"John Horner" <jthorner@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:NV8Dg.79$Z1.37@trnddc03...
> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> I'm willing to pay a little more for work I can trust.
>>
>> Then why not go to Honda Dealer ? All work is warranteed for 1 year.
>>
>> Lynn
>>
>>
>
> Because some dealers are good and some are bad. Also, turnover at a
> dealer is sometimes high and you don't really know who will be working on
> your car.
>
> Another problem with dealers is that you have to talk to an relatively
> uninformed person, the "service writer" and rarely speak with the actual
> mechanic. Find a good independent specialist and you can communicate
> directly with the owner and/or mechanics.
>
> Good independents are well worth supporting when you have one available.
>
> John
>
John you are correct when you say when you have one available.

However just from my consumer point of view since I am not connected with
the industry, I see that in the next ten years the indy shop will become as
rare as the white rhino in Africa.

With the enormous cost of new diagnostic equipment and highly specialized
and ever changing skills needed to service more and more technologically
sophisticated electronics and advanced power plants (read hybrid and the
hydrogen fuel cell) there will be no chance for the small indy shop to
survive. I don't think that a shop can make a go of it even as a brake shop.
At some point the manufacturers will devise a brake system that is so
reliant on electronics that you will need a dealer out of necessity to do
the service.

I am not saying which is better, but just stating what I see as the future
of auto service.