My wife's car broke down last week Wednesday. My wife mistakenly took it to a local garage instead of our regular mechanic. It is a 1998 Mazda MPV AWD V6. It took them a day to find out that it was a bad battery AND a cam sensor in the distributor. He said we need to replace both for $1000. I promptly called my mechanic and he said that should cost no more than $550. I negotiated him down to $691, still a bit of a ripoff I think, but not quite as bad. Anyway, they had to order the distributor ad they said it might not be in until Tuesday. We called them Tuesday night and they said they got it running good, but they wanted to keep it another day to make sure it runs well in the morning. Wednesday they call us at noon stating that it broke down again and the reason is because the distributor they received is bad and they need another one. They state that they are having the vendor overnight it. Personally, I believe that they didn't order the distributor on time and are just going to be getting it tomorrow. Nevertheless, I have a feeling that this may drag on a while with him not being able to fix it. To date, neither me nor my wife have stepped into the garage, all phone conversation. What should I do if this thing drags on too long. I assume that I will have to pay something to have the car taken somewhere else to let someone who knows what they are doing look at the car. But are there any things that I should watch out for so that I can protect myself legally from paying like $500 just for the work that he has done so far trying to figure out what is wrong?
- posted
20 years ago