337-436-0755
2912 Common St.
(between Prien & Alamo)
Tony Naquin,
Owner
Donna Naquin, Office Manager
We are SERVICE ENGINE LIGHT specialists.
We are equipped to do factory computer programming on Ford and General
Motors vehicles
ELECTRICAL
SYSTEMS--COMPUTER DIAGNOSTICS--BRAKES--TUNE UP--ENGINE
REPAIR--CLUTCHES--DIFFERENTIALS--COOLING SYSTEM--AIR CONDITIONING/HEATING
SYSTEM--ROUTINE MAINTENANCE--CV JOINTS
SERVICE ENGINE SOON LIGHT SPECIALISTS
CADILLAC NORTHSTAR V-8 ENGINE SPECIALISTS
CORVETTE SPECIALISTS
POWERSTROKE DIESELS WELCOME
Make sure to check out our high performance site, www.silverfoxmotorsports.com
WELCOME TO THE MID CITY AUTO SERVICE SITE!
For
newcomers, a little about Mid-City Auto Service. We have been in business since
1965, beginning at
We did not just wake up one day and say "Hey...Let's open up a shop and
pretend like we can fix automobiles".
We have been doing what we do for years now and do it because we enjoy it.
Some of you may be thinking "since 1965...I've never even heard of Mid-City
Auto Service". Well that may be a good thing since everything I've ever
read or heard about business says that if you satisfy a customer they may tell
only one person about you, but if they are NOT satisfied they may tell 10 or
more people about you. I suppose if you look at it that way it is a GOOD thing
that nobody told you about us...we must be satisfying most of the people we do
work for!
me they even accidentally wound up at the WRONG PLACE and did not realize There are SIX auto repair shops on Common street alone...It is VERY EASY to confuse one for another if it is your first time looking for us.
So
remember, we are on COMMON
Street, NORTH of Prien Lake, NORTH of Sabine Pools, but 1/2 block SOUTH
of Alamo street next to McDonalds main office and across the street from
Lake Charles Physical Therapy...
We are NOT on Kirkman street...So many people
tell others that we are on Kirkman street, or that we are farther down on Common
Street than we are...click HERE for a map.
Now first there are a
few things you MUST know about automotive technicians, and the auto repair
business in general...
You need to know that there is no "test"
a technician must pass before doing work for the public!
No "internship" they must go through...
No "code" of any kind that applies to an automobile service
technician's or shop owner's ethics...
No "law" that says a technician must
have a certain level of schooling before he can do work for the public!
ALL of the certifications are VOLUNTARY and cost lots of money...
All of the training offered is VOLUNTARY and even more
expensive...
There is no mandatory "internship" or mandatory
"apprenticeship" a technician must go through and pass before doing
work for the public!
There is no law that sets a MINIMUM REQUIREMENT as to the amount of experience you
must have AS A TECHNICIAN before opening up a shop...
Anyone can wake up in the morning and decide to work on cars or WORSE,
to open up an auto repair shop!
Yes ANYONE...and YES there are some that did just that!
MANY have little or NO training...
MANY have little or no prior experience...
MANY have few or no voluntary certifications...
There are MANY shops where the owner or manager cannot oversee
the repair quality because he has NEVER worked on an automobile himself,
so he has no clue if his employees are doing the job CORRECTLY.....
If you have never worked on a car (the right way) there is NO WAY you can be
sure your employees are doing it the RIGHT way!
Just because someone CLAIMS to have worked on cars for years does NOT under ANY
circumstances mean they know how to do it the RIGHT WAY!
MANY have absolutely no diagnostic equipment or service information...
There is no such thing as a "license to practice automotive
repair" that you can ask to see like there is for doctors and
lawyers...
ALL you have is their WORD that they know what they are doing, and MANY
are far from honest.
A real-estate agent is REQUIRED to complete
training before he can call himself a Realtor...But ANYONE can wake up tomorrow
morning and decide to call himself an automotive technician!
You must complete training and be licensed by the state of Louisiana just to give someone a $10
dollar HAIRCUT, but there is absolutely, positively,
NOTHING that separates the first rate auto repair facility from the
guys that have little or no training, no certifications, and few or no repeat
customers!
