Do you remember the old phrase from an old TV add, that shows a car doing a lot of noise from the tail pipe?
....Midasize it.....!!!!! screams an angry old person . That was add for Midas Muffler Shop.
On my daily living in Portugal, Europe, I was driving in the town of Cascais, a quaint old fishing town turned tourist resort, on the western coast of Portugal, near Lisbon, when I notice that my car was in desperate need to be checked for tires, an oil change and maybe some unexpected problems.
Looking for a service station, I came to my surprise, across an old familiar site. "Midas Muffler Repair Shop".
The first time since I live in Europe that I notice one.
The old yellow site with black letters. took me back a few years, where neighborhood kids, used to yell, every time a car made a lot of noise from a tail pipe. ....Midasized......!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well!...I decided to stop.
I felt a little nostalgia of my younger days in the USA and willing to give it a try to the "old Midas", I drove in.
I was received by a warm, smily and knowledgeble professional, Sergio Pereira, that quickly answered my questions and made some suggestions.
The shop was well clean, well equipped. with a few mechanics working on cars.
As I see "Sergio", a "Team Leader", putting the car on the lift, inspecting the tires and a few other things, my heart starts pounding wondering how much all this inspecting and repairing will going to cost me.
For my suprise he said that my car was in a very good condition, with exeption of the tires and also it was good to do an oil change, since it has been a while since the last time.
As he worked on the car, Sergio invited me to see what he was doing, explaining the reasons and the steps of what he was working on. He also suggested on my driving to put a more economic tires, without sending me to the "Tires price stratosphere".
He also included on the price a wheel "alignment" . check and "top it off" all the liquids in the car, saying that, if I ever need to just top off again, to stop by at no charge.
After all done and paid, I came out feeling good about it without the feeling of "rip off" from a unknown mechanic.
The idea that I found a local service station that can handle my car maintenance gave me satisfaction that still are some honest and good mechanics out there. This Midas shop in Cascais is one of them.