Bargain brake job at $4.5K

Pew said:
Could be worse.

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Out of curiosity, I looked at Rock Auto. Surprising to me they had the OE rotors and pads for my 2019 ZR1. Shipped they would be just over 9.5k.


As far as shop or parts prices, people need to do their due diligence for any vehicle they're considering. Shops need to make a profit to be able to stay in business. If you can't or don't want to work on your own vehicles, you need to figure that into the cost of ownership.
 
02SE said:
Out of curiosity, I looked at Rock Auto. Surprising to me they had the OE rotors and pads for my 2019 ZR1. Shipped they would be just over 9.5k.


As far as shop or parts prices, people need to do their due diligence for any vehicle they're considering. Shops need to make a profit to be able to stay in business. If you can't or don't want to work on your own vehicles, you need to figure that into the cost of ownership.
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I learned that early; the evo was my first car and I was glad I did it young enough to be able to absorb the financial hit and had time to recover. My focus after that....an entire set of tires was less than 1 for that car lol.
 
When Jay Leno bought his McLaren, he said he wanted carbon fiber brakes. It was the salesman who talked him out of getting them. He said if you're not going to track the car, and it's only going to see the street, get the steel brakes, they'll work better when they're cold, and you will save yourself $20K.
 
I know a truly wealthy guy and asked why he did not buy his wife the AMG version G Wagon and he simply said maintenance is not a worth it on those cars once was enough. He has Lamborghini Hurican and Porsche 911 Spyder in his garage up on lifts too.
 
billt460 said:
When Jay Leno bought his McLaren, he said he wanted carbon fiber brakes. It was the salesman who talked him out of getting them. He said if you're not going to track the car, and it's only going to see the street, get the steel brakes, they'll work better when they're cold, and you will save yourself $20K.
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The funny thing is a lot of people with carbon ceramic brakes, who do track their cars, often swap them out for steel ones because of the replacement/wear costs. Girodisc is usually their go-to.
 
02SE said:
Out of curiosity, I looked at Rock Auto. Surprising to me they had the OE rotors and pads for my 2019 ZR1. Shipped they would be just over 9.5k.


As far as shop or parts prices, people need to do their due diligence for any vehicle they're considering. Shops need to make a profit to be able to stay in business. If you can't or don't want to work on your own vehicles, you need to figure that into the cost of ownership.
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For whatever reason, my brain always goes to a "copy my homework" mentality.

Even as young as 7th grade, I was annoyed by people who wanted to copy my homework. Now, if you wanted to PAY me to copy my homework, that's different altogether. I spent the time overnight to do the work, why shouldn't I benefit??

But the "homework" also applies to researching the job and/or simply knowing how to complete it from experience.

The homework is sourcing parts and ordering them.

The homework is putting together a nice space where you can readily lift a vehicle overhead, compress coil springs, press out a u-joint, press on a wheel bearing, file caliper slides, pull on drum brake springs, easily remove a transmission on your feet with one person etc etc

Wanna copy my homework? You gotta pay. Or do ALL the above yourself -- it's a free country.
 
The_Jeff said:
I'd figure they'd have to overnight it through Rockauto, as any other vendor would also not carry the parts locally.
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I question if Rockauto's warehouses are capable of overnighting anything and by that I mean I order it on Monday and it arrives Tuesday. In my experience, they take 2-4 days just to pick the products and hand them off to the courier. With many shippers, "overnight" just means they will ship it with an overnight delivery service once they get it prepared. It doesn't mean they'll prepare it any quicker.
 
Hall said:
I question if Rockauto's warehouses are capable of overnighting anything and by that I mean I order it on Monday and it arrives Tuesday. In my experience, they take 2-4 days just to pick the products and hand them off to the courier. With many shippers, "overnight" just means they will ship it with an overnight delivery service once they get it prepared. It doesn't mean they'll prepare it any quicker.
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That's kind of where I'm going with my musing-- assuming there's one set of brakes in one warehouse with one guy and multiple ways of prodding him to accept payment and send them out. Whether through a B2B jobber or the "Rockauto system."

