Some savings on big car repairs yesterday

I drive an '01 Kia Optima with 125,000 miles on it. We've been lucky that it's not given us many problems in the last couple of years. We took it in for some regular maintenance about six months ago, and our mechanic told us the rear bearings needed to be replaced. We put it off all summer, because with Michael home, we mostly drove his car. But in the last couple of weeks since school started, I'd really noticed how dangerous the car was feeling, especially if I got on the freeway. I took it in to get inspected this week, and it failed because of the bearings.

I originally took it to Jiffy Lube for the inspection, since I had a coupon for 15% off inspection. Their computer was down, so I thought I'd take it over to Firestone. I decided to ask them if they would take Jiffy Lube's coupon, and they did. My car ended up failing inspection which I thought might happen, and I told the guy what our mechanic had quoted us on the bearings. I asked him if he could beat my mechanic's price, and he knocked 10% off the labor and parts. They are also open on Saturdays, which is a big bonus, since it's a major hassle to take our car to our regular mechanic during the week. Michael and I go totally opposite directions everyday and it's hard to share one car.

So I saved $40 on the rear bearing repair, and $6 off the inspection. I also noticed a survey at the bottom of my receipt, which will get me $10 off a future repair.