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This is a broad, unfair generalization. I know that they're out there, but in 30 years I've never run into one so to say "most" are crooks is an extreme exaggeration.
This is a broad, unfair generalization. I know that they're out there, but in 30 years I've never run into one so to say "most" are crooks is an extreme exaggeration.
Well all in all I'd rather not deal with them. Here in NYC the average labor rate is 100/hr. It can be a $30 part and if it takes 2hrs to install it, it will run the customer $230. I've owned over 20 cars in my life and have had some good, and some very bad experiences with mechanic shops. Therefore I rather just lease my vehicles and swap them out for a new one when the lease is up. Works out great for me and I dont have to deal with shady mechanics.
I once took in one of my cars to a tranmission shop due to a tranny fluid leak. The tranny ran fine but the fluid was leaking. The mechanic stated he would open it up and see what was causing the leak. When I returned the following day, he stated my tranny was completely shot and I needed a complete rebuild that would run me $3200. I told him to go *** himself and put the tranny back together the same way I brought it in.
In my short time I've seen way too many hack jobs. I think the biggest is electrical wiring. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen electrical wiring hacked into.
Ferretkona brings up a good point about an aftermarket radio install, the truth is unless you pull the head unit out, you cannot tell if it was done correctly. However not everyone who installs an aftermarket head unit is a hack, and just because you see a factory head unit in a car doesn't mean everything is kosher behind the dash.
And here's another....vehicles with modifications not factory....i.e. shoe-horning an engine into a vehicle that was never intended for it....such as dropping a V8 into a Vega....plenty of people doing such a swap cut corners everywhere to "git-er-in thar bubba".
And here's another....vehicles with modifications not factory....i.e. shoe-horning an engine into a vehicle that was never intended for it....such as dropping a V8 into a Vega....plenty of people doing such a swap cut corners everywhere to "git-er-in thar bubba".
Yes, but if youre looking at one of thiose, you genearlly already know what youre looking at and can tell if it's bee hacked or not. Like my V8 RX7 that was far from being a hack job
I call one of the former owners of my MG-B "Captain Crossthread", fortunately he didn't work on the car that much. But it came to me with a few stove bolts where a normal bolt had been when it left Blighty.
Pet peeve of mine is Scotch-Loks. These are the only thing 3M makes that I just don't like and don't have any use for.
Yeah, an aftermarket stereo can be a flag. I definitely want to check out how it was put in. In principle, almost all cars from about the 80's on have DIN type connectors, so *most* aftermarket head units, if they are the right size to fit the hole in the dash, are plug and play. But, it's not idiot proof, along comes a "weapons grade" idiot with some dykes....
Something that's not a hack as such, but I have seen (and capitalized on) twice is where someone does all the heavy lifting of an engine rebuild, but on the way in takes the fueling system (carb or FI) off, and takes the distributor out, and these parts need some love in a bad way - and, maybe they run out of time, or money, or patience, anyway on re-assembly the tired old ignition and fuel parts are slapped back on the freshly rebuilt motor, which, of course, runs in a dissapointing way, natch. So in both cases I bought the cars at a relatively low price, sorted the fuel and ignition, and bada bing, bada boom.
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