Common car repairs & tips your mechanic won't tell you about

Don't let the repair shop squeeze extra money out of you. Here are three common things they may not want you to know about your car:

Simple repairs can be done at home.
You're already changing your oil and doing other basic maintenance. You know your way around under the hood better than the average car owner, and you like to do things yourself. So why pay a professional mechanic $85-plus an hour to do repairs that sound an awful lot more complicated than they are? A basic repair manual (from, say, haynes.com*) can show you how to do most simple repairs, and the $25 price for the book is a lot less than most repair bills.
You can get parts for cheaper.
The internet has provided penny-pinching do-it-yourselfers access to thousands of auto parts at significant discounts. Sometimes, the part your car needs will be cheaper if you order it yourself than if your mechanic gets it for you. Twenty five percent savings is not uncommon.
There is a point when it's better to cut your losses on an old clunker and buy a new car.
If you're dumping upwards of $300/month (average) into your old car, it may be time to replace it. Perform an evaluation of your vehicle; determine what future maintenance costs will or could be; find out how much your car is worth; determine how much a new car will cost you every month. (In fact, this is a good exercise to include an older child in-finances are abstract, but a broken car versus a new car is very concrete, and the lessons are valuable.) If the cost of repairing the vehicle is more than that of buying a new one, then you have your answer.