More on the car repair fiasco. When Tim called from the service department, he said the mechanic working on my car noticed that I had a print-out from AutoZone saying that the car had a faulty 02 sensor.

You see, on the advice of my coworkers, I did go to AutoZone first for the free diagnostic test they offer. I figured it couldn't hurt, and at least I'd be armed with some information before I went to the dealership for the final screw-job. Plus, if it was just the spark plugs, I could replace them myself.

Tim went on to say that the warm-up catalyst thing was in the same system as the 02 sensor (blah, blah), and that's probably why the 02 sensor showed up as faulty (blah, blah, blah), but he assured me that it was really the warm-up catalyst thing that needed to be replaced.

What kills me about this whole thing, is that this guy freely admitted that the mechanic read the AutoZone report.

It was in my car, and he read it.

Keep in mind the "report" this was printed from a cash register, and looked more like a receipt than anything else. WTF?

It makes me wonder what else this guy looked at. I had a couple books in the car, did he take the time (at $70 an hour) to read them? I'm pretty sure I had some Tyme-machine account statements laying around -- hey go ahead, take a look. Actually, that might be how he came up with a final price. I should have left my checkbook in the glove compartment, he probably would have balanced it just to be sure I could cover the bill.

Grocery lists, bank statements, pap results, W2 forms -- if it's left in the car, apparently it's fair game.