.

maybe start wearing a butt plug

im not that other guy but thats pretty often pants shitting user, im sort of concerned for you

People with empty wallets and more than two brain cells to rub together get sick of paying three times the cost of just doing the shit yourself.

This tends to lead to learning beyond the scope of their immediate repair ability when the attitude of "well, that wasn't so hard; I wonder what ELSE I could do to this thing that I've been overpaying for" sets in and a hobby/proficiency forms. What was once mysterious becomes routine. The scary prospects become ones you can now fathom tackling. Operations you never thought in your reach of execution become something you handle on your next day off or whatever. The process is slow for some, quick for others, and dies short of any formidable expertise for most.

This is not exclusive to automobiles. It applies to any area of life.

twice a year isnt even that much, get with the program.

it's more than a normal person.

>They now tell you to never turn a hobby into a career.

This sounds like a lame anecdote, but I learned this working in the vape industry.

2 years later, I absolutely despise the industry/vape culture and don't wanna talk about it with anyone ever at this point.

All my enthusiasm was spent by retards and tactless money-grabbing businesses.

except for women ;^( although i have a bangin car now :))

Cars are a better investment than most women.

Go to a few, ask for a oil change. Try to know in advance what is/isn't wrong with your car. Based off what they tell you and your gut feeling, you'll know

my response to why i dont become a full time mechanic.

>tfw mechanic
jeez guys, ouch. honestly I don't see a whole lot of exploitation going on at my (ford) dealership. we try to sell what's broken. All this shit about mechanics installing worn out brake pads and breaking parts on install, wtf? What kind of shop are you guys going to? This would never fly
people bitch and moan about the price but it's not cheap to run a shop. go do it yourself, it's fine. no one cares.
I started as a car enthusiast, and I still am one, however I haven't been in the trade that long (and I don't plan to be). It's not that bad, you get access to the shop which is nice when you own a bunch of 90s Japanese shitboxes. I definitely still love cars and I don't mind working on them even after work. I save a ton of money too by using the shop and learning from other techs

Good advice right here

Last time I took my car to a dealership, it was to have two safety recalls performed. One to install a trailer hitch so the fuel tank wouldn't explode if it got rear ended, and another to prevent the transmission from popping out of park.

Ever since then, the backlight that lights up the gear selector in the center console doesn't turn on.

You probably should have gone back and told the service advisor about your concern.

>dealership

That explains it.

>What kind of shop are you guys going to?

The kind that don't have a corporate HR to answer to and hire local ignorant bumblefucks to turn wrenches, probably.

>people bitch and moan about the price but it's not cheap to run a shop

I would like to think this isn't about standard business overhead, but being straight up gypped.

>live in shitty apartment complex
>time for oil change, nowhere to do it
>go to fucking goodyear
>guy is all chummy, tells me how much he likes my car/the model, shoot the shit and tell stories over the paperwork
>hand over keys and sit down
One hour later
>user I'm gonna give it to ya straight because we're good friends now. Your car needs the AC system cleaned, what with the mold in this state (FL) and all. Should be no more than 70 bucks for the parts and labor.
>also here's your cabin air filter, see it needs to be changed as well, about 30 bucks too and I'll add a coupon if we do both today
>tell him no, the car is three years old and that air filter looks fine
>okay, just warning you!
>ask if they found anything else, he says they didn't
>which means they didn't find the screw in my front passenger side tire
>at a fucking tire store

I'm never going back. I'll change my oil in the parking lot and slosh it over to auto zone for disposal

Why didn't you mention the screw in your tire?

>European grade oil
Is this a meme?

>European grade oil

>brakes
>tell them about oil
You practically were asking them to fuck with your oil

Knowing how things work is part of the enthusiasm, at least for me. If you want to do something custom, you're better off doing it on your own instead of explaining it to someone. Most simple jobs are ridiculously expensive at the dealership/ garage of choice and would make the hobby next to unaffordable. If a job is too difficult for me (like reworking a cylinder head) it's usually too difficult for a dealership, too and you have to go to experts which surprisingly are sometimes even cheaper than your average dealership.

>European grade oil