Return-Path: Received: from UX3.SP.CS.CMU.EDU by ux4.sp.cs.cmu.edu id aa22860; 25 Oct 97 16:29 EDT Received: from NEIL.TUTOR.CS.CMU.EDU by ux3.sp.cs.cmu.edu id aa21244; 25 Oct 97 16:29 EDT X-Sender: neil@ux3.sp.cs.cmu.edu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 16:29:00 -0400 To: bovik@cs.cmu.edu From: Neil Heffernan When I asked the newsgroups about auto mechincs here is what I got from people. I ended up going to Hess Exxon, but I don't think I would recommend it. Neil Heffernan -------------- I've been using Constantine Garage on Henry St. right across from the SEI - Corky (the owner) has been reliable and very honest. C Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Doug Hess BAD! many people leave with more problems than when they arrived! Lifetime in East liberty - same deal: scam up the wahzoo! (dunno about lifetime on Forward). I know from personal experience: Bruno's garage on Mellon Street in East Liberty Honest, inexpensive, go by the "if it ain't broke - don't fix!" rule, but will let things that "should be fixed soon" go home with you because they don't suggest things that "may go soon" to preserve their rep for not scamming you. They use rebuilds vs. new, and really try to keep you spending the minimum needed to keep your car running. Downside: they're always busy, and are in a bad neighborhood. Look for the small print Bruno's on Mellon St. in the phone book, not to be confused with the BIG print Bruno's elsewhere - who obviously need to advertise... :) Paul's Service Center - Long Road, in Penn Hills. This guy is "my" mechanic. He's good, busy, clueful, and NOT cheap. He'll gauge what you know/care/can-do, and makes his recommendations based on that. I can call him up and go "Symptoms = blah..." and he'll go "it's a flaggen-sensor, you can replace it yourself" or "arg." (which means it's expensive, and he doesn't want to break the news...). Places I've not patronized, but places that carry a reputation for being honest, and that I've heard good things about from real customers: Jim Raab (at Morewood and Center, I believe) Leo Himmel (center ave - I think) I bought a car that had been serviced at Himmel's and I could tell that the previous owner had been being royal ripped off (via the recipts) by the places she had patronized in LA, but as soon as she got to Pgh, and started going to Himmel's the receipts indicated an honest shop with integrity. -j----------- I went to Hess once to get my brakes fixed. They told me I needed two new rotors and four new sets of brake pads. I was suspicious and went to Costantine on Henry Street. He informed me that I needed brake pads on only two wheels and that my rotors were still quite healthy, thus saving me lots. I've had good experience with Costantine for the past 7+ years. If you're interested in checking him out, his name is Corky and his number is 621-6497. He's right below the SEI on Henry Street. C ---another friend of mine tolld me I disrecommend Hess. I had a mechanic tell me that I needed one of my CV boots replaced. I didn't have time to replace it that day, so I took it to Hess to be replaced a couple of days later. They looked at it and told me that it didn't need to be replaced. I made them double check and they assured me it was fine. I was happy about this at the time, but it turns out that it did need to be replaced, and because I didn't replace it early, I ended up having to replace my right front axle. Blech. I had similar problems with the folks in the basement of the SEI -- they told me that a strange noise I heard in my front wheel well was normal -- it turns out it was the sound of a bearing wearing horribly unevenly. When I got someone else to look at it, the bearing was at the point of shearing. S ------------ Neil T. Heffernan Computer Science Department Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15217 neil@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-8139