How to Find an Auto Repair Shop

Tony Molla: Hi, I am Tony Molla, from ASE, and today we are giving you some important information on how to find a good repair shop. Finding a repair shop is simplicity itself, especially if you have an internet connection. There are numerous shop finders out there that will help locate the right repair shop for your specific zip code. There is one for example available on the ASE website at www.

ase.

com, and there are others. You can also refer to things like ASKPATTY and other consumer rating services on the website, to help you determine what repair shops are highly regarded by the customers that post information on there. But it can be even simpler than that all you really need is a phonebook and a telephone to help find a good repair shop in your area. It's also important to talk to folks to find out who they recommend, talk to friends, talk to family, talk to neighbors and find out where they get their vehicle serviced. And what kind of experience that they had. So once you get the recommendations from your friends and family or neighbors about where to take your vehicle, you are going to want to check that shop out. You can also do this if the shop has a website and many do these days. Look for things like better business bureau memberships, is it a triple A rated shop. Does the shop participate in community events most importantly do they have ASE certified technicians working in the facility. You are also going to want to make sure that the shop itself is a member and good standing of things like the local Chamber of Commerce. It's also important that the shop be convenient, picking a shop that say close to where you work or where you might drop your kids off to school was a great idea, but don't convenience be the only factor that you use in determining where to take a repair shop. Also it's important once you identify a repair shop to try things like a small job take your car in for say, an oil change or regular maintenance, try something small and see how you like the service you get. See how you are treated by the shop, is this a place you'd like to do business. These are all things to keep in mind when you are looking for a repair shop. And there are other factors that the repair shop might be offering you things like transportation. But we will talk about those in our next segment when we give you some tips on what to look for inside the repair shop.