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Share your experiences with having work done on a car by a back-alley or shade-tree shop that specializes in the immigrant trade, whatever nationality is numerous in your community. They often will work on your car at a shop labor rate of $90 a day instead $90 an hour, and are often skilled at thinking outside the box on making safe and adequate but "good enough" repairs.
I've had some good and some not so good, but none that were catastrophic enough to make me think I'd never do that again. I've also had some emergency repairs done while in Mexico, and found the mechanics to be both competent and honest. Once in Mexico, I was concerned about something, and pulled off the side of the road where there was an old tractor tire with the words "taller mecanico" painted on it, and the guy fixed it in about 5 minutes and patted me on the back and refused payment.
Mexican mechanics, both in Mexico and the USA will often tell you to go and get the parts, and they will install them -- even something simple like a radiator thermostat.
My favorite overseas experience was in Jordan, where the door latch plate came loose, and it required (of course) a hex-star driver to tighten it. The mechanic owned a hex-star driver, maybe the only one in the kingdom, chained to a license plate so it would't get lost. He went around the car removing all my hex-star bolts, threw a handful of them over a wall into a vacant lot, reached into a barrel for a handful of identical bolts with Phillips head, reinstalled all my door plates, and said "أفضل".
The back lot mechanics can of course work cheaper than a legal tax paying american. They pay no taxes, no insurance, no rent, deal only in cash under the table and give no guarantee. People that hire them deserve the problems they will get sooner or later.
You are supporting a mechanic NOT paying taxes and probably collecting some type of welfare to boot?
What happens if he is injured while working on your vehicle . . . who is responsible?
What happens if his repairs fail you or were misdiagnosed while driving, especially if away from home?
No one, absolute NO ONE, is going to work on my "modern day vehicle" who is not properly trained, has access to proper tools and backed by a reputable "contributing" business with insurance and offering a warranty.
Personally, I prefer the repairs to my vehicle to be completed properly, in a timely fashion and guaranteed much more than just CHEAP.
The labor rates might be lower but the Ford dealer and Toyota dealer is three miles from my house (Rancho Santa Margarita), free shuttle, free wifi, free gourmet coffee.
Most repairs I do myself. Haven't had too many major repairs (I can't think of any) and my F150 is 1998. Oh, once I had bad wires.
But by the time I find en El Cheapo mechanic and drive out to Santa Ana or some place where these guys work, I've spent so much time driving and waiting it isn't really worth it.
Plus you do have some sense of reliability or guarantee with the dealer. I know he is more expensive but other legitimate service places aren't that much cheaper anymore. Plus the dealers have the right diagnostic equipment.
I used to change my own oil but with coupons it's now $20-$30 and that includes all the fluid refills and tire rotation and this is at the dealer. No mess. No recycling. No dirty fingers. No "Exxon Valdez" driveways.
What happens if his repairs fail you or were misdiagnosed while driving, especially if away from home?
No one, absolute NO ONE, is going to work on my "modern day vehicle" who is not properly trained, has access to proper tools and backed by a reputable "contributing" business with insurance and offering a warranty.
...
I have had miserable luck with dealership repairs in multiple cities and different makes. It seems to me they are oil change specialists that can read a code and replace a part but have little time, experience, and knowledge in many situations.
This last week I dropped a car at a dealership because I did not have the time and tools to repair it. I told them what was wrong (my opinion), gave them a good description of the symptoms and how to replicate, and put them under no time or cost constraints. Two days later they return the car after putting over 70 miles on it, burning all the fuel, and suggesting a stupid diagnosis.
Had to stop and get fuel on the way home and the Hispanic at the gas station heard the car and suggested correctly what was wrong. Apologized because he does not has the tools or experience to work on the vehicle.
I took it home and did a temporary repair to keep it on the road until I have what I need to fix it. Have ordered parts and tools to do it myself.
So no specific experience with immigrants doing a repair but don't think it can be worse than the dealership experiences I have had over many years.
Cars are becoming too complicated for a backyard, shade tree mechanic to be able to fully service. In the past, with vehicles from the 70's, 80's, and even into the 90's, those guys could still do most of the work on a car.
Now though, with the advent of electronically controlled systems, it's not possible for them to even diagnose a problem sometimes. You have to have the correct OBD2 scanner to pull the codes, and the computer is smart enough to tell you exactly what sensor needs to be replaced.
I only have one car that can reasonably be worked on by a backyard mechanic in a pinch, and that is our Jeep GC. It's still relatively simple enough that mechanical work is not difficult to diagnose or fix. My other cars, if something went wrong and they went into limp mode, a casual mechanic would be clueless as to why unless he had the car specific tools to diagnose.
That's assuming the problem is with the engine controls. Brakes, cooling, HVAC, exhaust, steering, and suspension have not changed much in the last 20 years. Even simple engine problems, like a bad alternator, starter, or drive belts can still be fixed by anyone.
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