REPAIRMEN MAY GYP YOU-1951
"For six months," says The Neiv York Herald Tribune, "the two authors of this perturbing little volume made a nationwide investigation of the higher nature, if any, of the American repairman. Buying a used car of distinguished make, they engaged the assistance of a lady who looked more helpless than she was, and traveled 19,000 miles, with 1,700 calls on repair shops." "And no one," adds the Boston Post, "could ever pass this book with indifference Whatever your experience with repairmen may have been, you'll find its counterpart here. You will point it out with great satisfaction, and you'll say: 'There! That's exactly what happened to me once.' And you're lucky if it has happened only once. The Post can't think of any subject for research that touches more people. Buy this book, and you will get your money back, over and over, in amounts saved through your wisdom." "There are some amusing stories in it," says the Baltimore Sun, and the Washington Post thinks that the funniest were "the authors' experiences with the Rube Goldberg testing machines used by some shops to impress customers." "The articles in The Reader's Digest were interesting," remarks the Springfield Republican, "but they left room for doubt. The book, however, with details of the almost laboratory caution used by the authors in making their tests, is alarmingly convincing."
"For six months," says The Neiv York Herald Tribune,
"the two authors of this perturbing little volume made a
nationwide investigation of the higher nature, if any, of the
American repairman. Buying a used car of distinguished
make, they engaged the assistance of a lady who looked
more helpless than she was, and traveled 19,000 miles, with
1,700 calls on repair shops."
"And no one," adds the Boston Post, "could ever pass
this book with indifference Whatever your experience with
repairmen may have been, you'll find its counterpart here.
You will point it out with great satisfaction, and you'll say:
'There! That's exactly what happened to me once.' And
you're lucky if it has happened only once. The Post can't
think of any subject for research that touches more people.
Buy this book, and you will get your money back, over and
over, in amounts saved through your wisdom."
"There are some amusing stories in it," says the Baltimore
Sun, and the Washington Post thinks that the funniest were
"the authors' experiences with the Rube Goldberg testing
machines used by some shops to impress customers."
"The articles in The Reader's Digest were interesting,"
remarks the Springfield Republican, "but they left room
for doubt. The book, however, with details of the almost
laboratory caution used by the authors in making their tests,
is alarmingly convincing."
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Under those circumstances,<br />
INTRODUCTION 9<br />
the public ought to<br />
deal wisely with the repairman, and the repairman<br />
capably and fairly with his public.<br />
The "capably"<br />
is far more important than the<br />
"fairly." If the repairman gyps his customer out of<br />
a dollar or two on a simple overcharge, that's that;<br />
it isn't admirable, but it isn't serious. But if he says he<br />
has repaired a car, asserts that he has packed the<br />
wheel bearings and checked the brake fluid when he<br />
has not, then he sends the motorist out on the road<br />
with confidence in a car that does not deserve it.<br />
Worse, he lays that car open to danger of serious<br />
further damage, even disablement.<br />
Pursue the chain of events from factory-to-scrapheap<br />
where most cars land too soon.<br />
When an automobile gives its owner repeated<br />
trouble, he trades it in. The second owner has more<br />
trouble, and the third, still more. The "blue book"<br />
value of the car grows less and less, falling much<br />
faster than should be the real worth of that piece of<br />
rolling stock.<br />
is<br />
Finally, in six or eight years,<br />
another automobile<br />
in the junk yard. It should still be a fine machine,<br />
which might even yet have been serving its original<br />
owner.<br />
There was a time when owners of "old model"<br />
automobiles, especially well-cared-for, were laughed<br />
at. But today these cars of ancient vintage are in<br />
great demand, are driven pridefully, and are often<br />
worth more money if old enough than new ones of<br />
the same make. America has many really exclusive
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