What is happening to the honest repair shop do they have to rip off the public to stay in business. I hope this is not the case as the repair industry already has a poor reputation. Or is the chain repair shop going to be the only choice we have to repair our vehicles. I just don’t see why a well managed shop cannot make money fairly; the one obstacle is getting and keeping good help. Many of the techs of today, especially the good one are prima donnas and demand high dollars, which they deserve, so perhaps the only way they can afford this help is to gouge the public. There have been 2 service station/ repair shops close in my area in the past month. One was where I had my oil changed. There were honest did not give me the run around for unnecessary services (they knew I was an experienced tech having known both the owner and his Dad for years) so we had a good working relationship. They also knew I only had them change my oil because it was cheap and easier and that any other repairs I would do myself. My concern is they both treated their customers with respect and did not try to sell any unnecessary repairs. You could trust their estimates and if they said it needed to be done it probably did. With 10 cars in my immediate family I cannot do all the repairs myself I find it hard to just keep up with my own. I also field the occasional call from an old customer looking for a repair shop. My daughter took her 2001 Durango to a repair shop, oddly enough one I used to work at (under different owners) and they tried to rip her off. There are several other repair shops in my area but they all have bad reputations. So what do I do now take their vehicles in for them and sit and wait to keep an eye on the repairs, seems like a waste of time might as well do it myself. Thankfully they are all fairly new, except for a few, so except for the oils changes there are not a lot of repairs. What about the single mother who is already working 2 jobs to make ends meet and she has car problems how is going to prevent being ripped off for repairs she can’t afford but yet she needs transportation. You don’t haul a couple kids to day care and the store on public transportation. I just don’t know what the answer is and perhaps there is not one.