of all the timing, right, literally two weeks after moving into my new place near al nahda my charger decides its transmission wants to start acting weird, figures that's how it would go. it's this rough shift thing happening specifically between second and third gear, kind of a hard clunk you can actually feel through the whole car, not every single time but often enough now that i genuinely can't keep telling myself it's nothing and just ignore it anymore. i don't really know anyone in this area yet since i just relocated for work about three weeks ago, so i don't have that usual thing where you ask a neighbor or a coworker who they personally trust for car stuff, i'm basically starting from zero here trying to figure out who's actually good versus who's just going to take my money and hope for the best while i have no way of knowing the difference. called my old mechanic back in my previous neighborhood just to get his opinion over the phone and he said based on what i was describing it could possibly be a valve body issue, but he was honest that he obviously can't confirm anything without actually seeing and scanning the car himself, and driving all the way back across the city to him kind of defeats the whole purpose of having just moved closer to work in the first place. so last night i ended up spending a good hour or so searching around for options actually near where i live now, and came across some information about a reliable dodge transmission service near al nahda sharjah that specifically mentioned working on american vehicles rather than just handling general repairs for whatever comes through the door, which felt like a decent sign considering these dodge transmissions aren't exactly the most common thing local mechanics around here deal with on a daily basis. has anyone else gone through that slightly stressful phase of moving somewhere completely new and having to find a trustworthy mechanic basically from scratch, especially for a car brand that isn't super common in the area, and how did you actually go about vetting someone before committing your money to them without any real local reference to lean on. genuinely just trying to avoid getting taken advantage of while i'm still new here and don't have anyone local i can call up for a second opinion before making a decision.