Inliners International Forums General Discussion Bench racing Honest shops? You bet!

While heading on I81 to Carlisle from the Saturday Antique Truck Club of America in Macungie,PA a week ago my Windstar started to puke trans fluid out the case,so I ended up with a tow to Lupfer's Trans Shop,which the AAA driver recommended, on RT.11 in Carlisle,PA.
The shop was closed by then,but George,the owner lives next door and came over to assist the tow driver.I explained what happened...he rolled his eyes..not a good sign.I got a call to pick up my mini in the middle of the week expecting the worst in repair and cost. But Geroge told me a front trans case gasket had gotten hot enough to actually shrink up some to cause the leak and that after the tranny cooled down the gasket expanded back to normal and would hold for my drive home and then some. Apparently this a Ford deal trans shops are familiar with.He recommended a visit to my local shop and I asked how much? Now he could have told me most anything and charged me heaven knows what, but my bill was twenty bucks!Yes,$20.00 for the replaced trans fluid,nearly 7 qts. Labor? Forget it. I was momentarily stunned,and couldn't thank him or his mechanics more hardily.Hopefully, your travels go well, but if you're in that area of PA and need trans service, you couldn't ask for a better shop or person to deal with in my estimation.I just had to tell this story.

D;

Glad you did.

Contrary to popular belief; most automotive (owner/operator) repair shops are honest & fair in the way they do business.

They have to be, or their 'out of business' soon.

Cheating; generally occurs in the ones operated by the large corporations etc. The 'management sales quotas' (from main office) force this practice.

Happy trails to all.

I have a similar nice memory of a small gas/service station in the small town Cooke, Montana, dating back to oct 1992. We where out driving in the -72 Skylark I owned then, and had been visiting Yellowstone NP that day in october. I was tired after a long day of driving, the windshield was dirty, it was dark and the lights was not very good, so I was "unhappy" and didnt manage to avoid a rock in the road. The result was a very BAD noise from the eng/trans. Happyly no leaks, so we decided to take a chance ad went slowly on to Cooke, wich was the closest town. The next morning we took the car to the gas/service station and talked to a frienly man there. He checked it, and lubed the front end, whilst we had breakfast on nearby Ma Perkins Cafe.
The car was ready after a while, he told us it was hit by the rock in the oilpan, convertershield and transpan. We were lucky, the noise came from the convertershield. So he took it of and straightened it, put it on, and everything was ok.
We asked him how much for your work ? (checking, straightening of shield and front end lube) "What about 10 dollars" was the answer. Which I consider VERY fair!!!!!!!!! Visit Cooke City folks, if you are in that part of the country, its a nice place too.