Howard & Sons Automotive

[EDIT: I’m so sad to see them go. After a long, two-​generation run in Sacramento, they’ve sold their building and are moving on to bigger & better careers elsewhere. Bye guys, we’ll miss you!]
They’re the only mechanic I’ve gone to in Sacramento in the 5 years I’ve lived here, and I’ve been impressed with them from the start. They’ll go above and beyond to get my car fixed right, and they are kind, friendly and honest. They always show me the worn out part they’ve replaced, they call me with an accurate estimate after they’ve done a thorough assessment, and before they do the work, so I can approve it. They will even work with my budget, i.e. If there are several things that need fixed, I can ask them to do only the ones that will cause immediate harm, and put off the others until next month. Oh, and they know who the heck I am when I call them! And finally, Carey and Mike never talk down to me just because I’m a gal, which I’m sad to say, makes them a rarity in their industry.

My car is nearly 10 years old and only has 50k miles on it… yeah, I don’t drive much. Which means I generally can keep the car expenses down unless of course I spend a Saturday «Rally Car-​ing» said car through super twisty Santa Cruz Mountains yelling «holllly shiiiiiit» as I round corners, downshift hard, accelerate, downshift again, hair blowing in the wind, radio up, and BREAK my car. Yeah, «go me!»
Well, that is, I break an Oxygen Sensor (which with most mechanics I’d think was code for «thing that doesn’t exists but we’re going to charge you up the butt for.») And because I have a rare model of my particular little otherwise-​economy car the sensor is just shy of 2 billion dollars (US.)
So. I broke my car. Based on Buster’s comments about Howard & Son’s in a Talk thread I went to these guys. Plus they’re a block from my office. And I’m lazy. I’d rather have someone close by charge me $ 10 more than have to worry about finding a ride, bus, something elsewhere.
Plus, mechanic dude Carey drove to *3 different* places trying to find my sensor (I’ve had *dates* do less to impress) and then still knocked down the diagnostic fee because he felt bad about charging me the 2 billion dollars (US) Nissan Specialty-​SCHWEEM-​You-​Land charged him for the part. THREE different places, each time coming back to try the damn thing only to find it doesn’t work. I could hear the frustration in his voice just now and we both agreed Nissan did this just to be a pain in the ass.
But I can pick it up in 10 minutes.
Not that I want more car expense or want to break my car again… but at least I know where to go next time I play Speed Racer.