Gerardo's Foreign Car Service

Shorter Version: Great service and great follow up. They went the extra mile and out of their way to save me money and headaches. Absolutely incredible experience, and I will be going there for the rest of my residency in the Hub south of Our Fair City. Only downside: closed weekends. Beholds the Epic: I knew I needed a belt replaced on my '99 Sable, and since I don't have a driveway at my new place, I can't exactly change it in the street. The car had its door taken off last year, so I called the body shop to see who they recommended. He answered "Gerardo's" in about half a second. After being screwed over by my last mechanic (put turned brakes on and told me they were new)I asked around about them. Awesome word of mouth, so I decided to go see. I bring the car by Thursday morning and spoke to Mike, one of their 16 ASE mechanics. I tell him to change the belt and take a look around, see what repairs it might need in the next year or two, and give it a tune up. Then, they gave me a ride home! Talking with the driver, he tells me he has driven people out past Newton before. Great sign so far. Several hours later, I get the call: it is looking at $3800 worth of repairs. The shocking part is that was a reasonable price considering what it needed: both front ball joints, both front inner and outer struts, brake pads/rotor all around, calipers, wiring, plugs, hoses, belt, and a partridge in a pear tree. As the car is worth around $3100, I am clearly distressed, especially since I told him already to do the tune up, which is expensive on a 13 year old car with 100k miles. Turns out, even though I told them to do it, as soon as they saw how much it would be, they called me to tell me exactly what was going on. He even said at that moment, I could just take the car back and only pay the half hour of labor. I was stunned! A mechanic who turned down money I already told him he could have! Mike took a list longer than my...... arm, and pared it down to the cheapest possible price. But it so happened that the next day was the Bizzaster of Jan '11 (for posterity, 49 of 50 states got snow, including 10 inches here in Boston. Stop laughing Syracuse). Mike calls that morning at 8am and tells me that because of the snow, their truck with parts is not going to show up. As I was supposed to drive to CT the next day, I throw up in my mouth a little. He then tells me "Look, we told you your car would be ready for the weekend, and we won't leave you stranded. I will have Enterprise call and get you a rental for the weekend on us." When was the last time ANYTHING at a mechanic was on them, especially when it is not their fault, but the weather? But lo, behold Gerardo's!