Ongoing car advice

[RobertInOntario]

My son is one of the top Ford techs in the country. He wanted to have his own shop.
I asked him how he was going to keep up with technology if he wasn't going to Fords schools. The days of repairing a car without all the proper tools and diagnostics are long gone so be careful of the Mom and Pop garage. Many times all they can do is hang new parts until they get lucky, if they ever do.
New cars don't need to be maintained like they were 40 years ago. The engines are sealed better and don't need oil changed as often. Even the air filters don't need changed, and 100,000 mile spark plugs.
Most times an estimate from a REPUTABLE Dealer will be higher, but in the long run it will be cheaper.
Charlie

Thanks, Charlie. In my case, the strange thing was that the dealer was much cheaper in two cases. The local garage quoted $2,000 for a new clutch for the Subaru; the dealer quoted $1,000. The same local garage quoted approx. $3,500 for repairing the cylinder heads while the dealer quoted $1,750! Not sure why this is the case ... maybe Subaru's are so specialized that it's more economical for the dealer to source the parts, or maybe the dealer is using after-market parts?