Where I'm from most shops loan you a temporary vehicle while they work on your car. You only need to top the tank when you tske it back. Very convenient. Not that I could even afford to own a car myself.
this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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What this means is you actually can’t afford to own a car and are trapped in the corpse of a long dead society that once would have enabled you to own a car.
I feel like this would vary by shop. There's an automotive shop with a relatively small waiting room, because they are less than a block from a ~2 mile long road of shops. Very walkable, just ever so slightly uphill. You can usually walk and find a number of stores to window shop at before heading back.
There's another automotive shop a bit aways from my house. It's on a mostly solitary street, a few miles away from any shops, and is not an area you would want to be walking in. They have a fairly large waiting room.
But I think they all say you're free to to do as you please because there's not really anything for you to do for the next 2 to 48+ hours, depending on what you're getting done.
They assume that, by driving your car to them and paying them to repair it, you are an adult who can actually figure shit out for yourself.
They don't. My local shop has a waiting room with coffee, sodas, Wi-Fi, and seating/desks. Plenty of people (myself included) bring their work with them to the shop while their car is fixed. Also I've definitely seen people driving around loaner vehicles from dealerships before which is kinda a solution?
But you're right that it sucks that our society has designed places where it's impossible to get around without a car. My car shop is a short bus ride from my house or a slightly longer walk. If I take my car to the dealership, which is farther away, home is a bike ride away or I can go to the shops nearby. I'd guess this is the case in most denser urban areas except maybe some US cities which are just terribly laid out.
I'm new to car ownership and I wrestled my bike into the back of my low-roofed saloon car to cycle back. I didn't really buy the car with cycling in mind but it beat paying them £25 for a courtesy car (I expected not to have to pay for that is this was to fix a recall issue)
A independent car shop I know has created a small "Coworking space" along the usual waiting area. If you bring your car for a half/full day repair you can book one of these spaces for a small fee (5 or 10 bucks). (he even offers them for a small price for external customers if he has capacity).
It includes small offices (full wall,not cubicles), Wifi with a fiber uplink, etc. and works really well for him - a few major companies around here switched towards his shop for their fleet.
We sadly can't use him, as we have a long term rental/lease and that requires a network shop of the brand.
You can still walk, can't you? (PleaseHaveLegs,PleaseHaveLegs,PleaseHaveLegs...)
Place I take my car too, 10 minute drive... 3 and 1/2 hour walk one way back home. Or I could go to the nearest town which is 2 hours and 50 minutes away the other way.
Lemmy users are mostly Americans. You can't really walk anywhere in the US unless you're in a mall or a long distance runner. Everything is spread out.
With 4 lane roads and 80 km/h traffic separating anywhere you would want to actually walk.
Some places DO offer to take you somewhere, which is super cool. But face it, to take you back home and then bring you back again when the car is finished is cost prohibitive for a normal shop. They would have to have at least one extra vehicle to do this, a dedicated driver and insurance to cover what is essentially a completely separate service. They are a car repair service, not a shuttle service.
They use a little shuttle van. Hell, this was a thing in New Jersey, so I'm surprised when it's not also in every better state.
But not at every place right? Hell, I have one car right now that still has a warranty and they give me a rental car. It's awesome service but you don't get that from a smaller place.
A big reason for it is you bring your car for service. It's going to take time. They have a bunch of cars to get through, they'll look at yours, determine what you need, sell it to you, then order parts. In the meantime the tech has moved on to another car while they wait. You're sitting in the waiting room wanting to know WHY IN THE HELL IS HE NOT WORKING ON MY CAR??!?!?! I'M SITTING HERE AND YOU'RE WASTING MY TIME!!! Then you're mad it took half a day to get the parts in because the parts supplier had to run across town to get the parts and you leave a bad review. That bad review wasn't fair and it hurts the shop.
At the end of the day, it's not worth working on your car under those circumstances. You admit your car is a POS and you're broke. That also means your car is going to need a lot of shit you can't afford so you're going to pick the bandaid to keep it going. Then a few weeks later something else breaks because you put the bandaid on it and now you're mad and blame the shop. More crap the shop has to deal with when it wasn't their fault or problem in the first place.
Ah so you've had your computer repaired before.
That's a lot of assumptions to not even answer OPs question.
What would you like them to do instead? How much extra are you able and willing to pay them so that they can do that and stay in business?
I live in a Finnish midsized town with a population of roughly 80 000 people. My repair shop offers to drive you where you want to go, but you're in charge of the way back to the shop when they call to say your car is fixed.
It's a great service, and it guarantees my loyalty to that shop!
We have some loaner cars and will drop you off and pick you up if needed. It really is a cool thing and the word of mouth alone has gotten us enough business it's almost nuts.
The same car mechanics that usually have seating, coffee, TV etc for people who can't leave to use while they wait..? You can also idk walk somewhere and grab a bit to eat? Don't be mad at the mechanic because your car is broken and you don't know how to fix it lol, also most shops that I've been to have offered me a ride when I live in the area and they aren't too busy
I'm leasing a car. I went for service last week and they had free coffee and coffee bread while I waited.
I think that should be put in law for all repair shops. :) It's the little things.
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