Barretos Autorepair

For me, driving has been a strenuous activity for the better part of the last year. A few weeks after my check engine light came on in January, the engine began misfiring and seizing. Every red light was a gamble. With my hand on the gear shift, I’d sweat bullets with Alec Baldwin’s voice in my head…“It’s f*** or walk…” I have gotten pretty good at shifting the car from drive to park, restarting the engine and kicking it back to drive within five seconds of the light turning green.
Because of the check engine light, I knew my car would fail smog, but I got it tested anyways just to find out all of the components I’d have to fix. I was amazed when I passed emissions and they told me that the only thing I’d need to repair was my camshaft sensor. I looked up numerous YouTube videos on replacing a camshaft sensor, but every video I watched had the sensor in a different place.
I went to Autozone and bought a sensor and tried to figure out where it went. After twenty minutes of looking at all of the areas I saw in the videos, I gave up and figured that I’d leave it in the hands of a professional.
Pep Boys was the first quote. $ 144 for labor to put in the part I had already purchased. I went to AutoMD and noticed that a few shops in the area would do part and labor for under $ 120. The cheapest among the list was Barretos, for a $ 108, part and labor. I gave them a call and asked how much it would be to put in the part I had. After getting passed around a couple of times by polite mechanics that didn’t have a strong grasp of the English language, the boss showed up and gave me a quote. $ 60 out the door and it would take about an hour. I made an appointment for the next morning.
When I arrived at the shop, I met the owner and he went straight out to the car. After skimming through the issue of Elle that was sitting in the waiting area (not because I wanted to, but because it was either that or Cosmo), he came back and told me that Autozone gave me the wrong part. I needed one for a single-​cam, not a dual. He went to the Autozone website, printed the page for the one I needed and sent me to make the exchange. I ended up with a $ 20 refund.
When I got back, even though they seemed to be overflowing with work, he gave me the same one hour time estimate. Mechanics always over promise and under deliver on time, so I gave him an hour and a half. I grabbed lunch (there’s restaurant around the corner on Euclid that makes great pupusas, but they take forever), picked up this month’s Shock Cinema over at Newsboy Book & Video and read a fantastic interview with Stacey Keach at the library before returning to the shop.
My car was parked over to the side, like the work had been completed a while before and the owner was in his office finishing up his lunch. When he said it would only take an hour, he meant it. He printed up an invoice, I gave him the cash and went on my way. For the first time in a long time, the engine ran quietly and consistently.
The service was quick, professional & affordable and the owner is honest. My only gripe was the lack of reading material in the waiting area, but I won’t dock them a star for that… I’ll just remember to bring my own magazine next time, instead.