I've had bad experiences with Meineke and Midas. Last summer, after moving all my stuff out of my house into the garage in preparation for renting it, I started my trip by backing my 82 Honda out of the driveway. The car had lots of stuff in it and I have a two inch lip between dirt and sidewalk. I backed the muffler into the lip, which had never happened before, and shoved the muffler back 8" or so. What a way to begin a six month vacation! it worked, and I got to Bend OR before taking it to Midas. The young guy got the car up on the lift and started trying to sell me a whole new exhaust system, from manifold backwards. I'd had the muffler replaced just a year ago - using Meineke's lifetime replacement guarantee - and I could feel my face get tighter and tighter as he pointed out stuff that needed fixing I knew didn't. His boss walked up and told him to just do what I asked and then said they'd do it for $45. I agreed. It involved fabricating a two foot piece and clamping to the existing muffler pipe and muffler. I think the boss saw that I was about ready to walk, and he had four guys standing around with four empty bays. I think I got away fairly on this one because I was going to call the young guy's bluff and the boss saw it. Once the car is up on the rack, they get 90% of people. Their sales strategy is well-developed... Jeff Olson martin, SD |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.