Do all automotive repair shops suck now or do I just have bad luck?

Lovely wife has a 2023 Wrangler 4xe.  Rubicon, Leather, you name it.  If you can spend money on it, we did.

6 weeks ago she gets rear ended pulling into an appointment.  Teenage girl, not paying attention, blah blah blah.  

Only damage was a scuffed rear bumper cover and the plug for the hitch.  

Take it to the dealers body shop - recommended by my friend we bought the car from - and wow did they suck.  Multiple trips, they installed a new cover that was more scratched than the one they took off.  Bad attitude from the tech and manager.  I still need to leave them a google review. 

Ended up taking the check and just buying the cover from Quadratech and I will swap it myself.  Should be easy enough.

Then she got a cracked windshield because its a Jeep thing.  $0 deductible - Safelite comes and installs a new windshield.  Dumdum tech misrouted wires for the radar cruise and now that doesnt work.  So it gets to go back in for service.  The Safelite people are moderately appologetic but they broke a previously working system and did E36 M3 work..so...

My experience getting my 2021 F150 repaired was equally painful, I eventually found a decent dealer with decent service dept but its across Milwaukee County.  

Super frustrating there is no competent options to work on this stuff.  

Thats it - rant over.  

Your experiences are not unique. Porsche Beaverton had my Cayenne in for 10 weeks and still didn't get the recalls done. My Q5 e-tron started having an issue back in November and just got into the dealer this month after multiple calls to the GM for them canceling appointments. It's a E36 M3show out there.

Love living in a big city. I use the internet to ask for the best tech for that model, and I will drive to make sure it is the right guy for the right car. There are Elise guys, and MR2 guys, and NSX guys. I don't really talk to friends, I talk to specific forums, who have experience with that model only.  

My 16 WRX that was lemon, I took it two dealers (never had a brand new subaru before that), and dealres didn't know anything. Went through NASIOC and found the best LA WRX tech. Car was lemon'd in no time. 

When I got my EVO last year, we have two of the oldest EVO shops, almost 20 years in business. There are 3 more "recent tuner shops"

Anything I have needed, I go to the big reputable shops, and they are top notch. 

Bodyshop - that is another matter. I do 60% of all paint/body south of border. 30% of a local guy I use for 15 years ($$$$$) and 10% a guy I use, who essentially is a meth head - but he gets the job done in 24 hours. 

Pick your poison.

The grim reality is a lot of legit mechanics are retired or dying off. The folks that are left are mostly parts replacers (I count myself in that group). 

That equation = way more work than most shops can handle, so quality suffers, repair estimates take 3x longer than usual, etc. 

I've never owned a car new enough to have a warranty. 

Safelite:  they are the training ground for glass installers. Everyone starts with them as a tech, then after becoming competent (assuming they are) will go off and open their own shop. I avoid Safelite and use who 90% of my local body shops use because shops don't want comebacks from sublet vendors. 

It's a lot like home renovations- anyone who's half decent is booked up for months in advance, or longer.  Anyone who can fit you in right away is like that for a reason.  Unfortunately, auto repairs usually can't wait.  Toss in the maddening complexity of modern cars and you have the ingredients for a legit E36 M3 show.  

Hell, my optometrist has a berkeleying 3 month wait list now.  It's truly insane out there.  

The tech that does 99% of my work is located in my shop lol.  I don't hire much out. I've rebuilt engines and transmissions in my shop, though I'm not set up for that level of clean work right now.

For work I have to hire out, I have found a great indy shop that is honest and does good work. Problem is, it can take 2-3 weeks to get in there. I'll take that 'problem' as evidence that he does good work. 

It's not just you, it's everywhere.  Took me awhile to find a true diagnostician who could figure out what was really wrong on my daughters Xterra.  Recently my body shop, who does excellent work had to buy me another rear fender liner because their tech mangled the brand new one I'd given them.  To their credit they didn't bat an eye on buying me a new one and offered to install it for me for free.  I decided I was better off installing it tho....

Well glad to hear its not just me.  Unfortunately I am sort of pigeonholed with Safelite as my understanding is that all progressive will pay is what Safelite will cover.  I have no basic complaints on Safelite, they used OEM glass, I have had them do a few other windshields on other cars, and even good techs have bad days.  For my Viper I do 100% of the work myself, at least I know what I am doing and if I make a mistake its my fault.  Its also out of warranty.  

If this was something I could do I would handle it, but warranty is warranty and we pay insurance for a reason....and don't even get me started on Geico.  What a E36 M3 company they are.  

Home renovations also suck.  I have found one (1) company in all of Milwaukee that even wanted to come out and quote installing a furnace in my detached garage.  Their price was reasonable but it did take them 6 weeks to come even give a quote.  My drywall guy is good but he is booked out 8-12 weeks.  Heck even my window tint guy is booked out 3-4 weeks in most instances.  

Last I checked, we were still living in America. So, you can have anyone you want install your glass. 

Now, they may only pay what it would cost Safelite to do it but most everyone works off the same matrix so that usually isn't hard for them to match the price.

I just tell Snake Farm "I'm using Big Crack Auto Glass; work it out with them" and they do. (And yes, that is actually the name of my glass guy)

I think most of them suck.  I don't think the average mechanic's learning curve has kept up with things like cruise/radar sensors.  Heck, if I saw it while replacing a windshield, I'd probably be like "whoa, built in dashcam? Nice."

I'm lucky to have two within walking distance of my house.  The closer of the two is a tiny two-bay shop with one tech, so their schedule usually booked.  The second one is a 4-bay with three techs.  Both shops are a bit ham-fisted, but for my older cars (newest is a 2006 with few bells/whistles) they're great.  I think if I took them a 2018 Mercedes and asked them why my key fob doesn't work, they would be totally stumped.

I had the shop around the corner from me do O2 sensors.  They dropped one and broke it, but still installed it.  Ten miles down the road, the light comes back on...

mad_machine said:

I had the shop around the corner from me do O2 sensors.  They dropped one and broke it, but still installed it.  Ten miles down the road, the light comes back on...

See - this is what grinds my gears.  Its like no one even bothered to test it out.  Same with my rear bumper.  The conversation basically went like this.

"Hey (name), this is Mr. X.  We just got our jeep back and the bumper cover is worse than the one you took off.  Did anyone check this work before it left the shop?"

"Yeah I looked at it"

"Ok Stevie Wonder, I am going to text you some pics and you tell me if this is the quality of work your shop is known for"

[text pics]

"Oh, yeah thats pretty bad"  "I will talk to the installer"

Same with when I had some touchup work done on my Land Cruiser after an undocumented illegal alien whacked into it with his $1500 felonymobile (a story for another time) and Don Jacobs Toyota masked over the stickers instead of replacing them.

"Thats factory quality"

"Show me a brand new vehicle on your lot where the stickers are masked and have a hard edge"

"Ok we will rework it"

No berkeleying E36 M3 you will rework it.  And you cracked a tail light taking it apart to boot.    On my third trip to talk to these nuckleheads I was like - "Guy - this vehicle costs more than you make in a year.  Please exercise a little caution"  

Shops are over worked. Techs are leaving. Parts are non-existent that are worth using. It was rough 10 years ago. It's a E36 M3 show now.