Our family was so excited to take a trip to Utah this summer. It’ was definitely a loooooong drive- at least 20 hours each way- but so worth it!! We drove our Yukon. It’s a 2004, so before leaving we got a complete tune up. The brakes were fine so we weren’t in need of a brake job. Thankfully it is easy to find a Dallas auto repair shop thanks to sites like repairpal.com.  It’s so important to make sure the car is in great “shape” before taking a long trip. W had the belts changed and spark plugs, etc… to make sure it was ready to go. I love my Yukon and I am so thankful to have that much room for our big family. And it has so much power- kinda like an Chevrolet Silverado.  I LOOOOOVE having that power. I love to merge on the highway and leave slow cars in the dust. haha Driving 20+ hours doesn’t sound 1/2 bad with my car.

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So about 2 weeks ago I was on my way to Dallas when my Yukon started making this funky noise. It sounded like something just grinding as I drove. Not good. We went to get whatever it was fixed. Honestly I can’t even remember what it was exactly, other than something was wobbly, it was a good thing I got home ok and it cost $500 to fix. Yuck. We were saving money to get a tune up before we go to Utah this summer. I guess we better start saving again. lol

Thankfully we knew a great, honest repair shop here in town because we take our cars there when it’s time for an oil change. But sometimes that is not the case. That’s why repairpal.com is a great site. That site gives you independent and unbiased repair estimates, user ratings and reviews, plus advice you can’t get anywhere else. Say your Acura Integra starts giving you trouble while you’re traveling thru Houston. Houston is ginormous. How are you going to know a place you can trust to take your car? Not all repair shops are equal. You can go to RepairPal.com and look for a Houston Auto Repair and even search your make of car for familiar problems. You can find a shop, with real customer ratings and reviews. It’s not paid advertising, just honest opinions from people who have been in your position. You can even get an estimate of what your repair should cost so a repair shop can’t try to screw you. Awesome! And once you’ve experienced a repair shop you can rate them on RepairPal.com as well. It’s a definite win-win!!

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Over the years we’ve had a few cars. Most of them started out as what we thought was “great” and ended up as “ghetto.” Thankfully we have 2 really reliable cars right now that we hope will be with us for years and years. One way we are helping make this a reality is by having a regular tune up on each car.  We’ll be making a very long trip this summer in our Yukon, so a tune up is essential!! Another thing we do is make sure we get an oil change when needed. This is such a simple thing to have done, but some people never do it. That can ruin the engine.

Finding the right auto repair shop can be hard. You don’t know their specialties or reviews. But now there’s Repairpal.com Let’s say you need Houston auto repair. You just go to Repairpal.com and type in your zip code.  You’ll be given a list of shops in your area with reviews as well. Not only that- if you are trying to find info about a particular car- like an Acura Integra- you can find reviews and  information from other owners right there on Repairpal.com. It’s an awesome site.

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