John you are correct when you say when you have one available.

However just from my consumer point of view since I am not connected with
the industry, I see that in the next ten years the indy shop will become as
rare as the white rhino in Africa.

With the enormous cost of new diagnostic equipment and highly specialized
and ever changing skills needed to service more and more technologically
sophisticated electronics and advanced power plants (read hybrid and the
hydrogen fuel cell) there will be no chance for the small indy shop to
survive. I don't think that a shop can make a go of it even as a brake shop.
At some point the manufacturers will devise a brake system that is so
reliant on electronics that you will need a dealer out of necessity to do
the service.

I am not saying which is better, but just stating what I see as the future
of auto service.