Hello, all,

I have a horror story and a question.

I bought a 1991 Civic Station Wagon with 196,000 or so miles on it.  I
love that little thing! It has terrific road feel and gets incredible
mileage for a 90's car, but it needed a lot of work from the get-go.
Problem is finding a reliable mechanic in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill
area.

After various adventures with Chapel Hill independent mechanics, one of
whom allowed as how I could have my brakes done (for $40 over the
dealership price, as I later found out) but had to have my car off his lot
that day by 5:00 pm sharp, another of whom swore to use OEM parts but had
a 19 year old install no-name brake pads that squealed from day one, I
started searching for dealers in the area.

Crown Honda of Southpoint was just two exits down the interstate.  They
did two services on my car, with excellent results, but....I'd broken my
shoulder in a bicycle accident and was still in very painful recovery a
month later when my Honda's rear brakes needed servicing.  I called Crown
Honda and made an appointment to have the brakes serviced.  Of course
I specified the year, make and model of my little wagon.  The tech writer
at Crown Honda insisted I be there at 7:00 am (I work swing shift, so this
was very early for me).  It takes a lot longer to get ready with only one
arm, but I did make it there close to the time specified.  After waiting
an hour and an half with no word of my car, while trying to find some way
to work with a broken arm and my laptop, I asked the service writer how it
was coming along.  He barely looked up from his podium to tell me the
brake pads weren't there and, next time, make an appointment before I
brought my car in.  When I told him I had made an appointment, he just
said the parts weren't there, they'd ordered them and come back when they
were.  The service manager's name was printed on every service receipt.
I called him and described the problem. He said he'd look into it.  Left a
message on my voicemail that Friday saying that since I'd had some good
experiences with some of the tech writers, I should make sure I made
appointments with those tech writers in future. Oh, and he told me to
think about this over the weekend and call Monday if I still wanted them
to work on my car. Needless to say, I'd didn't.

Fast forward to Christmas this year - out of town trip to visit family
means my little wagon has to get there.  Chapel Hill mechanics again
asking a ridiculous amount for ordinary service and no guarantees as to
reliability.  Crown Honda of Southpoint could fit me in and quoted a price
$100 less than CH independant shops. The tech writer I spoke to was OK,
but when I brought the little beast in, every one of the service area men
just happened to find something that faced away from me and my car.  I
found someone in another area that would write up the work and finally got
it done, for quite a bit over what I'd been quoted.

Given all this, does anyone know of a good shop in the Research Triangle
area of North Carolina?  There seems to be a really good one in Greensboro
(Triad) but they're an hour away and have 8-5 weekday only hours.

Thanks for listening -

MG