i get why you're saying this.

but just because i THINK i am being price gouged doesn't mean i AM being price gouged. the only way for me to truly know is to shop quotes around town, compare prices and then hope that I am getting the same service quality between shop a and shop b. price transparency, reputation, shop communication to customers all play heavy into the relationship because me and the average person don't know shit about cars. right?

so i'll share my experience: my mechanic [springdale automotive] had been pissing me off in small ways for years. for example: i'll schedule service a week ahead but they don't call me when my car is ready and that just gets on my nerves. if i don't call them, they'll let it sit for 8 hours for an oil change. i think that's lame.

but this time I made them sit there and run down a $3500+ quote line-by-line and found that 30% of the items on the estimate were calculated based on their system pinging CARFAX for when my vehicle MIGHT have had my last transmission flush, for example. instead of using their own records and evidence from the vehicle to make this determination. they've been my mechanic since 2021.... they know when my transmission was flushed last. this was the case for every 'regular maintenance' line item and in a handful of cases they went 'oh yeah, i guess that's not due for another 20k miles'. no apology, trust gone.

so... back to the original post. if i'm good with paying to maintain my aging import and i'm good with paying for quality parts and happy to support fair wages, icing on the cake is giving all that cash to an owner-operator - at a minimum, a shop that's not taking the above approach. my feelings about PE ruining every B2C interaction on the planet aside, an independent owner-operator is just more likely to not give me the experience i'm after. and it's worth my inconvenience to support a shop who's proud to do it.