A few years ago I saw a funny sign at the garage where my father-in-law had his vehicles serviced. The sign offered a sliding scale of labor rates. There was a significant upcharge if you wanted to stay and watch the mechanic work, a higher charge if you talked to him while he worked, and the highest rate if you tried to fix it yourself before bringing it in. Last week I heard a story from a friend who lived through a true story that illustrates the wisdom of that funny sign.
A friend noticed that his tail light was out, and told his wife that it should be no problem for him to replace the bulb himself. His wife replied, “You don’t know my husband very well.” My friend isn’t a handy guy but assumed that replacing a tail light might be easy for a guy who worked at an auto parts store. So rather than taking his car to the mechanic, he went to the auto parts store and asked the clerk to sell him a bulb and change it for him. He paid less than $5.00 for the replacement bulb, and silently congratulated himself for his cleverness. It was easy enough for the clerk to replace the bulb, but the tail light still did not work.
The clerk had all manner of guesses as to why the tail light still was not working. He was, however, reluctant to handle the job for my friend and what should have taken only a few minutes if handled by a professional turned into a pricey fix at in the end. Moral of the story: leave the job to those who are trained and equipped to handle the challenge. My friend caused more damage and created additional expense because he was stubborn and did not want to take his vehicle to a professional.
Here at Cassles, we see stories like this all the time. Many fancy themselves do-it-yourselfers but end up causing extensive damage because they simply don’t know how to make a handle the fix. When in doubt, give us a call. We won’t scoff at what you perceive as a “small job” because we know how important every part of your vehicle is.
At Cassels Garage in West Melbourne, we are ready to help keep your cars in good working condition. We are a family-owned shop well equipped to provide routine maintenance or do major repairs on your car. We have been serving Brevard County since 1966.
