For the past little while I’ve been having some trouble with both of my cars. After getting gas in one of the cars, I got back in and the car wouldn’t start all of a sudden. Somehow the battery had just died completely. After jumping the car, it worked just fine for the next couple of weeks until it did the same thing again. The other car had been making a scratching noise off and on for quite some time, and it had just recently been getting louder. I brought it up to a co-worker who told me that it was probably my brake pads being thin.

So this last weekend I decided to take care of both these problems. I went online to find an authorized dealer of Interstate batteries (since that’s the type that I wanted), called to verify they had the type of battery and took the car in. Only upon getting to the shop was I told that I’d be charged a half hour of labor to check and install the new battery. I wasn’t impressed since an auto parts store would have done it for free, but I was already there and wanted the battery. After they had already determined the battery was bad and removed it from my car, they told me that they didn’t have the battery I originally asked about and could get me a Napa battery. I was pretty upset since the only reason I had come to this shop was to get a specific battery. Next time I’ll just go to an auto parts store and have them take care of it for free.

For the brake repair I was able to have a friend from church replace the pads. He took a quick look at them, explained the problem, and told me exactly what I should purchase. He then put them on for me for a very reasonable price. There weren’t any problems. I would have thought that the brake issue would have been more problematic than a dead battery, but who knew?

So, there has to be a lesson learned from all this. While your car is working fine, take the time to find a reputable repair shop or someone you can trust. You don’t want to be looking for this when you need something fixed quickly. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn a little about the mechanics of cars. A basic understanding will go a long way when dealing with repair shops trying to pull a fast one on you.

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