My wife and I were vacationing near Estes Park and our A/C went out in our Honda Accord. It was over 100 degrees down in Loveland and Ft. Collins, so we decided to take a chance finding a fair and ethical mechanic in the tourist town that is Estes. We ended up at Mountain Imports (not worth explaining how), which is located away from the main tourist spots on a street with a bunch of older garages. It looked more like a place for locals and not a tourist trap garage that would prey on people far away from their homes. I explained our situation to Merle (the mechanic or one of the mechanics there), who said he would take a look at it then and there. He wasn't just extremely affable at first, but was definitely sympathetic because although he didn't say it, he was obviously busy at the time (had his head under a hood) and I'm pretty sure had a long line of vehicles to work on. We walked down into town while he took a look at it, and he called us when he was done to inform us that it was the compressor. He said it would take a couple of days to get the parts in, which we didn't have because we were heading home before that, which he suspected based on what we had told him previously. He was much friendlier (not that he was especially unfriendly before) when we arrived back there on our walk from town and regaled us with some applicable stories about driving in the heat. He didn't charge us a thing for his time. It was an unassuming shop with an unassuming, sincere, and friendly mechanic. I would have had the work done there if we were to be there that long, and based on my limited experience there I would suggest others to use Merle and Mountain Imports if they're in need. Anyway, I was impressed enough by the interaction to bother typing up this.
All USA
My wife and I were vacationing near Estes Park and our A/C went out in our Honda Accord. It was over 100 degrees down in Loveland and Ft. Collins, so we decided to take a chance finding a fair and ethical mechanic in the tourist town that is Estes. We ended up at Mountain Imports (not worth explaining how), which is located away from the main tourist spots on a street with a bunch of older garages. It looked more like a place for locals and not a tourist trap garage that would prey on people far away from their homes. I explained our situation to Merle (the mechanic or one of the mechanics there), who said he would take a look at it then and there. He wasn't just extremely affable at first, but was definitely sympathetic because although he didn't say it, he was obviously busy at the time (had his head under a hood) and I'm pretty sure had a long line of vehicles to work on. We walked down into town while he took a look at it, and he called us when he was done to inform us that it was the compressor. He said it would take a couple of days to get the parts in, which we didn't have because we were heading home before that, which he suspected based on what we had told him previously. He was much friendlier (not that he was especially unfriendly before) when we arrived back there on our walk from town and regaled us with some applicable stories about driving in the heat. He didn't charge us a thing for his time. It was an unassuming shop with an unassuming, sincere, and friendly mechanic. I would have had the work done there if we were to be there that long, and based on my limited experience there I would suggest others to use Merle and Mountain Imports if they're in need. Anyway, I was impressed enough by the interaction to bother typing up this.