Gratitude Monday: Mechanical perfection

I was reminded last week of how great it is to have a good auto mechanic, where you can take your no-longer-in –production car for maintenance and repairs, know they’ll be done right and that they’re not going to rip you off on the charges.

I’m so grateful for Swedish Auto Factory in Santa Clara—a small shop that I’ve come to know well in the three years I’ve been in the Valley they call Silicon. (A lot better than I would have liked, on account of having to replace the antenna something like six times in the past two years. There was one period a few months ago when I had it replaced three times in four weeks.)

Dan, the owner, always calls me “kiddo”, which would be enough to make me propose marriage, except that I know he already is. And he never ridiculed me for the whole aerial thing, which I really appreciated.

SAF specialized exclusively in Saabs and Volvos for a long time. When Saab went down the GM drain, they added on Subarus to try to make up for the lost business. But apparently that’s not filled the hole, so last week, when I went in for an oil change (and an adjustment to the parking brake, because it…well, it just wasn’t holding at all. And I would have gone in earlier if there’d been anything wrong with the foot brakes, but, you know, you can’t take the key out of the ignition unless it’s in Reverse, so that always holds it…), they had a banner out proclaiming them “European Auto Specialists”.

Although they’re still servicing Subarus.

Dan appreciated my contribution to their bottom line but six aerials in two years apparently does not feed the bulldog.

I hope they find the right mix, because I have no plans to give up a car that doesn’t even have 90K miles on it and runs fine (if you don’t mind having to occasionally thump the back panel to get the antenna to retract), and it’s so hard to find good, honest mechanics who treat their customers as well as they treat their customers’ cars.

So today I’m grateful for SAF, and hope that other drivers in the area come to appreciate them, too.