We depend very heavily on my car.  It’s the only one we have at the moment so we need it to get Shawn to and from preschool and Dave to and from work.  When you are driving home and the front driver side brake starts making some horrible obnoxious noise my blood pressure goes through the roof.

So off I go to Tire Kingdom (192 and 27 in Clermont) they gave me a quote of $500 for the brakes and rotors and told me I needed new calipers that quote would have been $900.  I nicely told the man that assumes I’m an idiot because I have boobs to put my tires back on.  He proceeds to led me down the gruesome path of what will happen if I drive my car home.  I’m pretty sure he was trying to paint a picture of my son and I horribly mangled on the side of the road all because 1 of my 4 brakes was in need of repair.  Why is it that slick haired morons think I’ll give them my life savings just because a mechanic that barely speaks english says I need to have everything replaced.  My family made sure that I knew a little about cars and how they work so that I' wouldn’t have to fall victim to men that think since I’m a woman I’m stupid.

I do a little research and find out that I can buy all the parts including calipers for about $250.  For that much Dave can learn how to replace them and the rotors, since he already knows how to do the brake pads.  I pick him up and we head to the Advance Auto Parts store where we met a wonderful man.  His name is Pops and he’s a mobile mechanic, he’ll come to your house if you need him to.  Since Dave wasn’t sure about how to properly replace the calipers we decided to ask Pops for an estimate.  He told us to buy the parts (and let us use his discount) and he’d do it for a very reasonable price.  He also said just to buy the pads and rotors and he’d check on the calipers because he didn’t think they needed to be replaced.  This was at 7:30 at night.  He got his friends to bring his mobile truck to the store and fixed my car right there in the parking lot.  He looked at the caliper on the driver side and said it was fine, he greased it and put it back on.  I left there with new brakes and knowing everything was fine for less than $200.

So please don’t go to the Tire Kingdom they wanted to charge me $100 for brake pads which were $45 at Advance Auto $110 per rotor which were $33 at Advance Auto and $190 per caliper which are $83 at Advance Auto and I didn’t even need them.  If you are in my area and are in need of auto repair give Pop’s a call at 352-702-7065 or 352-277-2061  He also has a tow truck if you need a tow.

I’m not getting any incentive for sharing his info, I’m just a very satisfied customer who is glad there is someone out there helping those of us who can’t afford the crazy high prices at the chain stores.