Sputtered to Massachusetts

At around 4pm Friday, we finally left our apartment in Brooklyn and got on the BQE, heading north for Massachusetts to say goodbye to Kristina's family. Unfortunately, I was getting some really bad sputtering coming from cylinder 2, so I had to pull off in the Bronx somewhere around Pelham Bay. What followed was a hunt for an available mechanic at the end of a Friday workday. I first stopped at one of those corporate mechanics, who told me there was a Volvo guy just two blocks away. I sputtered back on the road, and found a group of guys working on an old Porsche. The owner then gave me directions to a mechanic literally called the Volvo Guy. As I sputtered back on the road, I sputtered upon Lance's auto shop. What happened next warranted a 5-star Yelp review:

I'm on my way out of NYC when my car starts sputtering and losing power. It's 6pm on a Friday so most shops are closed. I pull up to this shop after getting a recommendation that there was a good Volvo mechanic nearby. I talked to Lance and another mechanic who told me where the Volvo guy was. But then Lance says his mechanic will take a look, that he's the "Swede from Jamaica" and can fix a Volvo. After testing a couple things -- including an electrical test which my joke of a mechanic in Brooklyn would never do -- he tells me to take it for a test drive. The sputtering is gone and I end up driving it all the way to Boston that night.

This mechanic, I wish I knew his name, is sitting down drinking a beer when I get back from the test drive. He won't take any of my money, and probably didn't tell me what he did because it was some little thing I messed up during my home tuneup. Take your cars to this scrappy, honest shop with years of experience hidden away off Boston Road. You'll be glad you did.

No idea what happened here, but it was one for the books. We drove to Massachusetts without a problem.