Plumbers must be licensed...Electricians must be licensed...The bug killer dude has to be certified...You must have a license to own a used car lot...But
automobile repair...NOPE, Nada, Nothing...You can go from shade tree mechanic to
opening a shop in the time it takes the phone company to hook up the
phone!
I have customers that ask me all the time how and when I decided to do this for a living...in the course of the conversation they ask what kind of studies are required and what kind of license you must obtain to work on automobiles for the public...THEY ARE APPALLED when I tell them that neither is REQUIRED, that it's all voluntary...Then they say "Well what about to own a shop?" They are REALLY blown away when I tell them that there is no REQUIRED training or "policy" you must adhere to in order to open a shop!
EVERYONE, probably even YOU just always ASSUMED that all shops
were alike because they all had to pass the same "TEST"...Well there
IS no "TEST", and all shops are NOT alike, and to try to judge them by
looks or location will cost you dearly in one way or another...either monetary
or your very safety!
If you are one of those folks that cannot understand WHY you had to take your
vehicle to 4 or 5 different places before someone FINALLY fixed it you NOW know
WHY... all shops are NOT the same because they had to complete the same training
or pass the same test to be licensed.....there IS no test....There IS no
LICENSE!
Think about this...I could go out and buy an MRI machine, spend thousands of
dollars on advertising that claims I am the best MRI interpreter in a 5 state
area and perform these MRIs just a bit cheaper than the other MRI guys.....Now I
bet you I'd have more business than I could possibly keep up with and make a lot
of money in a very short time.....But there two problems with this....Number one there would be a
lot of good folks caused unnecessary suffering because I do not know a THING about reading an MRI, and
number two there are LAWS in place that prevent someone from just deciding to
open an MRI business without having the required training and licensing!
There are NO SUCH laws preventing someone from
deciding to open a repair facility even though they do not have the training
or voluntary certifications....There is NOTHING to stop some unqualified person
from screwing up the automobile that you worked so hard, or are working so hard
to purchase, keep and maintain!
Do not EVER think that you can tell by
looking at the size of the place or by how nice and tidy it is either...This
would be a HUGE mistake. BEHIND THE SCENES things
that are not visible to the customer, like equipment, experience, service
information, training and know-how
fix cars!
There are many different shops out there and no two are alike, they all have
different morals, knowledge, ethics and skill, BUT their FIRST
responsibility is to use parts of sufficient quality and strict labor procedures
that will ensure that every car they touch is returned to factory
specifications.
MANY shops fail to do this, either by using parts that are not of
sufficient quality, or by employing technicians that are willing to work for
significantly lower wages than a first rate technician demands.
Click HERE
for a very important video on the subject of crooked auto repair. This is from
California but it HAPPENS HERE TOO at the "quckie" type places.
I did not take the time to count how
many auto repair shops are listed in the phone book but I did however think back
over the last 25 years I've been in this business. I counted fifteen, YES, fifteen
auto repair shops that I have seen open since I've been in the business, and I did NOT
count the "quick lube", "quick tune", "fast stop"
or specialty shops, that do only low tech, low skill needed work......and I'm
SURE there are a few shops that I did not think about!
I lost count years ago how many shops I've seen open and flop in the twenty five
years I've been in the auto repair business. Some lasted only one year, others
flopped along for four or five years before their incompetence caught up with
them, and there are some that their days are numbered as you are reading this,
but you have no way of knowing who they are.
When I started in this business, there were only FIVE shops that I can
distinctly recall. There could have been more but only five of them that were
considered to be quality shops!
Now there are more than five on COMMON STREET
ALONE, and most likely 20 or more in the Lake Area.....
The bad news for YOU the CUSTOMER is that there are only
about THREE now that I would allow to work on my wife's vehicle if I
suddenly could no longer do it, and YOU are
left to your own judgment to HOPEFULLY pick one of these THREE,
and you cannot tell who we are by location, size, cleanliness, what the sign
looks like or says, (even if it sports a popular corporate name). Not by how
many times you saw that cool commercial, or some "vote" that only a miniscule amount of the
population "voted" on.... and price has never been an indicator
either...well unless it's dirt cheap...then you can rest assured they are just
trying to bait you in!
It was MUCH EASIER back then for the
consumer to decide where to have his/her car repaired. Now days with SO MANY
CHOICES how does one choose which shop to take their car to?
Location? Reputation? Recommendation?
