Where to take my car?

[KK07]

Hi there. I just moved to Calgary about a month or so ago now and I'm wondering if there are any mechanics you guys can suggest for me to go to? I moved here from a small town in BC which had like...3 garages haha, so this is confusing trying to choose a mechanic. I've searched on the whitepages and came up with tons of them, I'm just wondering which shops you guys go to and why? I'm not looking for a performance shop or anything, I just need a cheaper place that can fix up all of the problems on my grand am (pos!). It's a 97 2.4 litre. I'm located in the NW in Panorama Hills and I haven't seen any places around here that I could go to besides Canadian Tire and after reading about some of the experiences people have had on here, I think I'm better off not going there.

Are there any people who do some work on the side on beyond? I don't know exactly what needs replacing but its stuff like:

-struts/shocks
-low coolant light stays on (sensor?)
-need to fix what I believe is a cracked head gasket but I'm not entirely sure (slow coolant leak)

I think that's all I can remember for now haha. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

[KK07]

Also, I don't mind driving a bit to get it fixed, I'm still new to all of the areas but I've driven in the NE a bit already so I can bring it somewhere else if needed.

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by KK07

-need to fix what I believe is a cracked head gasket but I'm not entirely sure (slow coolant leak)


i would've suggested the pontiac dealership but that problem above you might wanna save up some cash and go private mech. shop, if thats what you think your problem is, a blown headgasket job will cost you a fair bit :dunno:

[KK07]

Don't dealerships usually charge quite a bit more than a decent shop? I don't want to put more money into this thing than I have to, I just need it to last another couple of years until I finish school. So does that coolant leak sound like a blown headgasket?

[n1zm0]

..thats like worst case scenario, could be alot of other things, you could bring it to the dealership for a diagnose and then decide where youd want to take it after that.

[KK07]

Alright, thanks for your help, I'll try to find a dealership close to me and get it checked out.

[Mitsu3000gt]

A coolant leak can come from a ton of different places. I also would never go to a dealer with a grand am, pretty much anyone can work on those cars just fine.

[KK07]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, the dealership in my old town charged like $80 an hour for labour :confused: . I'm going to call around today when I get home from class, I did a search on shops I should avoid and I didn't get too many results. Are there any that you guys would stay away from especially?