Puttin' on the Brakes

On Monday, the day when all bad things in life are credited with happening, I was on my way home from work, innocently tailgating the car in front of me when I applied some pressure to my brakes--only to hear the most gawd-awful sound. Not the usual high pitch noise one hears warning them that it is time to repair the brakes, but a garbled, grating noise that was distinctly the sound of metal and air. I love the elements, but not in this particular situation. It quickly went away and I got home. The next morning, yesterday, as it were, on the way to work, the terrible garbled, grating noise was ever present and not going away. I checked to make sure I wasn't dragging a body--and indeed I was not--it was the brakes.

Now, I don't know a decent place here for car repair... I bought the car brand new and any maintenance was done either under warrenty, at the oil change place, or in my dad's garage 285 miles north of here. So, I called around. I remembered seeing a little local place on the other side of the cult parking lot by where I work. I called and chatted with Walt and took my car over for an estimate.

As promised, Walt looked at the car that very morning and called with the estimate. I said, go ahead--the price was well within the range I expected to have to pay for the service--not inflated or anything of the sort (read: NOT Midas!!). Two hours later, Walt left me a message that my car was ready, I could pick it up anytime before they closed at 5:30.

The service was great. The car is running great. So a shout out to Walt and Select Auto Service (on Platt near Washtenaw) are well-deserved. In a crazy week that has me traveling and running all over, they got me in and out in no time! Now the website listed on the business card doesn't seem to be working... but they do imports and domestics and all major and minor repairs.