Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

My mechanics are idiots.....and I say that with the utmost care and concern.

I dropped my car off this morning because the temperature gauge is ping-ponging back and forth between cold and the halfway point...something that was supposed to have been fixed when I took it in previously.

I left a descriptive note on the work order when I dropped it off stating how if the heater is off it starts fluctuating rapidly between these two points.

I get a phone call about an hour later asking if I was still getting that gas smell in my car and was that why I brought the car in.

I tell the guy no that is not the problem and explain the problem to him. He says "okay" and ends the call.

1:30 p.m. I call to check on the car. Am told that they can't get it to overheat and that its been running for awhile now in the bay.

Explained again that it isn't overheating, but the temperature gauge bounces around when the heater is turned off. I ask if he has the heater on. Pause....."uh, yeah" from the mechanic. He tells me he'll turn off the heater and run it and then call me back.

4 p.m. call again since I haven't heard anything and am told by different mechanic that the temperature gauge is sitting solid as a rock and he (basically) insinuates that we dumb females can't tell the difference between a car that works and one that doesn't (he didn't say it but at this point that's what I got from the tone in his voice). He then asks what I did to make it bounce around.

Calmly I tell him all I did was turn off the heater and that it was doing the "temperature bounce" this morning in the one-mile drive to his garage. I politely ask if they've turned off the heater.

Nope....they hadn't. But he followed it with a "well it doesn't matter anyway 'cause your car ain't overheating".

Ain't overheating ain't the point dude...I want a car that accurately tells me what the temperature is on my car. This way if it starts to overheat for real then I have a little advance warning. I want them to check the dang gauge or electrical issue you think might be causing the problem, let me know how much its going to cost me and then FREAKING FIX IT....am I asking too much here?

By this point I am seriously wondering if fumes have permanently damaged every brain cell in that garage but I nicely asked if this means I won't have my car back until tomorrow.

This time I know he was getting frustrated with the silly little female because, really slow, he says "well we ain't done here for the evening. I'll take it for a test drive without the heater and see if we can get it to do what you're saying its doing and then we can see what you want us to do about it." He pauses and then continues (my ears want to say the tone was sarcastic but they were probably biased by this time)"but with everything else you want us to do ma'am with the oil change, tune up and emisions and all there's no way we'll have all of that done for you tonight".

Ugh.

Idiot. Insensitive jerk. How am I supposed to know they had dinked around and not gotten any of those other things done yet?

I need a new mechanic.