My 2004 Honda Civic is quickly approaching 75,000 miles, and it’s time to take it in for some maintenance. I haven’t been to the dealer since my maintenance at 20,000 miles a little over two years ago. Since then I’ve been getting my oil changes and tire rotations at the local Pep Boys. I’ve used Pep Boys for the regular maintenance as well, but I wasn’t impressed with their work.
I’m going back to the dealership to fix some issues left over from the repairs from last year’s accident, to look into a new problem which I believe to be related to the brakes, and for the regular maintenance as outlined by the car’s manual.
I should have shopped around for prices at other dealerships, but I went back to the location I purchased the car. This dealership also happens to be located in one of the most expensive areas around. I suppose I do trust the dealer to do the best work on the car after the mediocre work by Pep Boys, but I’ll just have to work on keeping the price down.
The timing of the maintenance works out well. I want to make sure my car will be in perfect shape for my vacation to Rhode Island and Boston.
Photo credit: dunky
Updated January 16, 2010 and originally published July 26, 2007. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
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i’d be looking on craigslist, yellow pages, or something else for a honda mechanic rather than going to a dealership.