Who is your trustworthy mechanic for your cage?

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^ The front tire is definitely low on air, the problem with the older Nissan's is the frame rots out pretty bad...
Put the car on a hoist, if there are no holes in the floor or rocker panels, you should be ok! (looks pretty clean in the picture)
2500$ is a little on the high side, should be a 2000$ or less because of the age.
 
Cat13 said:
Careful with dealerships.... the biggest lemon I ever had was bought from a dealership…
I suggest still do your research on a vehicle… regardless where you get it. Doesn’t matter where you get it as long as it gets a good look ever and you do your research.
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+billion hojillion. I would say the average quality of a used car from a dealership is WORSE than what you would get from a private sale. Why? They never had to drive it. They will take trade-ins in just about any shape that can drive on to the lot, and then once they've bought it, they need to sell it with the least amount of investment possible (usually NO investment.) Shadier dealers will sell cars safetied and e-tested that should have passed NEITHER. And once you discover these surprises, too bad! You have next to no recourse. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
 
TwistedKestrel said:
+billion hojillion. I would say the average quality of a used car from a dealership is WORSE than what you would get from a private sale. Why? They never had to drive it. They will take trade-ins in just about any shape that can drive on to the lot, and then once they've bought it, they need to sell it with the least amount of investment possible (usually NO investment.) Shadier dealers will sell cars safetied and e-tested that should have passed NEITHER. And once you discover these surprises, too bad! You have next to no recourse. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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True in some cases, but not all...
We only buy cars from new car dealerships (forget auctions or out of province vehicles), they are traded in by the previous owner for a new or newer car.
We have about 90 cars in stock and maybe 2 or 3 are actual trade ins (with us) and before we take the vehicle we take it for a drive to make sure all is well so I don't get screwed with a huge repair bill. It is my investment before it is yours.
If you had bought a vehicle certified and emissions tested and you have doubts, you as a consumer are protected in so many ways.
That is the reason why you get a 36 days warranty on all safety items. Again, if you have doubts you can take the car to your preferred mechanic and have him do a DOT inspection just to make sure the dealer did not cut corners or skipped on any work.
This would make the mechanic who certified the car liable for any repairs at no extra cost to you. (the consumer) so no, you're not stuck.

When you buy from a well established dealer, you can always go back with any complaints and expect decent service. If you buy from a private seller and you run into any kind of problems, you're SOL and at that point there isn't much you can do. That's the way I see it anyway, you don't have to agree.
 
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There is a 2003 Nissan Altima with 194,000kms on it in Newmarket. Can anyone suggest or help me find a mechanic who can take a look at the car on the weekend? ​Car is located at Davis Drive and 404.

The owner told me that he bought a "flex pipe" that connects to the manifold for $1000, not sure what that is.

He said that he has an e-test that is still valid. And he would be willing to certify it.
 
Aw, according to my research the altima needs 91 octane.
 
That's all your research showed you?...
If it's the 2.5 stay far away from it.
At that mileage the engine is going to start burning a lot of oil and will be in need of a rebuild if not now, then soon.

If it's the 3.5 (Maxima Motor) you have nothing to worry about.

They look nice, but far from being a quality vehicle imo...
 
'Sup guys,

I was wondering what your thoughts were on this:

I need to get my 2000 civic SI engine replaced (overheated and blew). I found a guy that'll do it for 1300 (including labour, gaskets, seals, engine, timing belt, etc.) I don't know much about cars, but that seems overpriced for a a car with such common parts. Or 1100 with labour for just the engine.

I imagine that labour should only be around 5 or 6 hundred. And since engines are easy to find, it should only be another 300 for the engine. Am I wrong in thinking this?

I've had so many ****** experiences with mechanics that it's made me such a skeptic whenever I need work done.
 
knowledge said:
'Sup guys,

I was wondering what your thoughts were on this:

I need to get my 2000 civic SI engine replaced (overheated and blew). I found a guy that'll do it for 1300 (including labour, gaskets, seals, engine, timing belt, etc.) I don't know much about cars, but that seems overpriced for a a car with such common parts. Or 1100 with labour for just the engine.

