A big part of why people allow their cars to break down as much as we can see in some of these pictures is distrust.
In 2023, ConsumerAffairs surveyed 1,000 American drivers 18 and over to find out how much they trust mechanics and what they do when they get a diagnosis they're not sure about.
The results showed that 78% of respondents don't always trust them. However, most weren't blindly paranoid. Only a small group (9%) reported never trusting them.
The vast majority (69%) said it depends on the specialist who's working on their car.
The survey data also showed noticeable differences between genders.
For example, men were more than twice as likely to say they had full trust in their automotive technicians. (Just 15% of women said they fully trusted mechanics, compared with 32% of men.)
"I think women, in general, are skeptical of things like that," said Lauren Fix, the editor in chief of Car Coach Reports and a member of ConsumerAffairs’ advisory panel. "They'll do the research. They tend to be more in-depth in finding out the answers."
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Other factors might also play a role, but definitely not such a big one. For example, people between the ages of 35 and 44 were the most likely to fully trust mechanics, but that was largely because men in that age group were particularly trusting of mechanics; women 35 to 44 said they trusted mechanics at about the same rate as women of all ages.
Fix, an ASE-certified technician, said mechanics are aware of our suspicions and are trying to mitigate them. But she would like to see more trust in their expertise.
"It's like going to the doctor, and they say you're sick. And they can say you have 'fill in the blank.' And you have to believe them," she explained.
"If I told you you had a broken arm, I would put an X-ray up on the X-ray machine, I would point to where the bone is damaged, and then we'd discuss it."
Approximately 80% of survey respondents said they feel like they'd been overcharged by mechanics in the past.
45% of people said they feel overcharged sometimes, but 35% said they always feel like their mechanics are trying to rob them.
Only 17% of people said they thought their auto services were always fairly priced.
