I am looking for a reasonable Seattle area Honda dealer or mechanic. In a perfect world, all the dealers would be nice people, but I've usually been shafted any time I went to a dealer for service. Does anyone have any recommendations? There's nothing noticeably wrong with my car, it just doesn't feel as tight and clean as it used to, so I want a knowledgeable mechanic to look it over and make sure nothing is off kilter. At 36,000 miles, are there certain things I should be looking for (bushing, tie rods, differential or transmission fluids, etc)?

 

You could do what I did when my car reached 35,000 miles. I got a whole bunch of parts replaced because of it. But I wouldn't really recommend the concrete wall method for the faint of heart.

Taking it to a mechanic and saying "I'm not sure there is anything wrong, but could you check" seems like about as good of an idea as sending $5000 to Nigeria to help the former president smuggle his millions out of the country.

That being said, if it's what you want to do, be sure to get a quote in advance for the inspection. Maybe tell them that you want a "pre-purchase" inspection like they will often do for people wanting to buy a used car.

 

Ben: Parker at Honda of Bellevue

(I think that's right...)

 

Glenn Love @ Bellevue Honda. Buy him a bottle of Glenlivet, French oak in advance. What's more important is you tell him Ben sent you. His service advisor is Kathy.

You can tell him to check things out and not worry one bit about him overcharing you or screwing you over and all that needless BS.

Trust like this happens when you successfully establish goodwill. Please do your best to do the same if and when you decide to have him work on your car.

Good luck,
Ben

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mikegarrison
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I like Ben's idea- get your mechanic drunk first.

I have had good response from the guys at West Hills Honda in Bremerton. Rebuilt my tranny after I griped about the syncros. Got it right, and didn't charge me a dime. Oh yeah- I didn't have to get 'em juiced up either.

 

I agree with ButtonBoy. I've had good service with West Hills Honda too. I haven't had my car there for anything major, the most serious being the broken studs on my right front wheel, but they fixed it right, were friendly and accurate on the time and cost estimate.

 

I've had good luck with High Road automotive in Ballard. Their "recommended work" part of the repair order may list extras that you don't need ($30 to clean the battery terminals on my 94 civic with 100k miles -- didn't need that), but I consider that more of a list of items you can do yourself. Good service, knowledgeable. Warned me about black clutch fluid at 15k (and kept a sample for me).