I imagine that labour should only be around 5 or 6 hundred. And since engines are easy to find, it should only be another 300 for the engine. Am I wrong in thinking this?

I've had so many ****** experiences with mechanics that it's made me such a skeptic whenever I need work done.
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I can't tell if you're serious, so I will say yes. You are very, very wrong. Getting the engine replaced for $1300, all in, in any car is cheap to the point of being suspicious.
 
It's not that bad for a fairly old Civic. Back when I had an old common car I could find engines for less than $500 and installation for about the same.
 
TwistedKestrel said:
I can't tell if you're serious, so I will say yes. You are very, very wrong. Getting the engine replaced for $1300, all in, in any car is cheap to the point of being suspicious.
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Not suspicious at all, that's about the fair going rate.
You can call junkyards and see what engines are going for so you have a better idea.
I swapped the engine in my f-150 for about $1200.
 
knowledge said:
'Sup guys,

I was wondering what your thoughts were on this:

I need to get my 2000 civic SI engine replaced (overheated and blew). I found a guy that'll do it for 1300 (including labour, gaskets, seals, engine, timing belt, etc.) I don't know much about cars, but that seems overpriced for a a car with such common parts. Or 1100 with labour for just the engine.

I imagine that labour should only be around 5 or 6 hundred. And since engines are easy to find, it should only be another 300 for the engine. Am I wrong in thinking this?

I've had so many ****** experiences with mechanics that it's made me such a skeptic whenever I need work done.
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As others have said, price seems quite reasonable (modern engines have a lot of crap to connect/disconnect which takes time). VW wants almost that much money to replace a timing belt (or rad fans, or come to think of it, pretty much anytime you walk in they want that much).
 
GreyGhost said:
As others have said, price seems quite reasonable (modern engines have a lot of crap to connect/disconnect which takes time). VW wants almost that much money to replace a timing belt (or rad fans, or come to think of it, pretty much anytime you walk in they want that much).
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They probably think you have an audi
 
GreyGhost said:
The last time I went to VW for service was over 300,000 km ago. Neighbour with a VW says they are still up to their old tricks.
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LOL, I drove my GF's Audi this weekend. She accused me of not liking her car.
 
This is why I always have loved working with vw/audi/porsche. Everyone's scared of them and it's easy money.


Sent from my commodore 64 on dial up
 
Roomie said:
This is why I always have loved working with vw/audi/porsche. Everyone's scared of them and it's easy money.


Sent from my commodore 64 on dial up
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Other than an idiot tow truck driver that refused to tow my old 944 because "Porsches are too expensive" I've never encountered anyone afraid to work on them. All the work I did at home seemed easy enough.
 
unL33T said:
Other than an idiot tow truck driver that refused to tow my old 944 because "Porsches are too expensive" I've never encountered anyone afraid to work on them. All the work I did at home seemed easy enough.
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That's funny. We had one of those come to the shop once. It was a call to transport the shell of a 911 we were restoring to the body shop for paint and he wouldn't touch it. So we did the only thing you could do. Put in on the back of the old single cab vw truck and drove it ourselves :lmao:


I've had many clients over the years scared ******** to even open their hoods. Then there's the crowd who jump on the bandwagons and make german cars out to be the work of satan with wild tales of electrical/mechanical gremlins and labor from hell to fix anything. I just lol and carry on. While there certainly are specialty tools required for some things, they're still just cars to me.
 
Roomie said:
That's funny. We had one of those come to the shop once. It was a call to transport the shell of a 911 we were restoring to the body shop for paint and he wouldn't touch it. So we did the only thing you could do. Put in on the back of the old single cab vw truck and drove it ourselves :lmao:


I've had many clients over the years scared ******** to even open their hoods. Then there's the crowd who jump on the bandwagons and make german cars out to be the work of satan with wild tales of electrical/mechanical gremlins and labor from hell to fix anything. I just lol and carry on. While there certainly are specialty tools required for some things, they're still just cars to me.
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I've had to check the brake fluid level on a Q5. I have to remove panels & rivets.

I rather not have to go through that

Sent from my tablet using my paws
 
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