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Las Vegas car talk: Keep your car running smooth through the holidays

mechanics
Kristen DeSilva/KNPR
Bobbie and Jesse Moreno at KNPR on Sept. 1, 2022.

Unless you’re getting a new car as a gift this holiday season, you’re doing everything you can to keep your car alive until new and used car prices fall back to normal.

But before you take your car to the shop, you might want to listen to this first.

Jesse Moreno, owner of Genuine Auto Services, and Bobby Gottlieb, owner of 5 Star Auto Repair, have been working on vehicles for decades; and they joined State of Nevada host Joe Schoenmann to help. And their advice might save you a heap of money.

Jesse Moreno of Genuine Auto Services with host Joe Schoenmann at Nevada Public Radio on Dec. 19, 2022.
Kristen DeSilva
/
KNPR
Jesse Moreno of Genuine Auto Services with host Joe Schoenmann at Nevada Public Radio on Dec. 19, 2022.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

With inflation, have you had to increase your labor costs?

MORENO: In our shop, we tried to go ahead and keep it as low as possible for the longest time. But yeah, we're getting to the point now with the increase in demand. And more importantly, just the inflation that we're seeing across the board, unfortunately, we are going to be making that decision I would think pretty close here, pretty soon, where we are going to have to end up having increased some portion.

How do I know I'm not getting ripped off?

GOTTLIEB: You don't have a clue! You really don't. Look at the Google reviews. I mean, that's the best way is looking at their Google reviews and seeing … but, even at the dealer, I mean, sometimes you get not the best work … you would think you're going to the dealer, that you're gonna get the finest work available for that vehicle … sometimes it doesn't turn out that way.

MORENO: It's been my personal experience in life that the best people that I've ever worked with, or somebody that was referred to me by a friend or family. … We have a personal saying that at the shop that says the biggest compliment we can ever get as a referral of your friends and family. And reason being is that if we satisfied you, and we wowed you, then we're obviously going to do the same thing for your family.

What's the best car your can get?

GOTTLIEB: Best is such a wide open word. I mean, it depends on what you mean by best best, miles per gallon? I like Lamborghinis, because I think they are the best looking car. What are you looking for in best?

… I can answer this. And there's one real easy way to answer this is how often I see that make in the shop. Yeah. And that's that's it? I mean, how often do I see that make and model in a shop? And I can tell you, … I don't see a lot of Subarus, Honda second, you know, and that's how I judge.

MORENO: The good thing about vehicles nowadays, although they're made to not last, I mean, they are more reliable. You don't have to sit there and pump away at a carburetor hoping to God that it turns on in the morning. You can stick your key, fire up and you're going. To Bobbie's point, the cars that I don't see very much of that I actually have some faith in as far as dollar to value ... I'm starting to see a lot of Hyundais and Kias, that are really just stepping up their game.

Someone stole my catalytic converter. How much would it cost to replace it with an aftermarket part?

GOTTLIEB: Here's the thing you got to look at, is it a federal emissions car? Or is it a California emissions car? They will be two different catalytic converters. And as far as your aftermarket … Yes, you can go to, and I'm not going to name names, but you can go to aftermarket parts sources and get them fairly cheap.

Does that mean that they will work as well? No, most of the time, when you put in those very cheap aftermarket ones, you will then collect a check engine light almost immediately within 100 miles because they don't have … you got to understand the content of catalytic converter: radium, palladium, all these things are more valuable than gold. So you're not going to get a lot of that material, what we call heavy metal design, in a cheap can.

MORENO: The other thing I was gonna say is, from an insurance standpoint, if you have full comp and collision, you might want to reach out to your insurance company. They'd be more than happy, I'm sure they would cover some portion of the repair at that point. Basically, it's theft of a component on the vehicle.

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Christopher Alvarez is a news producer and podcast audio editor at Nevada Public Radio for the State of Nevada program, and has been with them for over a year.
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