I suppose everyone chooses a shop for different reasons, but one thing is for sure...There
have been HUGE changes in the way many shops try to make money and this
unfortunately makes it even harder for the consumer to decide. As
if this is not bad enough, it causes most folks to
If you are unhappy with the repair shops you
have had experience with, it is quite probable you chose that shop for the
wrong reason.
If you have been to a FEW repair shops and are unhappy with all of them,
you definitely chose them for the wrong reasons AND you probably have a few
misconceptions of the workings of the automobile repair business in general
also.
Consider this:
Let's say you drive by a shop every day...you've been seeing this
place for months...
They are always busy...
One day the need for auto service arises so you choose the shop that you pass by
every day...
It's convenient...
You were going to drive right by there anyway.
Do you know what the chances are that you will be satisfied with this shop? The
answer is SLIM to ZERO...Why? Because the ONLY thing
you considered was location...You have no clue as to the competence of the
technicians...no clue as to their reputation...no clue as to their
knowledge...you do not know anything about the owner's experience or
reputation...he may have been a bag boy at a grocery store last year for all you
know!....I could go on and on...
There are shops all over this country with a really, really bad
reputation that are still in business and making a lot of money ONLY
because they are on a very busy main road and almost all of their customers pop
in one day because they were passing by anyway...These shops have very
little or NO repeat business, but they are able to thrive due to the
massive influx of unsuspecting customers.
Consider this:
You need to buy a new lawnmower...
But you do not want to pay a lot...so you go store to store looking for which
store has the CHEAPEST lawnmower of the particular brand you want...
Now suppose the employees at this store are incompetent...You cannot find anyone
to help you...
You finally find the lawnmower brand and model you want and then cannot find a
sole to help you get it to the check-out...
You finally make your way to the check-out and pay for your lawnmower, but then
you have to figure out how to get it to your vehicle by yourself and then LOAD
it by yourself...
Now the employees being underpaid, under
trained and incompetent caused you a lot of frustration, but that is all...But
even though the under trained employees frustrated you and made you very angry
the lawnmower WORKS JUST FINE when you use it...there is NO
RELATION between the employees at the store and the quality of the lawnmower!
Automobile repair does NOT work this way! If you pick the wrong place
and the employees are underpaid and under trained your vehicle WILL NOT work
just the same as this lawnmower did! The employees at the shop are DIRECTLY
RELATED to the quality of the automobile repair!
If you pick a shop by price alone you will
NEVER be satisfied with any of them!
You see, you cannot pick a shop by only one factor such as price or
location...you must consider MANY things when choosing a shop! And location
& price should be the lowest on the list for sure!
Consider this:
One of the best ways to choose a shop is to ask a friend or family member who
they use or recommend. This can however cause you to choose the WRONG
shop! How is this possible? Easy...they may be looking for something different
in a shop than you are.
Let's say for instance you drive a really nice car or truck and you are looking for a shop that will do the job RIGHT. Now if your brother-in-law has a car that he uses just to go back and forth to work at the refinery and he just wants it fixed cheap and fast, then HIS recommendation is USELESS to YOU because you are looking for something more than that...His advise will only cause you to choose a shop that is NOT what you are looking for and you will never be happy with them.
So you see if you ask someone, or if someone offers you a recommendation, you MUST ask WHY they go there, and if it is NOT the same reason as what YOU are looking for, don't even waste your time going there!
There are VERY FEW people that are 100%
satisfied with the auto repair shop they go to.....
These very few lucky individuals are satisfied because they are
aware of all the things that I mentioned on this page. I agree, I could
have left some out for the sake of "political correctness" but Hey,
I'm not in business to convince you to like me so you will elect me for
office....I'm in business to keep your vehicle running in tip top condition so
it is in a reliable state at all times, and a big part of that is to educate you
on where you have been making mistakes in doing that!
If you are looking for an honest, and ethical auto repair company that is
willing to take the extra time needed to do the job right, then I invite you to
call Mid-City Auto Service.
Most of our work is done by daily
appointment and we are busy, so IF you happen to get our voice mail
PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE.
I know most of us hate leaving a message, but keep in mind, we are busy, so we
can seldom schedule your job for the same day you call anyway, so PLEASE
leave that message. Calls are returned in the order they are received.
337-436-0755