I like having places I know to go to for specific things. For weekly groceries, I go to the Trader Joe’s by West 2nd. For special groceries, I go to any HEB. For I-need-to-get-through-this-weekday lunch or dinner, I go to the P. Terry’s on North Lamar. There are others.
I’ve got my places. It took a minute, but now I have them. And they aren’t changing.
Except for with my car.
With my car, it’s different.
I used to not have to worry about my car too much. It was young. It would be ok. Then I entered the gig economy, and, well, it needed a little more attention.
Now, I like having two places with my car. The first is a dealership’s service department where I can get oil changes and routine maintenance, as directed by the manual (as soon as I miss the manual’s recommendations for a few thousand miles I start having dreams about my car making horrifying noises while I lose control and scrape guardrails at high speeds). The second is a Firestone where I can get my brakes and tires taken care of as necessitated by time and the fates’ scattering of screws on Austin roadways.
Finding these two places hasn’t been difficult. Keeping them has been tough.
I don’t know if this is standard practice in the industry or my own unique experience or some strange trick-of-the-mind my anxiety’s turning, but the first time I go to a dealership or a Firestone, the place is great. They’re quick. They’re thorough. They dig out the coupon book. This changes when I come back. There are delays. There are phantom things-I-should-take-care-of. They try to ignore warranties.
It happened with a Firestone, and it happened with a dealership, and today it happened with a second Firestone, and I don’t want it to happen with the second dealership because if it does I might have to start driving to Georgetown for oil changes.
So, my question is, is this just a thing mechanics do? Do they lure you in and then pilfer while you wait? Should I give up on the corporate car service world and start taking my chances on small-time mechanics? Is this going to end with me tracking down that one guy from AutoZone who, when asked about buying a new battery, looked around the parking lot and said, “They don’t want you to know this, but there’s a place up by Round Rock where…” and asking him to tell me everything?
Please let me know. There are only so many Jeep dealers in the Austin metro.
