Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Motor vehicle owners' stories about horrible experiences with mechanics are just like fishermen's tales about the really big one that got away - everybody has one to tell. Unlike the fishermen, though, it is the drivers who get hooked and played until they are frustrated and, quite often, broke.

Carolyn, who drives a 1993 Nissan Bluebird and travels a lot between Clarendon and Kingston, says, "I have had a lot of bad experiences, first because I am a woman and the things they do with a woman they do not usually do with a man."

Over time Carolyn has learnt to be sceptical about what mechanics tell her and she has found herself in the wonderful position of working with a honest one (from the old school, she says). In the earlier days, though, "because you are not the expert you believe them. They give you a cost and afterwards you realise you have been cheated.

Left cheated

In the nine years she has owned her car she has had to visit the mechanic several times, leaving ample room for her to be cheated. "One of the most costly was actually being told there was something major wrong with the vehicle, like the alternator. You go and you source it and you go in the car and the same thing happens again," she said.

The actual problem is very simple - something like a loose plug.

In addition to padded bills and deliberately incorrect diagnoses, Carolyn tells The Sunday Gleaner that she has lost a lot of things from her car after it has been in the repair shop.

"I have lost screwdrivers, pliers, a charger for my battery, the jack. I had a puncture and it was when I reached for it I realised that it was missing. In terms of inconvenience that was the worst," she said.

There was also a tyre pump that disappeared without a trace.

As did the front door speakers, after she had taken the car in for a full body job. A few months later, she was adjusting the radio and somebody pointed out there were no speakers in the front. When she went back to tackle the body repair man, he had migrated.

"All now I don't replace the speakers," Carolyn said, relying on the ones at the rear of the car.

Now that she has replaced the four or five mechanics she has gone through unpleasant and costly encounters, with the one older gentleman, she is a happy woman. "The ones before were young guys, trying to make a hustle," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

More than $100,000 lost

Carolyn estimates her losses over the years at "more that $100,000, easily".

When Charmaine bought her 1991 Suzuki Swift seven years ago, the only problem she had was the unpleasant - and dangerous - smell of leaking gas. She took it to a garage and was told the tank was leaking and she needed to have it changed. Determined not to let her car out of her sight, she sat and waited and waited, did puzzles and waited while the defective tank was removed and the mechanic went to get a second-hand replacement.

"The rule is as a woman you need to stand up and watch, just like the men," Charmaine said, "I wanted to behave like a man and pretend I knew what was happening."

The men working on the car said they also had to get the replacement tank cleaned out properly and took a very long time to return with it. "They punished me, I think," Charmaine said. Eventually it was replaced and she was on her way, she thought.

A few days later, on her way home from Tom Redcam Avenue in the night, the car would not start. Eventually it sputtered along, until it simply quit on the road. Fortunately, a colleague was there and Charmaine's family came to help as well.

Waiting ...

The car was towed to a garage on Maxfield Avenue and Charmaine went home. The following afternoon, the mechanic on Maxfield Avenue said that the gas tank - the same one she waited on - had been clogged with leaves. "And he showed me them," she said.

"He said there is nothing wrong with your car. It is in perfect working order," Charmaine said.

On another occasion, with another mechanic, after she left her car for minor repairs she called several times and could not get in touch with him. When she eventually did, he explained that he had been to the market and left his cellphone. She is positive the mechanic used her Swift for the market run, as he rides a bicycle. "Who go market on a bicycle, tell me?" she asked The Sunday Gleaner.

A minor-repairs job turned into two or three days without her car, the bill getting higher and higher as time went on and "you can't do anything about it".

"They are not nice. They are very wicked. They don't have to be like that," Charmaine said. "Like how you trust your dentist, that's how you trust your mechanic. Women tend to be loyal to their mechanics. When they mess around, that is when you lose that trust."

Happy now

Like Carolyn, Charmaine has now found an older mechanic she can trust and is happy with him.

Davidsays he has had "lots of bad experiences", some of which have turned out to be costly. There was one that did not turn out to be as costly as it could have been, though, when he took his 1992 Nissan Bluebird to a mechanic near Mountain View Avenue. The problem was diagnosed and David agreed with the owner of the garage to pay $5,000; when he returned he was greeted with a bill of $16,000. The number of problems had been increased, as well as the price to fix the original one.

"I paid him for exactly what we negotiated," David said. And he never went back.

Drove off

Some strategy was involved in the disengagement. David gave the garage owner the $5,000 which he had with him, got the keys, into the car and was at a safe distance before he said he would not be paying the balance. In fact, he tells The Sunday Gleaner he does not remember if he said so in person or on the phone.

It helped that a mechanic who was at the garage agreed with David's position. The owner was, naturally, not pleased at all.

He has seen the garage owner once since and they actually had a conversation. The man did not recognise him, but he kept saying the car was familiar. David encouraged him to believe that he did not know the car and says "I did not stick around for his memory to come back".

Names changed on request.