Long story short:
Aron is the most honest, reliable, trustworthy mechanic I have ever had the pleasure of coming across in my lifetime. If only there were a way to give an extra "star" for those that have provided exceptional service, gone above and beyond what any normal person would expect from a business, those that have literally gone the extra mile, and then some... because a good mechanic is hard to find and well, Aron is the equivalent of finding a unicorn hanging out with a leprechaun, sitting on his pot o' gold at the end of a rainbow.
If you want to know the long story for validation, here goes:
It was May 3rd; my mother and I were on the road, moving her from the suburbs of Chicago, to Boise (Idaho) - roughly a 1,700 mile trip. We had already lost the driver's side mirror (even longer story), but even worse than that, after a few pit stops, the wheel didn't want to turn left. Not knowing what the problem was, we turned the car off and back on - that worked a couple times, but when it didn't, she'd have to put the car in drive, then in reverse, and repeat until it would allow her to turn the wheel left. A mechanic friend back home initially thought it was her axle. We were barely out of Illinois and this was a serious problem seeing as we still had a really long way to go and part of the trip was through the mountains. We had stopped for the night and luckily my coworker friend knew people in Lincoln so she made some calls. The following morning she told me about Aron and how highly recommended he came from one of her friends, so we arranged to meet him at his shop.
When we arrived, he could hear from inside that my mom's car was idling high - something that just started up that morning, yet another issue. After inspecting her car, he found that it was much worse than the axle; the cradle of her car was all rusted, broken in one area/looking like it was going to break in another area. Had this happened while we were on the road, we could have lost steering altogether. He said how he could weld something together, but wouldn't feel right in doing so because it would only be a temporary fix and knowing our trip, he didn't think it would be a safe one either. He tried calling local scrap yards for the part, but it was Saturday and everyone is closed on Saturday - after all, it was also his day off too. We could stick around until Monday and see if anyone had the part, but that would put us two more days behind schedule - two extra days off work and two extra days in hotel costs. Oh, and we had 2 cats and a dog with us too. We could rent something and tow the car back with us but that also would cost a small fortune. I mentioned possibly buying a cheap car - turns out he had just purchased a car the other week from Auto One and was pleased with their customer service, so he checked online at their stock. Luckily they had one car we could afford. After he called over there, he offered to go with and check out the car, he also didn't like the idea of us driving her car out there given its current condition.
In test driving the car, the oil light went on - he said it could be something as simple as a sensor, but it could also be more serious with the oil pressure and he didn't want us to find out the hard way. James at Auto One let him take the car back to his shop to hook it up to his computer. Thankfully that's all it was, the sensor, but this wonderful man went and checked out the whole car to make sure it would get us to Idaho and he told us what we'd need in the future, it thankfully wasn't much. We went back to the dealer where Aron waited with us to make sure financing went through and we weren't stranded, then he took us back to his shop so we could swap cars and hit the road again.
The last thing anyone wants when moving across the country is car problems and the last thing I wanted was to have to buy a new-to-us car, in a state that I have never even visited; I can't even trust the dealers (or the mechanics) in the state where I've resided 90% of my life. I'm sure you can imagine how stressful this situation could be - but in sitting with Aron at his shop and talking with him, I felt at ease. I could tell he was "good people" because he just gives off that vibe. It's something you just know and I want you to know as well. It was honestly a terrifying ride up until that point, not just because of my mom's driving, though I did drive the whole way after that, but because of the condition of her car, only now I knew we'd be fine and we were. It was a smooth ride from that point on and we quite literally would never have made the rest of that 1,200 mile trip if it weren't for Aron. And now, all thanks to Aron, my mom has a much safer/more reliable car, in MUCH better condition than her last one - and it's still running perfectly fine today. If I lived in Lincoln, I'd be a customer for life. :) read more