Premier Auto Service

My 4Runner's starter motor died on us a couple weeks ago Friday. Emily & I had driven the truck to Costco, and everything was fine until I started up the engine in the parking lot to come on home. The engine didn't start on the first try, but I really didn't think anything of it. Actually, I probably subconsciously assumed that I didn't turn the key long enough, because that happens in the 4Runner fairly often, especially to people who don't know the truck very well.

So anyway, the truck started on the second attempt. We drove home, and that was that. Later that evening, Stephen, Em & I drove to Mom & Dad's. Again, no problem. At some point, however, Stephen went out to grab a coffee, and the starter died on him while he was out. I'm just thankful it didn't give out on me & Emmy at Costco! (Not that it would've been that big a deal, but still.) At this point, Stephen was under the impression that the battery died. Ken went to help Stephen by jumping the car with Mom's Accord. The jump was successful and Stephen drove home. He bought a new battery and replaced it, but then realized that the starter was gone too. "What a strange coincidence!" he thought.

The Toyota dealership explained that as the starter began dying, it drew more energy from the battery than usual. This is why both the starter and the battery had died at the same time. Toyota quoted ~$600 for a new starter (including labor)! Stephen called Ed at Premier Auto and he quoted ~$450.

Premier Auto Service is a Honda specialist that my family (a big Honda family) has patronized for years (starting with my oldest sister). Harry used to co-own the business with Ed (we used to call it "Harry's" :-), but Harry left a few years ago. This is a shame, because Harry was wonderful. He was such a kind, gentle-mannered man who was excellent at what he did. With Ed's help, he ran an outstanding car repair shop. As a company, they had always been very fair and honest. If something needed to be done, they'd say so. By the same token, if something didn't need to be done, they'd say so too. They'd never try to take advantage of their customers by claiming the cars needed more work than they really did. Even though the shop is located in San Marcos (about half an hour drive from here), we (Stephen included) have always gladly taken our cars there for repair. My father-in-law even used to take his Accord there when it needed something done. Harry was amazing, too -- he used to remember who everyone was and memorize our names, and, even more impressive, how we were all related to each other (Bill was Stephen's father, Stephen was Molly's husband, Molly was Jaime & Carmen's daughter, etc.)!

Needless to say, we were all pretty sad when Harry left Premier. Unfortunately, it did seem as though the business suffered a bit after his departure. They just weren't the unique, magnificent shop they used to be. They became a little more typical, a little more like everyone else. Stephen had somewhat of a bad experience with them after Harry left. It took them about three tries to replace the clutch in his old Accord and get it right.

Even though the Toyota dealership is right down the street while Premier is 30 minutes away, and even though we had that bad experience with Stephen's old clutch, it was clear that the $150-difference was a lot of money, so we decided to go with Premier. We had the truck towed to them on Monday of last week. At first they thought that the problem might have been battery cables (or starter motor cables, not sure which) that turned out to be quite corroded, so they special-ordered some new ones, which took a few days. This was okay with me, though, 'cause my Mom generously let me borrow her Accord. Luckily, my Dad was out of town, so they didn't need it (since she had her Odyssey). Anyway, it turned out that the problem was, indeed, the starter motor, so they replaced it and we picked up the 4Runner after hours on Thursday. They had locked the receipt (and, of course, the keys) inside, and to our pleasant surprise, they had only charged us $250!! What a huge difference! They did a great job with the truck, too -- they even cleaned up the corroded cables (rather than replace them, which also saved us a chunk o' change), and they're as good as new. We're very appreciative and impressed. So much so, that Stephen called Ed to thank him and tell him how pleased we are with the service. Ed seemed happy about the call. He said that he doesn't get many of them!

Which leads me to a point: I've always thought that it's very important to give positive feedback and praise when it's due. People like to hear when they do good and get things right, not just when they screw up. I try to make it a point to tell people when they do well or when I'm pleased by their efforts. I really think they appreciate the (positive) recognition.

Yay, Premier!!