I've been using Firestone. Franchise perhaps, but they use real mechanics and they understand hot vs. cold tire inflation pressures.
Same franchise problems of inconsistent quality. We have one that's closer than pretty much everything else to our house, and they're batting about 50% on clueful. (And they're not getting any more "at bats" so it doesn't matter anymore.)
They put a new fuel pump on the Yukon when it died and I had it towed there (closest place, it was two blocks from where it had died, and they had done some other things right, so we trusted them) and it was stuttering and losing power for a week afterward. Not only that, but they looked at it again. They decided the pump pressure was fine (and obviously never drove it) and told me to take it to the Dealer to have them diagnose.
So I decided to take it to a GMC dealership ... without looking myself. Should have. It would have been obvious.
Dealer calls in half an hour -- they didn't use the right connector on the fuel pump. It would have been impossible to seat it fully, or get it to lock, and they found signs that the only reason the pump was running at all was because it was barely making contact at the electrical connector and was arcing all week.
The guy said he cleaned up the connector on the truck, cut off the wrong connector on the pump, put the right one on, and plugged it back in. Click.
$25 including labor. Pretty nice of them. He recommended staying away from whatever shop did it.
Since the pumps come pre-connectorized, it means they ordered the wrong part, and then standing there under a nice lift looking at it with plenty of light, they just tried to cram a square peg into a round hole until it jammed in there, and then when they turned the key it ran.
Same place earlier did a heater core change on Karen's Lincoln LT pickup truck. They were all excited that they'd never done one before -- and told me they took photos of the dash sitting on the ground next to the truck (yes, Ford makes you pull the steering wheel to change a heater core these days) -- which was a big hint.
The leak two days later was the next hint.
Took it back and they took the dash out a second time. Found that they'd bought the wrong heater core.
You see, nearly every part in a Lincoln LT is the same part for a Ford F-150 of the same model year. But... not the heater core. You actually have to look up and use the Lincoln part.
At least they fixed it for free. But that was "it" for the local Firestone. No more time left in my life for training their young techs. They can learn on someone else's vehicles.
