How I Fixed My Used Car

I recently bought a used car. It had many problems. The three major problems were i) the driver side door lock was not working, ii) the speedometer was out of order, and iii) break was not working properly.

I know many mechanics. The first mechanic took 2 days to fix the break. I asked him to fix the other things. But he seemed to be taking his own time. In fact he could not understand how to fix other problems especially the speedometer and the door lock.

I was told that fixing the above two problems is hard. The door may not be fixed at all without replacing the entire locking system for all the doors. That was scary.

I went to an electric mechanic to talk to him about the speedometer. He refused to be of any help. While driving around, my wife saw one sign board of a Honda mechanic. And we made a dash to him. He immediately agreed to fix the speedometer.

We were lucky that he had just got a used sensor from somewhere. He replaced the sensor and lo the speedometer got working at $70. Had I believed the first mechanic, I would have been in trouble.

Impressed by his work, I asked this Honda mechanic to fix my other problems. He changed one pipe which was easy. He expressed his inability to fix the door lock. He suggested to change all cylinders or put on a remote access system on the door. Both were expensive and disheartening. The door lock itself was irreparable, he reported.

Without any hope I asked some other mechanics. Everyone was of the same opinion. Finally I landed up with one mechanic whom I knew for long and I was avoiding him as he was a little expensive.

I called this mechanic on phone and asked him if he could fix my door lock, but with least hope. He suggested to take the car to him. Anyway I went to him. On arrival, he told me that he will fix the lock at $80. Finally he agreed at $60. I did not believe he will be able to repair it. I was really surprised when after 20 minutes of work, my lock was working.

Then I had to change the tires. This mechanic was not having used tires of my size. So I went to another place and got two tires changed. I was surprised that I had 2 different tire sizes on my car. He put on 2 used tires.

When I went to my earlier mechanic, He asked me why I had put on winter tires? Oh gosh how I missed to see that? I called the tire guy. He refused and said that I was at fault and he can do nothing except to charge me extra.

The moral of the story is that if you got a problem with your car, do not rely on the opinion of just one mechanic. Visit as many of them as possible. Some one will fix your problem. Also be careful while changing the parts like tires. Put on all season tires.