Our Sad Car Saga, Part 1

Last January our poor Malibu had a valve spring break in the engine. We towed it to a repair shop who quoted us a price of $2,500 to $4,500 depending on the type of repairs. Yikes! That was as much or more than the car was worth.

Then, we remembered a guy who was a friend of a friend. He had done work for us before and we thought he might do the work cheaper. He works out of his own garage but is a master mechanic.

He verbally quoted us a price of $1,200 to $1,400 with a down payment of $800. The only caveat was that he couldn't finish the work for a week.

We called a few days later to see how he was doing with the car. He said he wasn't done yet.

Then, a week or so after he was working on the car, I am very certain I saw him towing the car away from the original mechanic's place. He claimed he was working on the car when he hadn't even begun to work on it. This was the first lie of many lies to come.