This is a prime example of how not knowing how your car works has directly cost you money. If you knew how the parking pawl system in an automatic transmission worked, you would know why the car moving up to 6 inches in order to slip into park is perfectly normal.

 

Hah be understanding man, we all make mistakes. I know I'm far from the most competent person around a car, but I do what I can at least to try to maintain my car and unfortunately by nature, we can't all be experts at everything.

All you can do when you don't know everything about one subject is to trust someone who should be an expert, unfortunately some experts are sleazy people. Shame on the shop that decided to rip off the buyer. Not shame on the buyer...

 

Well my problem was fixed. I don't think I was taken for a ride, but I don't think they gave me all the details either. My father owns the building they operate out of.

 

I am understanding. I got taken for a ride once when I didn't know anything about transmissions. It happens to all of us - kind of a rite of passage for a car enthusiast. But after that happened, I vowed not to let it happen to me again. So I researched, and dug in, and learned how cars (and yes, even automatic transmissions) work. It's taken a number of years, and I'm still learning today, but I know enough that since then, no mechanic has taken me for a ride - because my car's never been to a mechanic since.

You wanna save money? Learn how to work on cars. Sometimes it sucks, and sometimes it hurts, but I can't even begin to tell you how much in labor I've saved over my ownership of no fewer than 4 2nd gen SHOs. As a matter of fact, I have a water pump sitting on my desk right next to my keyboard as I type.

All a car is is nuts and bolts. When you really get right down to it, they aren't that hard to figure out...

 

I understand where you're coming from. I'm trying to go down the same road, since in reality what costs so much about maintaining a car is the labor not so much the parts. Luckily I haven't been taken for a ride yet, so I still have time to learn.

At least for me, I find it hard to pick it all up myself because I don't have anybody close to me that can teach me. I'd love to learn but it's hard to completely take on by yourself.

 

I'm in the same boat. I don't know anybody that works on Fords - which is why I'm seriously considering going after a Corvette. Not that it would be any easier to work on - but at least people I know could teach me how to do the work. Its either that or a higher mileage GT

 

I hear ya, bud. I taught myself how to work on cars with my SHO... all the way down to learning how/where to use a jack. Seriously! I knew nothing. It started all the way back in 2004 with replacing a fuel filter. Seems easy now, but I about damned near gave up in frustration. Then, (since the fuel filter wasn't the source of the problem) I replaced the fuel pump. That involved cutting a hole in my back seat to get access to the fuel tank, since I couldn't get one of the fuel tank strap bolts out. Then it was a motor mount. And this was on a rusty-***, [then] 10 year old car.

It's been a long, hard road, and there's been a lot of swearing, a lot of tool-throwing, and a lot of bleeding, but now, 7 years later, I'm at a point where I have the skills - and the tools - to disassemble, repair/clean, and reassemble everything in front of the firewall. That includes the engine, transmission (auto), and everything around it. In fact, that's precisely what I'm doing right now to my wife's '95 SHO right now. It's taken a month and about $1000 in parts costs and powdercoating (yes, it's going to be a show car) costs.

I shudder to think what this project would've cost in labor.