One of the major reasons I do everything I can myself is because nobody else knows how I want it done besides me. Furthermore I don't trust most people to do it without watching them. There are lots of times I find myself doing stupid things late at night in the shop and I think "I should be hiring somebody else to do this", but by the time I find the right person and explain exactly how I want it done and then check it over when they're finished...I could have just done it already!
Last time I thought I was "too important" to work on my brakes, the shop I went to managed to ruin all four of my wheels and forgot six lug nuts. How do you even do that? When I came back to chew them out there was somebody else already there who's front wheel had just FALLEN OFF because they neglected to tighten the lugs.
Exactly! I do all my own stuff, with rare exceptions,* out of self defense.
Yesterday I changed the oil on 3 vehicles, my 2 son's and the one daughter in law's. I actually kind of enjoy working like that with my hands to balance out sitting in front of a computer all week at my job.
Besides I'm always their guy for car repairs so I view the oil change as pre-emptive self defense...I can often spot something that is an easy fix now rather than a big repair later, that I'd end up doing for them anyway...
As for others doing quality work- well the DIL's VW had a missing bolt from a steel skid plate under the oil pan, allowing it flop up and down..previous oil changes had always been done at the dealer...the dealer had also been using oil that did NOT meet VW's own stringent specs, I was horrified at the amount of sludge present under the oil cap, so much for hiring quality workmanship.
As a benefit I got to spend the day with the three of them and my 4 yr old grandson. All it "really" cost me was $75 for oil and filters and $50 for lunch at 5Guys...priceless to me.
* I did hire someone to pump my septic tank last year...:laughing: