60k miles = $1.3k scheduled maintenance

Before I say anything, I want to point out that I do trust my mechanic, though I believe that on occasion he is not the cheapest option available. There have been a couple of occasions when he did not find anything wrong with a car and so he did not charge me for checking it out. Also, I just realized how long this post is. Good luck getting through it.

About four months ago one of the family cars started to act up. We took it in to have it looked at and in the end the mechanic determined there was no serious issue with the car. As if to guarantee that I couldn't walk away without this being an expensive experience the mechanic pointed out that the car had just passed 60,000 miles and it was due for scheduled maintenance. I want this car to last a while so I was willing to play along. I asked what it would take get the car up to date. His answer was that we would have to schedule a two-day block for him to work on this and, since this included replacing the timing belt, the entire procedure would be a little over $1,300.

Yikes! I figure that there will occasionally be a scheduled maintenance that is expensive, but I didn't figure it would be as soon as 60,000 miles and certainly not this expensive. I didn't know where we were going to get that kind of money and at that point I figured I had to count on a seriously good tax return.

We did get a good tax return, and budgeted appropriately for the procedure. Due to the fact that the other family car was replaced during that time and scheduling conflicts we didn't deal with the issue for a few months. We kept the budgeted money in the checking account as a buffer.

Also during this time a co-worker encouraged me to call his mechanic and double-check the cost. He stated that his mechanic was a friend of the family and had always given him a good deal. I called and was quoted $690 + tax. Not bad. This was just over half the price I had budgeted in fact. So I made an appointment and brought the car in on Thursday (the bad-hair day for those keeping track).

Around 9:30 AM (before I realized my hair was sticking up) he called me and said that he had re-read Mazda's recommendations for the 60,000 mile maintenance and he would recommend that I wait until 90,000 miles before changing the timing belt. Mazda's recommendation was that the timing belt simply be checked at 60,000 miles, which wasn't even possible given the nature of the part. We ended up spending $150 on the miscellaneous maintenance that Mazda recommended.

Now, the real problem is one of loyalty. Do I send all my business to this new mechanic? He is several miles further away than my current mechanic, so that could impact my decision. I'll probably wait until the next automotive crisis to decide, knowing me.