Car Talk

If you live in the Napa area, and your car has mechanical trouble, take it to Storck's Garage. Write this down, because one day, that little "check engine" light is going to come on, or your brakes will start squealing, and you're going to say, "Dang, what was the name of that place Tamara had in her blog?" Storck's Garage. They tell you what's going on, they do what they say they are going to do, and they don't waste your time. They are professionals.

Speaking of professionals, if you get into an accident and you end up needing some bodywork or paint done, my next recommendation is ProTones. (Sorry, they don't have their own website.) We've had two cars painted by them, and they treat every car like their own. The car was perfect and shiny, detailed down to the thank you note, lifetime guarantee, and travel cup gift they left for me in the cupholder.

On the negative side, never, ever have your auto glass replaced by Auto Craft Glass in Napa. Avoid at all costs. A few months ago, we had a small crack in our front windshield and had it repaired by them. When we went in, the shop, which is a converted house, was a little dissheveled, including cigarette butts and a beer cap on the front porch. When we returned to pick up the car, there was a four-inch-wide strip of blue tape all the way around the windshield with signs not to remove for 48 hours for curing. Mike was immediately suspicious, having installed windshields himself.

Sure enough, removing the tape revealed that they were trying to hide some very big mistakes. The molding was the wrong molding, and was wrinkled in some areas and gapping in others, not making a seal. They had used a crowbar, or similar tool, to remove the old windshield, without protecting the surfaces of the car. So we had deep gouges in our paint all the way around the windshield, and even scratches in the dash board. It looked like the windshield had basically been put in by someone who had never put in a windshield before. I would include pictures here, but I don't want to dwell on it.As more information came out, we found that this was the second car the person had severely damaged, and the employee had been fired. But the owner of the shop (who, when he used to do all of the work himself, did a fine job, by the way) never talked to us, communicating through a teenage manager.

The happy ending to the story is that we took the car around the corner to ProTones for a repair estimate, and they were so helpful and so professional that it was a much less stressful situation than it might have been. They even picked up the second new windshield and installed it for us-- perfectly-- after repainting the car. 80% of the car had to be repainted because the damaged sections were continuous. The car is silver, so you can't just slap a patch on it. Every section that touched a damaged section had to be repainted to match. Anyway, the glass shop's insurance covered the painting.

My current dilemma is this: I just received an invoice from Auto Craft for the glass, labor and adhesive. I thought that was pretty ballsy. Why would I pay for the labor that it took someone to completely ruin my almost new car so that I had to have it repainted? If you were this guy, wouldn't you slink off with your tail between your legs to your insurance company and just write it off? I'd be embarrassed to send someone an invoice for such a total screw up. I have a check written out for the glass itself, but every time I go to put it in the mailbox, I just don't want to do it. I was without my car for a month because this jackass didn't know how to hire, train, or supervise his employees. I resent sending him anything at all. If he's already claimed it on his insurance or written it off his taxes, he gets paid twice. Bonus for him. I thought I'd just wait and see what happens, but he's probably sent it to his billing service, so they don't care. I thought about sending just a note back that says, "ARE YOU HIGH? Your employee wrecked my car. Pay for the damn thing yourself." But I thought that might be a little harsh. Tell me, would it be wrong not to pay for the windshield?