Boy, Bird, I'm with you. I've never considered myself very mechanical, but I used to do a lot of my own simple repair work. I'm old enough to remember doing tuneups with a timing light. Most of that stuff wasn't too hard, and it was actually fun, and you had such a great feeling of accomplishment when you were done. Now, with my bad back, my surgeon told me that even my days of changing my own oil are over. I'm at the mechanic's mercy.
But I do have a good story. There's a tire chain near my office (Tire Wharehouse) and they've been great. You bring the car in they check it out and give you an estimate and the estimate is written in stone. I have a 2000 Ford Explorer that I bought at a farm auction a few years ago. I LOVE that car, but the one thing is the A/C didn't work from the time I got it. A few weeks ago, my wife suggested that I was so uncomfortable with my back that I should bring it into the Tire Warehouse and ask for an estimate. It needed several parts, and they gave me an estimate of $525. The car is in great shape, so my wife said to do it. When I picked it up after work, the manager told me that, though it was cold, he wasn't happy with it, and asked if I could bring it in the next morning to go over it again for no charge. Well, I eneded up bringing it in 6 times, all their call. They replaced EVERYTHING, including the compresspor. They finally took every piece of the A/C assembly apart and found that an in-line flilter had been installed backwards, long before they looked at it. I got an ENTIRE A/C system for $525. It's cold as anything now, and they never charged me a dime more than they're original estimate. On top of that, they'd save me the few block walk, knowing that I had a bad back, and they'd pick me up at work in my own car to do a test drive together. In fact, they call every once in a while to make sure it's OK.
Another time I had a terrible brake noise. I was sure it was a frozen caliper. I was right about the calper, but it just needed an adjustment. They charged me $19.99 and wouldn't take a tip. I love those guys!!!!