"dbltap" <DoubleTap@37.com> wrote in message
news:HAaDg.3196$Qf.2682@newsread2.news.pas.earthli nk.net...
:
: "John Horner" <jthorner@yahoo.com> wrote in message
: news:NV8Dg.79$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.
:
I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but in the Atlanta area, where I
live now, I have my pick of at least two independent shops that can handle p
retty much anything my current cars need (except alignment, and I have good
options for that too). That's what I'm looking for in Houston. When I need
someone to service my fuel-cell-powered flying rocket car in 10 years, I'll
go to a dealer if I have to.

I've had mixed luck with dealers, although I will say I've done better with
the Honda dealers here than with dealers for the other cars (other makes)
that we've owned before.

Good idea on the Car Talk site -- I'll take a look.

Paul