Assumed cost per visit to the shop.

B

bowlofturtle

Joined
Jun 25, 2009
Messages
952
Location
Chicago
Had this discussion with some coworkers the other day. Found it a little entertaining what is an acceptable amount of money to pay per visit. Two coworkers ended up having a little who got hosed more game. I feel I'm out of touch as I'm a fairly decent DIY person and my cost is just parts and lost of a weekend sitting on my rear. Sadly my fleet went from older simple Japanese sedans to two fairly new VWs. So i'm assuming my cost will be going up in parts once the warranty is done.

General guidelines.
1. It is a 8-10 year old car.
2. Common American/import sedan.
3. 75-100k mile.
4. No crazy deal on parts or labor. No dealership or alley mechanic labor rates.
5. Not a BITOG/ DIY/ Car person in general.

If you had a noise/CEL or something along those lines and pulled up to a local shop. What would be the $$ you expect to pay.

My coworkers all came up with $500 expected and $1200 on the upper end of acceptable.

Me personally I feel $500-800 max is what it should cost.

Coworker A, little honda civic. Needed 4 tires, alignment, battery = $850, unhappy but paid and moved on.
Coworker B, Tesla 3, ran over nail. $700 for a pair of tires. Not stop complaints.
 
Entirely depends depends on what I think is wrong. Something like a brake job? I’d expect $500-$1000.

As for the tire examples you used... they’re both reasonable IMO, they’re just upset they had to pay for them. I’m looking at ~$700 for tires on my van. Do I want to pay it? Of course not, but my wife and kids ride in it and their safety is worth far far more to me than $700.
 
$150 battery + $100 alignment + $600 tires = $850, which does not seem out of line at all.

For me, in 2018 on the 2006 Corolla I got a $78 3-year free replacement battery and $380 set of 15” Michelin tires at Costco then took it to a local tire wholesaler for $55 alignment for a grand total of $513 which is a great deal. But that is install the battery myself, and no guarantee on the alignment except the wholesaler’s reputation for doing it right. Still those are rock bottom prices at a warehouse club. Since then both tire prices and installation prices have gone up. Battery prices are also getting ridiculous. For one stop shopping in 2021 by an independent mechanic $850 is reasonable.
 
Getting to be a grand should be assumed for any repair. If it's less then I'm grateful.

Obviously I would not pay a grand for balljoint, it has to "make sense", but shop time isn't free nor are parts.

Thankfully I can still do some of the routine work myself.
 
Price depends on what's exactly wrong with the vehicle, I don't do "Loss Leader" services at my garage so I'm not up to date on Tires & Alignment.

Shouldn't run into anything too expensive given your mileage criteria....But a OE Starter or Alternator can run $300-$400 for the part alone.

Toyota Tundra owners with the 4.6L & 5.7L engines freak out the most when I give them a $800 quote to do a starter......Don't bring it back after you or some shade tree mechanic hacks it up neither!
 
You come in for a check engine light or strange noise...hypothetically without having any clue what it is or could be, yeah I’d say you might imagine it’ll run you $500-$800 bucks, and say, well that stinks. And occasionally be upwards of $1,200 for something worse...and then question it a bit.
 
clinebarger said:
Price depends on what's exactly wrong with the vehicle, I don't do "Loss Leader" services at my garage so I'm not up to date on Tires & Alignment.

Shouldn't run into anything too expensive given your mileage criteria....But a OE Starter or Alternator can run $300-$400 for the part alone.

Toyota Tundra owners with the 4.6L & 5.7L engines freak out the most when I give them a $800 quote to do a starter......Don't bring it back after you or some shade tree mechanic hacks it up neither!
Click to expand...
I always thought something was wrong about the Tundra starter ordeal as yourmechanic.com home service lists the complete job at $497.50...
I always thought that quote was really cheap as with other jobs you can get cheaper locally.

I just checked it now for the V8 Tundra they still list the job at that..
Interesting
 
Zee09 said:
I always thought something was wrong about the Tundra starter ordeal as yourmechanic.com home service lists the complete job at $497.50...
I always thought that quote was really cheap as with other jobs you can get cheaper locally.

I just checked it now for the V8 Tundra they still list the job at that..
Interesting
Click to expand...
LOL. Just wait till you have to do that job Jim. Then you’ll realize why it costs so much.
 
They should have bought the Gen 1 Tundra TRD with the 4.7L engine. The TRD trim came with a heavy duty starter. Have not heard of that OE starter failing in the first 200,000 miles.
 
wdn said:
They should have bought the Gen 1 Tundra TRD with the 4.7L engine. The TRD trim came with a heavy duty starter. Have not heard of that OE starter failing in the first 200,000 miles.
Click to expand...
I love Toyota owners...”have not heard of that OE starter failing in the first 200,000 miles”.

There are ten of us at work that own Chevy Silverados (2014-2018), within a span of two months all of us had our starters fail before any of us reached 60,000 miles. Just dead, left stranded. Mine went at 35,000 miles. Luckily in my own driveway.

And this^^is one reason why I traded it in (and bought a Toyota). Haha.
 
wdn said:
They should have bought the Gen 1 Tundra TRD with the 4.7L engine. The TRD trim came with a heavy duty starter. Have not heard of that OE starter failing in the first 200,000 miles.
Click to expand...
denso offset starters are the best, super universal and adaptable to pretty much anything.

99% of the time when they fail, just replace the “house” contacts and you’re good to go.
 
People shouldnt complain about wear items like tires brakes starters going out.

Especially when many dump money into their car for optional things like tint, stereos, detailing/coating, lift or lowered suspension.

It costs what it costs. You are paying for parts, labor, business overhead, profits, ect. You can’t sit there at your profitable job/business making money and not want others to make a living. Well, if you do, fix your own car and buy your own tire machines.
 
With the economy like it is, a large percentage of people are already upset when they pull into an auto repair shop. Then the sticker shock of tires, batteries and the like hit them when they are quoted a price. Automotive goods such as these have really gone up the last couple of years. and the average car owner only buys a battery or set of tires every 2-3 yrs.
Example: I bought a new (not reman. starter for 03 Accord in March 2017. Price was approx. 130$ without any discounts (and a $10 core charge as I recall). This same starter is now approx. $180 with $10 core charge (with no discounts of any kind applied) on their web site. That's an increase of almost 30% in 4 yrs.
 
2EHA said:
denso offset starters are the best, super universal and adaptable to pretty much anything.

99% of the time when they fail, just replace the “house” contacts and you’re good to go.
Click to expand...
I 100% agree....Too bad Toyota doesn't use that style on the UR V8's, They use a Planetary Reduction "mini" Starter like most other manufacturers.
 
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