Headed "downtown"

Billy Joel expressed my sentiments best back in 1983 when he exclaimed:

Im gonna try for an uptown girl
Shes been living in her white bread world
As long as anyone with hot blood can
And now shes looking for a downtown man
That's what I am.

After my visit to Uptown Fender and Body on 26th Street in Oakland, I am truly in the market for a downtown man. Er, a downtown body shop.

The quote I received today for described damage was $2300. Ouch! I can't imagine what the price would be if anything other than the exterior had been damaged. Unfortunately, in the world of auto body repair, it's the man-hour estimate that will drain the bank. The availability of cheap replacement parts, though a blessing, in fact distorts the actual price of simple and routine auto body repair. Aside from parts, I was told it would take between 20 and 25 man hours (at $70 an hour!) to complete all the painting, buff work, repositioning, and smoke breaks needed to get the Civic into relatively excellent condition.

I am headed to a competitor of Uptown tomorrow, a placed called La Loma (which translates to "The Body"), to acquisition a counter-quote to Uptown's offer (if I can even consider it an "offer"). I assume the enterprise is headed by a group of highly-skilled Latino auto craftsmen. At least, that is what I can hope for. I've decided that I will go with them if they offer near-similar services and can do it for below $1900. That is La Loma's cut off. I've heard too many good things about Uptown to not use them to save a measly $400.

I hate cars....and having two of them that I rarely drive is most annoying.