[mikestew]

To a Franchise owner at Aamco

You know, I've been seeing investigative reports about Aamco's crooked dealings since I was a kid watching Morely Schafer on Sixty Minutes, and I am not a young man (in fact, I think Morely's dead now.) So I am continually amazed when I see Aamco in the news again.

It's not like there isn't good money in running an honest shop. I wasn't a mechanic for all that many years, but of those years I've known one mechanic that I wouldn't send my sister to. The rest are just working class dogs like the rest of us, trying to make a nice middle-class living. The other Firestone I worked at while I was going to school, as a "tire changer" and not mechanic, the manager was a every-time-the-doors-are-open church goer, and lived it. There would be no ripping off of customers in that shop. That shop made plenty of money.

So I dunno, maybe transmissions are a different business. And there will always be those for whom the good living of auto repair isn't good enough. Sure, I make a ton more writing software, but there are days I'd go back to turning wrenches. Much like software, someone has a problem, and I got a great deal of satisfaction out of solving that problem for a reasonable price. Personally, I never saw any compelling reason to be dishonest.