How to protect your investment when building a car
#1
The best advice I can give anyone regarding building a car is get your quotes written down, find out give or take 300 bucks, what the "out the door price" is going to be, this is the tough part for everyone no doubt, but it keeps things up and honest. Do your homework on any shop you are going to take your baby to. Other people don't care about your car the same way you do, they just want your money. Honesty in the Auto Service and Performance industry in my opinion is at an all time low, at least in Phoenix. Its not every shop, but its a majority of them. It's really a shame, I hope they sleep well at night. People pay good money for stuff and the seller of the product only cares about the bucks, not in anyway about you or your car.

Where did "the book" come from that tells how fast a good mechanic is, I guarantee that every mechanic is different, so why does there have to be a book that determines how long a job takes.
Shops want 6 hours for pulling a motor, I've seen friends do it all the time in a lot less time, and they don't even make a mess doing it.

I've been burned a few time in the past 15-20 years dealing with the cars that I loved from my youth when I couldn't afford them.

If you don't know how to work on cars, you better have a buddy that knows what's up. I hate taking my cars to shops, I trust very few shops now. Ive got a mobile mechanic now, that way I'm right there watching what he does and I pay for all the parts that I find on my own, using someone else for parts I guarantee you those people are making something from it and that drives your cost up, do it yourself.

Ask a shop for 5 references of the cars they worked on and how to contact them. Any true guy/gal that loves cars will be glad to talk to you about there experiences with a shop. Also don't be afraid to contact the BBB, this agency isn't perfect either, but see what rating the BBB gives them and see if they have had any complaints in the last 24 months. Asking for 12 months is useless, it takes nearly that long to get a complaint into the system.
Pay with a credit card if you can, that way you have some protection, credit card companies will "Charge Back" to your account while it is investigated, ask your credit card company how long they will back any major purchase you make with the card. Usually its not longer than a year, sometimes only 90 days. If you think you'll just take them to court if it goes bad, think again, you may win a judgment with the courts but collecting the money is a whole new animal, and more than likely will be additional lost money.

This is all my opinion but at least I let people know so they can watch there butt! I've been burned by some big name companies in Phoenix, but Ive learned a lot over the years and now I just try to advise people that might head down the same road as myself. Know who your dealing with when speeding your hard earned cash, if you don't you could end up spending a lot of that money again redoing things.
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