We had another scare with an emergency last week. My hubby went to pick up food at a restaurant and when he came out with food in his hands, he couldn’t open the driver’s side door to his car. He had to go through the passenger side to open since it opened from inside thankfully. He tried to figure it out on his own when he got home, but it looked like the problem wasn’t as simple as we hoped it would be.
My hubby called the mechanic that was referred to us by my co-worker and dropped the car off. Good thing my hubby did some research beforehand, because this guy tried to jack up the price of the part that was needed. My hubby even found out exactly which dealership had the part and how many they had on their hands with the exact price. The mechanic low balled the labor charge to make us think he’s giving us a deal, but tried to charge us crazy amount for the part. But we didn’t get fooled and we ended up paying a fair price for it I think. We were worried about what kind of sloppy job this guy would do on the car, but the car seems ok. One thing for sure is that we will never go back to that guy again.
Since this happened out of the blue, we had to have the money right away. I was thinking we might have to use the emergency fund, but we didn’t. We were under budget for couple of weeks and I was waiting for another week to transfer the left over money to our savings account, but that ended up covering for this unexpected car door repair. This is why it’s important to have an emergency fund and staying under budget. As much as I would hate to dip into our emergency fund, if need be, it’s there to be spent. Even better that that is when you are under budget enough to just absorb this cost without touching the emergency fund. Sweet~!!
Do you know any good, honest, and reliable mechanic in Northern Virginia area? Did you have to dip into your emergency fund lately?
Michelle's Finance Journal 
I’m sorry that you had a bad experience, at least you didn’t have to dip into your emergency fund.
Thank you. I am very glad I didn’t have to use our emergency fund. Since I don’t know anything about cars, it scares me when car trouble happens.
Yeah, I don’t know much about cars either. It’ll be more expensive for me in the end, however, I”m also helping the mechanic make a living.
That’s what B says all the time – they’ll jack up the part and lowball the labor to make it feel like a ‘softer blow’ to the customer – I agree this is why it’s important to have a good estimate of how much parts really cost. Glad you didn’t have to use your EF, Michelle!
We still haven’t found a good and honest mechanic. Still on the hunt.