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Here's my take, for what it's worth. I see both arguments, Kevin's and Larry's. But I lean a bit more to Kevin's, for yet another reason: a new mechanic may go into areas which the prior mechanic missed. I've found that mechanics develop routines. They tend to focus on the same items during an inspection, not addressing others. My mechanic, who I rave about, typically ignores avionics and landing gear; I get on his case and nudge him in those directions.
Here's a possible solution, maybe a compromise: get a pre-buy of sorts from two shops. Go first to the A&P who's been doing the work and pay him to sit with you for a couple of hours to list all the squawks over the last couple of years, all the work that's been done over the past couple of years and the areas he thinks may need work soon. Assuming the outcome of that is positive, go do a full pre-buy elsewhere with a Skymaster-savvy A&P.
I did only the former when I bought my current 337G. There were several reasons for this. I'm an engineer. I'm experienced researching compliance of AD's. It was my second Skymaster. I had assisted in the pre-buy, all annuals and most repairs of my first bird. The shop was the OSU FBO (it is owned by Ohio State University and the A&P's are employees of the University, performing maintenance by the book on the University fleet as well as private planes) and in a preliminary phone conversation with the lead A&P I judged that I would get an impartial view.
Of course, since I wasn't going to do a second pre-buy, I did a few other things at OSU, including open various inspection plates to check for corrosion, check all AD's, inspect both engine compartments, check compression, fly the plane and check for oil leaks after flight. If you adopt my suggestion, make sure to have someone technically competent with you when you interview the A&P who's been doing the work -- part of the success will depend on asking the right initial and follow-up questions.
Ernie
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