Fame

It seems like only yesterday that I wrote about the issues with our car and the "Maturn" dealership. Actually, it was Monday. Anyway, my story was picked up the website Jalopnik which has the tagline "Obsessed with the Cult of Cars," and I had 190 hits yesterday. That is a new record breaking the previous record when I was featured on a West Virginia University fan site for writing about Kevin Pittsnogle.

Here is the link to the “Blog Hoonage” where I am one of the featured links. I have no idea how (or if I should) respond to these comments:

Wow! News flash, the automotive service industry is corrupt, and you will pay alot to "fix" your car unless you find someone you trust...
I do have a small portion of sympathy for those who refuse to learn mechanics on their own.

AND

Wellll... that and, it's not unlikely that his car was at the timing belt and water pump service point. And those aren't cheap (or easy) to do. Is the second mechanic he took it to going to fix it for free if/when the belt pops or the water pump fails and the motor is a big paper weight? The dealership would likely be expected to if that happened shortly after they worked on it. So it's easier for them to say "this needs done" versus paying out the nose later to fix a problem they didn't cause.
That's not to say that shops don't "upsell"; they most certainly do, the jerks. But just because one shop recommends more service than another doesn't mean that's what's happening.