It's like being in a very small town with one jerk with one tow truck, and he contracts with all the major roadside service companies. People think they'll get "better service" with AAA, Geico, Toyota care etc but it's the same dude.
 
Well, at least in such a job there’s a high probability that the parts are very high quality.

Although the most expensive rotors RA has for the Acura NSX are $130, so…
 
Are there really caches of these brake parts in every major city?
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I guess this is for someone that's been in the auto parts business, but around here, pretty much all of the big parts chain stores clearly have warehouses nearby. Depending on the time of day, you can order a part and get it transferred to a store you specify or if later in the day, they'll have it first thing in the morning. When it comes to store-brand parts, no doubt those are their own warehouses, but when it's name brand parts, do they all source from some wholesale distributor locally ?

I've seen Worldpac mentioned a lot and thought they were tied to Advance Auto Parts but I'm not certain that's accurate. Do auto parts stores get parts from a place like Worldpac ? What about the smaller, regional parts stores ?
 
D60 said:
For whatever reason, my brain always goes to a "copy my homework" mentality.

Even as young as 7th grade, I was annoyed by people who wanted to copy my homework. Now, if you wanted to PAY me to copy my homework, that's different altogether. I spent the time overnight to do the work, why shouldn't I benefit??

But the "homework" also applies to researching the job and/or simply knowing how to complete it from experience.

The homework is sourcing parts and ordering them.

The homework is putting together a nice space where you can readily lift a vehicle overhead, compress coil springs, press out a u-joint, press on a wheel bearing, file caliper slides, pull on drum brake springs, easily remove a transmission on your feet with one person etc etc

Wanna copy my homework? You gotta pay. Or do ALL the above yourself -- it's a free country.
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+1000

People must think we're stupid. I did a rear brake job (CPR) this week on a 2014? Accord, pretty standard right? I could tell that whoever had done the job previously was a DIY or a hack. Researching, quoting and doing the little things makes a BIG difference and we should be compensated as such.
 
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Hall said:
I guess this is for someone that's been in the auto parts business, but around here, pretty much all of the big parts chain stores clearly have warehouses nearby. Depending on the time of day, you can order a part and get it transferred to a store you specify or if later in the day, they'll have it first thing in the morning. When it comes to store-brand parts, no doubt those are their own warehouses, but when it's name brand parts, do they all source from some wholesale distributor locally ?

I've seen Worldpac mentioned a lot and thought they were tied to Advance Auto Parts but I'm not certain that's accurate. Do auto parts stores get parts from a place like Worldpac ? What about the smaller, regional parts stores ?
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When I order from a jobber, non-stock items usually take an average of 90 minutes to be delivered from a warehouse. In stock items are delivered sooner.
 
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billt460 said:
When Jay Leno bought his McLaren, he said he wanted carbon fiber brakes. It was the salesman who talked him out of getting them. He said if you're not going to track the car, and it's only going to see the street, get the steel brakes, they'll work better when they're cold, and you will save yourself $20K.
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Well, we all make choices.

Our ZR1 was originally bought by one of the race team owners I consulted for. After he passed, his son said he was selling some of his dads collection.

Our '17 ACR was also bought from a similar situation.

As far as I know they only came with the carbon ceramic brakes. They've both been on tracks. But mostly just see mountain drives on sunny days, mid-week when traffic is almost nonexistent. The brakes work great. If they ever need replacing, I'll get the parts and do so.

The wifes mall crawler SUV has carbon ceramic brakes too. Living in a mountainous area, their fade resistance is impressive.

Tires are a bigger expense anyway.
 
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Hohn said:
Well, when you buy quality pads that don’t eat rotors, this is pretty feasible.
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That's why I prefer organic compounds. They're soft and will shed brake dust but your rotors will last a long time. I once knocked out a front pad slap in a Fleenor's parking lot and still made it home before supper got cold. I'm just saying...
 
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