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An independent mechanic looks at your car, in your own driveway, and tells you whether that quote is the real job. Under an hour, written verdict the same day, and you book the window yourself below. Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Brampton and Etobicoke.
The reason people don't get a second opinion isn't that they trust the first one. It's that the second opinion normally means booking another shop, dropping the car off, losing another day, and then wondering whether that guy is straight with you either. This removes all of it: the car doesn't move, the price is published, and the person reading the quote has nothing to gain from the answer.
$100–$250 flat, at your location, the published diagnostic band, agreed before he drives out. No hourly meter, no HST line, no "we'll see when we get in there." And if it turns out to be a job Fares does in a driveway, that fee comes off the repair.
Prefer to talk it through? Call or text 647-450-0406.
Takes 30 seconds. The next screen gives you the published price band and real windows you can lock in yourself, no waiting on a callback.
Under an hour at the car, wherever it's parked, your driveway, your parking spot, the lot at work. Fares reads the shop's estimate first, then goes looking for the evidence it's built on. Scan tool in the port for stored, pending and freeze-frame data. Wheels off wherever the quote says the problem is. Pad thickness measured in millimetres, not glanced at. Play checked at every joint the estimate names. A road test if the complaint is a noise, a vibration or a pull.
Then you get it in writing the same day: what the car actually shows, which lines on that estimate the evidence supports, which ones it doesn't, and what genuinely needs doing now versus what can wait a season. Findings get costed against the published GTA ranges, so what you take back to the shop is a number they can check, not an opinion they can argue with.
A second opinion at a second shop requires you to drive there, leave the car, and come back. Most people quietly skip it and just authorise the first quote, which is exactly what a padded estimate counts on. Coming to the car deletes the whole obstacle. That isn't a marketing angle; it's the reason this exists in this form.
This is the part worth reading before you book, because a second opinion that can only ever say "you're being ripped off" is worthless. If Fares walked out of every visit finding a scandal, he'd be exactly the thing you're trying to avoid.
It happens, and it's a real outcome, not a wasted visit. You get it in writing, you go back and authorise the work, and you stop paying interest on the doubt. Knowing your $3,500 quote is the actual job is worth the same as knowing it isn't.
The most common one. The rotors genuinely are done; the calipers on the same line are fine. The strut is leaking; the two extra "recommended" arms aren't moving. You go back and approve the part that's real, in writing, with measurements behind it.
The expensive one to miss. A noise blamed on a wheel bearing that's a worn sway-bar link. A misfire blamed on coils that's a plugged injector. Wrong diagnosis means you pay four figures and the car does the same thing next week.
He doesn't get told which answer you're hoping for, and it doesn't change what he writes. That's the entire product.
Second opinions often end with real work, that's the normal outcome on a car old enough to be getting quoted four figures. If that work is one of the jobs Fares does in a driveway, and you book it with him, the second-opinion fee comes off the repair price. You pay for the opinion either way. You just don't pay for it twice, and you don't have to go find a third mechanic to do the follow-up.
The bounds, said plainly so nobody feels moved goalposts later: it comes off one repair, booked with Fares, on the same car he inspected. It isn't cash back, it isn't stackable across jobs, and it doesn't apply if you take the work elsewhere, which you're completely free to do, and plenty do.
These are the jobs it can roll into, at their published bands: brakes $200–$700 per axle · suspension $350–$1,500 · CV axles $350–$750 · battery, alternator and starter $180–$1,100 · cooling $250–$900 · oil leaks $250–$900 · tune-ups $250–$700 · serpentine belts $150–$650. Every one of those numbers comes from the same published rate card as the diagnostic band itself.
| Worked example, a real title pulled off a GTA forum this summer read "Dealership wants $3,500 for new brakes, rotors, pads and calipers. Does this seem right?" | Example |
| Shop quote you're holding | $3,500 |
| Independent second opinion, at your car | $100–$250 |
| If Fares agrees, you authorise the $3,500 knowing it's real | answered |
| If it's a driveway job and he does it, the fee comes off | $0 net |
That's the whole commercial logic and there's nothing clever hidden in it. On a four-figure quote, paying a fraction of it to find out whether it's real is obvious arithmetic, and it's the same arithmetic whether the answer makes Fares money or not.
Fares does not take timing chains, timing belts, clutches, head gaskets or internal engine work. They need a hoist, a press and a full shop day, and doing them badly at the curb helps nobody. That list is published on the trust page so you can hold him to it.
Those are also the quotes most worth a second opinion, they're the biggest numbers and the easiest to get wrong. So on those he does exactly one thing, and says so before you pay: he confirms whether that's genuinely what your car needs, so you're not authorising a $3,000 job on somebody else's guess. He will not be quoting you for the repair itself, and no fee credit applies, because there's no repair of his for it to come off.
Sometimes the honest verdict on a 200,000 km car with a $4,000 quote is that the repair costs more than the car is worth. If you end up shopping for a replacement instead, the useful next step is a pre-purchase inspection on the car you're considering, $120–$250 flat at the seller's location, before you hand anyone a deposit.
Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Brampton and Etobicoke. That's the list. A driveway visit with an hour of traffic each way stops being a driveway visit, so the zone is small on purpose and it's the same five cities on every page of this site.
Then he's not coming, and there's no waitlist to join or callback to wait for. Saying that plainly is more useful than a maybe that costs you a week.
What you can still have, free and immediately: paste the written estimate into the quote checker. It reads the estimate line by line against the published GTA ranges, the same reference data used on the paid visit, and tells you which lines look normal, which look high, and which are worth questioning. Nothing stored, no signup, no account.
Take that read back to your own shop and ask three things: what measurement put this part on the list, what happens if I do the safety-critical half now and the rest in the spring, and can I see the old parts. Those three questions do most of the work of a second opinion, wherever you live.
$100–$250 flat, at your location, the published diagnostic band. One number, agreed before he drives out, and it doesn't move afterwards. No hourly meter, and no HST line: Fares isn't HST-registered at his volume, so the flat price is the price.
Then he says so in writing, and that's the answer you paid for. It's a genuine outcome, not a failure, you go authorise the work and stop second-guessing it. A second opinion that can only find fault isn't a second opinion.
Yes, if the repair is one he does in a driveway and you book it with him, one repair, same car. Full bounds are written out above. If you take the work elsewhere, no credit, no hard feelings.
Usually under an hour at the car. Scan, wheels off where the estimate points, measurements, road test if the complaint is a noise or a vibration. Written verdict the same day.
It helps a lot, type the line items straight into the form and he arrives already knowing what he's checking. If all you've got is "they said the front end needs $2,000 of work", that's still enough to book on.
No. Most shops in the GTA are fine and quote fairly, and a mechanic whose pitch is that everyone else is crooked is telling you something about himself. He reads the car and reports what it shows.
Timing chains, timing belts, clutches, head gaskets and internal engine work are on his published won't-do list. He'll still confirm the diagnosis so you're not authorising a four-figure job on a guess, but he won't quote the repair, and he says that before you book, not after.
Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Brampton and Etobicoke. Outside those, the free quote checker still gives you the published range and a line-by-line read.
Cash or e-transfer, at the car, when it's done. No processor, no deposit taken online, no card on file.
Send the quote, pick a real window, and have somebody independent look at the car before you authorise four figures of work.
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