I recently purchased a vehicle that I found on craigslist. It's a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder…read moreconvertible. It was a 1 owner with 132,000 miles. The seller informed me that the car had been sitting for more than 5 years and he had no idea what it would need to get going. I looked it over as well as I could but was really taking a huge risk since I wouldn't even attempt to put a battery In it and try to start it until I had it towed home and went through it carefully. I bought it at a price that I thought would give me plenty of room for repairs and stay within my budget. I'm not a mechanic but can usually figure things out. After lubricating the cylinders, new plugs, draining and putting new oil and filter, draining the gas and putting fresh fuel, I thought it would be safe to put in a new battery and give it a try. After turning the engine by hand a few times I crossed my fingers and turned the key. I was thrilled that it turned over but unfortunately, It would not fire. I tried everything I knew how to do but after a week of research, trial and error, changing fuses and relays, I swallowed my pride and started calling around for help. Mitsubishi quoted me $165.00 to diagnose and "we could go from there."I would have to have it towed again to the dealership ($65) and then pay for any parts and labor...IF...they could even find the problem. I'm sure that would have put me WAY over budget and I still didn't know if the transmission was good or not and still haven't put new brakes and rotors that I knew it needed. I really thought I was screwed. A friend told me that he once called a mobile mechanic for his mother who lives out of state. I imagined some guy who calls himself a mechanic would show up with a tool box and make matters worse but out of curiosity I googled "mobile mechanic near me" and got a short list. Of the five on the list only three had a website and of those three, there was only one that I was able to verify the business license. HAS Mobile Car Care. I was really out of options so I have him a call. When he got to my house the next morning I was really impressed and admittedly very surprised. He was prompt, friendly and professional and his vehicle was unbelievably orderly and equipped with state of the art diagnostics and tools. He explained everything he was doing as he went from under the hood checking volts, wires, grounds and tracing the problem to under the back seat of the car where the fuel pump was located. He said he was pretty sure that was the issue. Power was going to the pump but the pump was dead. I asked him what he would charge me to put in a new one and to my surprise he told me that based on what I had done up to this point he was confident that I would be able to do it myself. Then he offered to show me how to take it out and said that when I got a new one to just reverse the process to install it. AND just to make absolutely sure that the pump was the issue, after we took it out he ran power directly from the battery and sure enough no response from the pump. He could have easily made a lot more money by telling me that he would do the new pump but instead he went out of his way to take the time to show me the process. That showed me the integrity of this guy. All this and my bill was $129.
I priced the pump and housing the next day at Auto Zone and NAPA. It was $387. Crap! So, armed with the car battery and new knowledge I headed off to Pull-A-Part, found the right make and model, removed the pump, tested it with the battery to make sure it worked, went home put it in, turned the key and it free right up!
Without Gary, it would have cost me $387 for the pump, $165 for the diagnostics, $65 for the tow for a total of $617 plus whatever labor they would have charged me. My total cost for Gary was $129 and because he took the time to show me how, it only cost me $35 for the pump. Total cost, $164!! Total savings, $453
But, the story didn't end there.
After finally having the car running and feeling great, I put the top down, put it in drive and took off down my street. I knew I needed brakes but was scared to death when I got to the stop sign and my foot went to the floor and the car rolled through the intersection. I crawled back home using the hand brake to stop. I rolled the car onto ramps and saw where the two rear brake lines disintegrated into tiny pieces of rust after blowing apart from the pressure of stepping stepping on the brakes after 5 years of not being used. It didn't take me very long to pick up the phone. Guess who I called!! I could write another book about our second meeting but it would just be more of the same. Honest, punctual, more than fairly priced, polite and extremely knowledgeable.
Great job Gary!
Thank you again.