It's happening elsewhere, says Nancy Guzik, who works with a women's outreach program developed by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. Thanks to an increase in the number of female auto mechanics in the past few years Guzik can usually provide a referral. Still, there are only 7,000 female mechanics nationally compared to about 870,000 male mechanics, according to the Department of Labor. The number of female mechanics dropped from a high of 13,000 in 1997 as part of an overall shrinking of the industry. Although Guzik's organization reports that women account for more than 65 percent of auto repair shop customers, Strickland said about 70 percent of her clients are men.
People feel at the mercy of professional garages.
Customers who are not aggressive enough to ask questions tend to think they are not ethical. Good shop owners take the time to explain car problems to their customers, Molla says. Guzik says women tend to ask more questions about their cars, allowing mechanics to quickly find the problems. Asking questions is how Strickland managed her first tune-up. She taught herself to work on her own car more than 20 years ago by running to a neighborhood garage, watching a mechanic do the first step, and then running home and trying it on her own car.