By Robert Bravender
There aren’t too many shops that tender a question in their title, but Why Pay More Auto Service of Essex, Md., makes perfect sense when you think about it. Founded in 2012 on the principal of sound diagnostics, owner Russell Bates felt that customers were paying an excessive amount of money just to learn what was wrong with their car.
“I’ve always thought if I can’t get a good grasp of what’s wrong within a solid hour, something’s wrong with me, because that’s a long time to be looking at a car,” explained Bates. “If you spend $800 and we don’t fix your problem, that’s back on me, because I didn’t do my job correctly. I feel we have enough equipment, enough tools, enough knowledge, enough databases that we can get 90 percent of the stuff diagnosed and repaired right the first time.”
He noted that diagnostic fees have their place.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Bates, “back in the late 1980s and early ’90s when they were throwing all this computer stuff together on these cars, no one knew what the hell to do, not even the manufacturers. But …
