We are sad to report that Dustin has moved on from Girlington.  He is building a house and starting a new life and he will be sorely missed.  We wish him the best of luck!

You have a surprisingly old car with very low mileage and little body rust.  Maybe someone who didn’t drive much passed it on to you or maybe you found it used.  It may be a real prize but remember that it is still an older car.

Rubber, plastic, fluids and metal all degrade over time so even if a car isn’t driven much, you may encounter problems, especially with seals, hoses, belts and boots.  The seals in the engine and transmission are the biggest potential biggest problems. Fuel, oil and coolant sitting often gather sediments or condensation.  The battery may not hold a charge.  Especially if you areconsidering buying a car like this, take int account replacing parts from age rather than from normal wear.  If you consider  these issues, it still might be a great car!

You take your car to your garage and, after being charged a hefty sum for diagnosis, you are told it is likely that your doohickey is shorted out. You need your car so you agree to replace the doohickey. After a few hours or, longer in some cases, you pick up your car. You drive it for a while and the same symptom is still present! Your mechanic must be a hack or a thief, right?

Not necessarily. Cars are complex systems, with each part connected in some way to every other part.  More often than we would like, problems are like onions, with the first layer needing to be pealed away before we can assess the second, or sometimes the third layer. . It’s not that what you have had done didn’t need doing but that the deeper problem –or problems – can’t be diagnosed until the upper layer is dealt with. It is not unusual for several components of one system to fail at the same time, or around the same time. All are the same age and mileage and have been through the same workout as the other components in the system. Also, when one begins to fail, it puts stress on the other parts of the system so that there can be a domino effect. It is not surprising that they would all fail together.

If possible, your shop has warned you this might be the case, but often we have no way of knowing ahead of time. And there is nothing we hate more than having you come back for another expensive repair soon after leaving the shop. We know you are upset and feeling distrustful. But hopefully you have built up a relationship with your shop. Just as you put your faith in us, we also put our faith in you. I can’t tell you how rewarding it is when a customer who has been through one of these onion problems understands and comes back without resentment. . When that happens they earn our loyalty like very few other customers do. We know that they trust us and we will do most anything to keep that trust. It is incredibly valuable to us.

So, here is our Yahoo video for those of you who haven’t seen it yet. We actually got to page one on Yahoo home page! Woot!

I wanted to provide a place where people didn’t feel like they were getting ripped off, where people felt like they could trust what the technicians were saying to them, what the technicians were doing. ~ Demeny

We are so moved by all the comments and emails that you have sent our way via Yahoo.   In some ways the film is not an accurate rendition of our shop – we have two great male techs and lots of wonderful male customers.  We think there are honest shops everywhere and this isn’t a concept new to us.  Due to the nature of the auto industry, it is hard for customers to know who they can trust upfront and that is what we try to address in the way we do business.

We do feel deeply that more women should go into the skilled trades and that schools and businesses should help encourage that (we have had female apprentices since we started).  Since there is a miniscule percent of women in the automotive field, a little extra help and support doesn’t feel sexist to us!  Being a professional automotive technician or a service writer are high paying skilled occupations and the field would be better for a more gender balanced work environment.  That said, ladies, it takes time and training and you will have to be willing to get into debt for school and tools and work at the bottom for at least a few years until you really know what you are doing – as in any other skilled profession.

On another note:  Tee shirts, etc., are available.  We just never had enough demand to set up an online store.  Call us at 802-660-0055 and tell us what you want, your address and give us a credit card over the phone and we can send stuff to you.

If you do nothing else for your car, change the oil religiously. We have seen more than one engine completely ruined by infrequent oil changes. The oil in your engine is the only thing that prevents metal on metal friction inside your engine so when the oil breaks down, you are doing damage.

Dustin is on vacation in Alaska (I know!) so Jason and Brittni have been holding down the fort.  They have been doing an amazing job of it.  Even with the overnight onset of summer heat, they are doing a really fine job.  Thanks, Guys!

You have just been told your brakes need to be replaced. Can’t you just replace the pads? Sometimes, sure, but often the rotors need replacing as well. Brakes work by the caliper pressing the pad into the rotor (or drum, but that’s another story). The key to safe, effective braking is perfect contact between the pad and rotor.
If we have recommended replacement, the rotors are either warped or rusted or grooved from the old pads. New pads need a nice, smooth surface to press against. Turning rotors takes the tech more time (costing you more money) and you end up with a thinner rotor. A thinner rotor doesn’t dispel heat efficiently so is likely to warp. So if your rotors are worn, we recommend replacing, rather than turning them.

This week has been a fun one at the shop.  Tire season is slowing winding down so we can start to work at a more reasonable rate.  Plus, Brittni started her three month apprenticeship!  Plus it was Dustin’s birthday!

Brittni wowed us all by making amazing carrot cake cupcakes for Dustin on her second day with us.  They had little icing carrots on top and were as good as they sound.  After work some of us went to Our House in Winooski for a birthday dinner.  It was really good (fried pickles, anyone?) and we had a blast.

If you are planning on keeping your car for more than a year, use premium parts. We always recommend them because they last longer, have fewer problems and failures and save you more in the long run on labor.