Recommendations for Mechanics in Lower Hutt

[KiwiKid2014]

As stated, preferably someone in Lower Hutt, although Upper Hutt or anywhere in the Hutt Valley would be fine if the mechanic comes highly recommended and it’s worth the journey!!! Ideally, this person would also be knowledgeable when it comes to an old school (in this case a 1994) Mazda Cronos (not mine, just asking on behalf of).

She's an automatic transmission with intermittent hard starting, as if it's fuel starvation. It ain’t the battery as it does crank, it just won’t turn over sometimes, or it’ll splutter for a short time then cut out. Has also cut out a few times while cruising, as if it needed to be 'warmed up' a bit longer. For the hard start, it’s not electrical/spark plugs etc as that’s all been checked. The mechanic did replace a dirty fuel filter and she went great guns for a few weeks, started first pop every time for a while, but then it reverted back to its usual hard starting, either starting when it feels like it, or not at all no matter what you do. Now I’m thinking it’s a fuel pump? But I know nothing about cars though, so who knows.

I do find 'word of mouth' recommendations with people who’ve had an on-going relationship (i.e. ‘Been my mechanic for years’ etc) to be king over 5-star reviews on the web or whatever (e.g. ‘NoCowboys’) where you can’t be too sure if the blurbs people leave are truly genuine or not!!

Of course, I'm looking for a good level of experience and workmanship at a fair price. I fear that this problem could be a big job and possibly difficult to diagnose. I don’t want to go to a dealership if it can be avoided and would be willing to pay up to around $75ish an hour for labour, but anything more….well, let’s just say it’d have to be a genius mechanic to pay too much more for labour than that!!

Ironically, we do have our trusted mechanic already, who did the fuel filter as mentioned, and we'd normally happily take the car back to him, but he is completely bogged down right now through helping out with a hundred-odd cars at his workshop (for the sake of vehicle compliance) and unfortunately, we need this job done urgently!

I do feel bad for looking elsewhere, almost like we're 'cheating on' our usual guy, who’s a brilliant customer-driven mechanic, but hopefully he won't mind....just this once.

Cheers, from this (brand)-newbie, for your time and recommendations!!

[cappuccino]

Hutt city autos on Pretoria Street - they'e always been great with my Toyota!

www.huttcityautoservices.co.nz

[KiwiKid2014]

Thanks for the suggestion, Cappuccino!!!

Don't get me wrong, but if these guys can afford to maintain a fairly comprehensive website such as that, then my impression is that they'd be an expensive workshop to deal with!

Of course, I know what our regular mechanic charges and so I'm sorta using his per hour rate as the benchmark in my hunt for a good 'back-up mechanic' if you like.

Do you know what Hutt City Auto would charge for their labour per hour by chance?

[cappuccino]

They are very competitively priced believe me, I don't waste money! Give 'em a call -ask for Paul.

[KiwiKid2014]

Awesome, will add them to my list of enquiries to make Thanks!

[cappuccino]

See kiddo, even the TM forum agrees with me ;-)

[KiwiKid2014]

See kiddo, even the TM forum agrees with me ;-)

Haha, indeed.

Thought your name looked familiar over on TM ... thought it was too much of a coincidence.

Problem is, as I said over there ... there's almost so many opinions/options over there now that the waters get muddied in my mind!!

Nice to have so many locals willing to chip in with their 10 cents though.

Thanks for your help!!