Christian mechanics are awesome!

[Mikomi]

The heat in our car stopped working a couple weeks ago as well as the 4-wheel drive. This is a horrible combination of things to go wrong with your car when you live up north in the wintertime. So yesterday my husband and I decided we needed to get these problems fixed so we took it into a Chevy dealership (whom I will leave unnamed). We had dealt with this company last year and they had tried to rip us off, however, we were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt since the dealership we went to this time was at a different location so we thought perhaps the people there would be different than the ones we had dealt with at the other shop. So anyway, we took it to them and told them the 2 things that were wrong with the car. Well, the next day they called us and told us there were mutiple things wrong with the car and that it was going to cost us $3,330 to fix. Unbelievable and ridiculous were the first things that came to mind.

Let me backtrack a bit here before I go on. Prior to getting the car fixed we prayed that God would allow a person who was honest to fix our car and that no one would try to take advantage of us. Apparently this wasn't the place we had prayed for. We sat there for a moment, trying to think of what we could do to get the car fixed. And then it hit me. The Christian Blue pages! (For those who don't know what this is, its a phonebook full of businesses who proclaim Jesus as their Lord and Savior, demonstrate faith through active involvement in their church, and operate their business according to Biblical principles. It's quite lovely. ^_^) Inside the book we found a shop called Turner Welding & Mechanics. So my hubby called the place to ask for some price quotes on the repairs that the Chevy dealer said that we needed. Mr. Turner was extremely helpful and quoted the repairs significantly lower than what the dealership had planned on charging us. For example, the Chevy dealership was going to charge us $1,220 to get the heater fixed but Mr. Turner said he could do it for $375. Amazing. So we agreed that we would bring the car to him later that day.

After my hubby hung up with Mr. Turner he called the Chevy place back and told them that we didn't want them to do ANY work. When we went to pick up the car from them they had charged us $150 and said it was the inspection fee, but when we looked at the receipt it said that it was for a repair to the 4-wheel drive. @_@ I immediately told the woman at the front desk that we had specifically asked NOT to have ANY work done. She paged the guy who worked on our car, and he said that it was indeed an inspection fee but he had went ahead and fixed the 4-wheel drive anyway since it wasn't a big deal. This didn't really make any sense to me because prior to this he was planning on charging us a fee to fix the 4-wheel drive plus the inspection fee so what made him change his mind? Did he just fix it out of the goodness of his heart for free? I have no idea. It was just strange. So anyway we paid, left the place, and headed to Mr. Turner's shop.

Today Mr. Turner called and told us he had fixed the heater and that he would be completely done with all the repairs by this evening so we could pick up the car tomorrow like we had requested. We haven't received the final cost yet but we can definitely say that it will be under $1000, and compared to the $3,330 that Chevy was gonna charge us, I'd say that's pretty darn awesome. God bless Mr. Turner!

[Syreth]

Wow, I didn't know there was such a thing as the Christian blue pages. Anyhow, that's pretty sweet how God provided a way for you to get honest repairs done. He's definately faithful!

[Mikomi]

Today we went to pick up the car and the total cost for everything (replaced the brakes, fixed the door, fixed the heater and repaired an oil leak) he did was $575. God is truly awesome.

We also found out that one of the repairs that the guy at the Chevy dealership told us we needed didn't actually exist. The man had told us we needed to have the ball joints (I think that's what they were called. I know little about cars ) replaced or we would risk losing a wheel, and thus have an accident. This scared us so we had Mr. Turner take a look at it, and he said there wasn't anything wrong with them at all. They were perfectly fine.

[Mave]

Christian Blue pages? I wonder why Blue.....

Anyway, it's nice to hear that some Christians do not fudge on their values and beliefs in the real world. Serves as a reminder that all of us can have an impact on other ppl's lives in our actions, rather than just talk. God bless these people ~

[Mithrandir]

Great news! WHOOO!


As for ball joints, you'll probably be OK. If you notice you alignment go way out (call pulls forcably to one side) you'll want to have them inspected again. That's the first sign I look for when I suspect trouble. YMMV.