Why my mechanic’s honesty is worth more than any warranty

A friend of ours – an older, single woman – was having some issues with her pride and joy, an Audi A1, so she took it in to an Audi dealer here in Joburg, where she bought it. Yep, you can guess where this is going…

After going back and forth for a few days, she eventually collected her car – after paying a not inconsiderable amount of money because it was out of warranty and maintenance plan.

She still didn’t know quite what was wrong with it, other than some vague reference by one of the techs to “spark plugs”.

I was going to ask her to have a detailed look at the invoice, but I never got the chance because the car broke down as she was driving it home.

A tech was sent and he got it running enough that it could get back to Audi – where it was supposedly fixed, “finish and klaar”, as our former top cop, Bheki Cele, was fond of saying.

I never did get to see the invoice because she was already deep into the process of buying, for cash, a brand-new Mazda CX30.

Loyalty

She would never darken the doors of that Audi dealership again… which reminded me of that old motor trade saying that “the showroom sells the first car, the workshop sells the second”.

As a loyal Subaru fan, I stuck to dealerships until one day in 2013, when my Forester was nine years old and its air conditioner packed in.

I was quoted, by the dealer, a price of about R14 000 (yes, this was 12 years ago) to replace the compressor and other sundry bits. I took a chance and pulled in at a local mechanic who claimed to specialise in aircons – and got it fixed for R754.

The aircon gas had drained out because of a perished O-ring, which was replaced before they re-gassed the system.

I went back there repeatedly, including to get major work done (this particular model of Forester ate its head gaskets at about 200 000km, and was happy).

However, after a change of workshop manager – when the owner moved to the coast – I was given pause for thought. He quoted me R19 000 for a replacement power-steering pump.

Now that Google and YouTube have become my friends, I soon discovered that it was more likely to be the fluid and gaskets, along with the belt, which needed replacing.

Honesty

Then I noticed a workshop in Newlands in Joburg, WH Performance, where they had a bunch of Subarus parked.

Do you fix Subarus? Owner Wayne Hay – who used to race them and clearly knows them inside out – responded: “Of course.”

The first visit was, as other Forester owners on YouTube have said, confirmation that there was nothing wrong with the power-steering pump.

It cost around R3 000 to fix. Hay could have agreed that the pump was the problem and replaced it. But that’s not how he does business.

“You have to be honest and do a proper job. Then people will come back.” That’s his simple philosophy… something seldom applied in the motor trade these days.

I have been back there often since that power-steering pump repair and have found Wayne, technician Ashley Pillay and their team to be competent but – more importantly – fair and honest.

An example was an oil leak on the timing cover of my wife’s 2015 Forester. In the US, according to Google, Subaru North America quotes this as a $2 600 (about R45 000) repair and has even split the cost with owners because it is a common problem.

The charge is because the official procedure is to remove the entire engine, an expensive and time-consuming process. There is a simpler way to do it, which Wayne and Ashley know all about. The fix cost me R1 800.

WH Performance – and they gave me no special treatment or discounts to write this – is an example of good, old-fashioned service people. Good work at a reasonable price.

The moral of the story, especially as cars get way more complex and way more expensive to buy and repair?

Get yourself a simple, non-turbo, no fancy electronics car where there is plenty of room to work around the engine. Then find some okes like Wayne and Ashley.

Don’t make the manufacturers and their dealer networks richer than they already are.

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