How Auto Mechanics Can Rip You Off, and How to Avoid Being Taken for a Ride

Have you ever gone to an auto repair shop for an oil change, only to have the mechanic say your car needs a new transmission? Has the check engine light come on, and suddenly the mechanic says you need expensive new engine parts?People dont read the owners manual," he said. "They dont know how to open the hood half the time. ... I honestly dont understand what they expect out of the car if they dont know anything about it.Marty Guerrero, 50, of Los Angeles, admitted she didnt know anything about cars when she took her red Mustang into a mechanic when it wouldnt start. She said that was all the mechanic needed to know, to take her for a ride.He ended up wanting to charge me about $1,000 for services, and it turns out all my car needed was a battery, said Guerrero. And the only reason I busted him was because my car wouldn't start two days after I picked it up. After he supposedly fixed it, it wouldn't start.What should have been an $80 battery replacement suddenly became a very expensive problem for Guerrero.When I think about it now I feel like a fool, Guerrero said. I really got taken.But Guerrero battled to get her money back from the mechanic and won. She even enrolled in auto repair classes and is educating others through an e-book she wrote, named, Exposed: Auto Repair's Dirty Little Secrets to Rip You Off!I ended up writing a book because I wanted to share all this knowledge with people, Guerrero said. "It really makes me angry that these mechanics are taking advantage of women. ... They primarily cheat women because they think we don't know.Guerrero had a message for the mechanic who she said ripped her off: I got you, Guerrero said. You thought you were slick, but I got you.