pretty much what I would've suspected.
I'm glad I did get my car back, but I know damned well they left my key in the car and that's how it was stolen.
Ugh...sorry. It's especially sad knowing you went there for years and now needed to find somewhere else to go. Finding a good--and trustworthy--mechanic can be a challenge.
Hopefully your dad's car will be there in the morning!
It was! Shockingly, this story had the second best possible outcome*. Yesterday morning, Dad called first thing to make sure they'd found his car. They were busy but they called back a little while later; not only was the car still there, they'd already brought it inside for a look. The small lot already had a number of cars in it when we dropped the car off, so Dad was worried they wouldn't be able to get to his car for a while. They offered him two options: replace one of the pipes for $100 (but the rest of the muffler would be going bad soon) or replace the entire darn thing for $475. Dad was expecting a much more expensive repair so he said just replace it all. They also told him his brakes will be the next thing that needs repairing but he knew that already and told them he'll deal with that later. I went off to work; when I got home at 7:30 PM, Dad's car was in the driveway. I assumed they'd fixed it and he'd called his sister to get a ride up to RM to pick it up but when RM called and told him the car was ready, and Dad said he had no way of picking it up until this morning, they sent a driver here to get him and take him back to RM to get his car. It's not exactly close--the drive is about 20 minutes one way--and I'm unsure if this is standard business practice, if this was exceptional service or if RM is just that desperate for money. Whatever the case, Dad really enjoyed chatting with the elderly man who now works part time for RM picking up and dropping off clients. If it weren't for the fact that his hearing is shtye, and Dad's not all that fond of people, I think picking people up and dropping people off would be a good job for Dad...not that he wants to work anymore.
* the BEST possible outcome would've been for the car to have been stolen, for RM to have paid Dad to replace the vehicle and for Dad to get something new that doesn't require a major repair every 3-4 months.
