Back to the Basics: Strategy-Based Diagnosis
Later that day they showed up to drop off the car, a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta GLS with 72,000 miles (Figure 1). The owner of the car started to explain the concern he was having: “Everything was working great, then one day the check engine light came on and it started to shift real hard and fast. I took it to (shop A) and they said it was either the transmission control module or the transmission. If it was the module, it was going to be $2,000; if it was the transmission, $5,000 plus reprogramming and any wire repairs; or it could need both. I paid them $145 for looking at it, but I wanted to get a little more specific about what it was going to cost, so I took it to (shop B); they had it for a week and said they thought it needed a control module but were not real sure and asked me to take it somewhere else, so here I am.”
