On this week’s GTW were talking about what the customer thinks is wrong with their car. Sometimes what people think is wrong is actually wrong, but most of the time people who think what is wrong are wrong themselves in their guess. Either way, there are hoping that it is going to be a cheap and easy repair: a $12 radiator hose versus a $1200 or $12000 engine. One of our personal favorites is when there are 2 or 3 different people telling you what’s wrong with the car and they all have different guesses for the fix. At the root of this problem is the idea that people think it is easy to be a mechanic, and in this they are gravely wrong. Also, we talk about when customers complain about things that their car is doing that it is supposed to be doing, AKA features. We also take a short dive into the world of the phantom problems, the problems that go away the minute the car rolls into the shop. Finally, we go into the often lucrative and fun part of our jobs where we get to buy cars that the owner thinks is catastrophically broken, and its not.
Also, Uncle Jimmy talks 429-Thunderbird-on-a-farm drivers ed and why he has an iPhone 4 as an excuse to not answer the 99% of people who call him because they need him to fix their car.
This episode of Grease the Wheels is sponsored by toolheadzcrate.com. Toolheadzcrate.com is a monthly subscription box filled with all sorts of discount codes, coupons, tee shirts, and things that give you a little taste of some of your favorite tool companies. They ship out the 15th of every month, and at 35.99 plus exact shipping, it’s a lot less than what you owe your tool guy. Plus one lucky winner every month gets their golden wrench box with well over $100 worth of stuff in it. Cheap Box, better stuff- Toolheadz Crate: the only crate made for the listeners of GTW!