It’s rare that I write a post praising a business, much less a car mechanic, but if you have a Subaru, you should consider taking it to All Wheel Drive Auto in Kirkland. Tim first pointed me to them and I’ve been very impressed in my interactions with them. They’re honest about what’s wrong and how much it will cost. I’ve never felt them try to sell me something I didn’t need, and if I need a loaner, it’s easy to get one. At the Subaru dealer, I have to schedule a month in advance to have a hope of getting a loaner.
I was in there recently having them diagnose a small oil leak. There was another lady in the shop who was making the five hour drive from Salem, OR to Seattle. She only had about an hour before she had to be at her destination. It turned out that she had a leaky head gasket. They did a full writeup of all the steps they would take and how much everything would cost. In amazement, the lady said, “You did all this work for an estimate on my car even though you know I won’t be getting it fixed here?” “Well of course. I want you to understand everything that needs to be done to fix this problem so that you’re educated when you do get this fixed.” They explained everything to her in detail and showed her what she needed to do to drive the car to her destination and then back home. When she said that maybe she’d delay her service until she was in town next month so she could have it fixed at their shop, they then started talking to her about whether it was worth fixing or not since she already had 220K on the vehicle.
This mechanic is one of the reasons that I’m hesitant to buy anything other than a Subaru next. I don’t want to have to go through the hassle of finding another great shop!
Subaru Mechanic
I was in there recently having them diagnose a small oil leak. There was another lady in the shop who was making the five hour drive from Salem, OR to Seattle. She only had about an hour before she had to be at her destination. It turned out that she had a leaky head gasket. They did a full writeup of all the steps they would take and how much everything would cost. In amazement, the lady said, “You did all this work for an estimate on my car even though you know I won’t be getting it fixed here?” “Well of course. I want you to understand everything that needs to be done to fix this problem so that you’re educated when you do get this fixed.” They explained everything to her in detail and showed her what she needed to do to drive the car to her destination and then back home. When she said that maybe she’d delay her service until she was in town next month so she could have it fixed at their shop, they then started talking to her about whether it was worth fixing or not since she already had 220K on the vehicle.
This mechanic is one of the reasons that I’m hesitant to buy anything other than a Subaru next. I don’t want to have to go through the hassle of finding another great shop!