Dealership Cost... What do you think?

[PF52]

And this is a 4 banger?

Yes, but as was mentioned earlier they're located down low on the sides of the engine, tight up against the frame rails and you have to remove the battery and intake tubing just to make a little more room, which is why the OP is steering away from doing it himself.

 

[HowAboutThis]

All in all probably not a bad deal until they start quoting 10 other things that they wanna replace. My dealer charges $99 for a brake fluid flush and routinely have a %15 off coupon. Cvt flush has that same coupon and they charge $199. The service manager straight up said that it’s an opportunity to look the vehicle over that usually leads to bigger jobs. I did use them for the brake fluid flush one time only. It’s a good deal but, they gave back our car with air in the system and I lost half my pedal.

They typically haven't been bad about this. They mentioned last time it'd been 2 years since brake fluid replacement which I believe is in the Subaru maintenance guide. I said I have always done 3-4 years and never had an issue over the years of vehicle ownership. That's about as bad as it gets. They recommend what I've done myself or that I've missed by the time that pops up in their system for mileage and date. So they're doing their jobs to the letter of the maintenance book. That's been my experience and I don't mind that. I just say "no, already did it" or "I push that time a bit longer but I'm make a calendar reminder for next spring along with other items I plan to get done." My brakes were down but had a tiny bit of life. For scheduling convenience on our side, I said to replace them even though they had probably 10k of life left. And they marked them yellow and said most likely by next year. They offer window rain repellent and random stuff like that, but slip it on "car wash and rain repellent after today?" and I reply "car wash only please, unless the rain repellent is free." It's not.

 

[D1dad]

Rain repellant lol. That’s a new one. Reminds me of the warranty option on just about anything from harbor freight. I’d like to think my dad put an end to that. He slowly drained his pond with a a 1/2hp sump pump that he purchased the warranty on lol. After the 6th pump, they gave him his money back.

 

[CKN]

Rain repellant lol. That’s a new one. Reminds me of the warranty option on just about anything from harbor freight. I’d like to think my dad put an end to that. He slowly drained his pond with a a 1/2hp sump pump that he purchased the warranty on lol. After the 6th pump, they gave him his money back.

So basically he bought a tool that wasn't adequate for the job and had Harbor Freight pay for it-over and over again.

 

[Mechanician]

So basically he bought a tool that wasn't adequate for the job and had Harbor Freight pay for it-over and over again.

Merica!

 

[HowAboutThis]

Update: had the work done. Popped the hood and brake fluid looked clean. Coolant in the reservoir was MAYBE up to the L. Looked slightly below. I asked if they could at least fill to between the two marks at cold since it was about 90° when they filled it and anything below that will probably drop it even lower. They overfilled it because the no spill adapter on the gallon stuck open. So then they had to drain it. I also noticed the tire with the plug in it hadn't been rotated so mentioned that. I asked for the service manager. He watched the shop video and didn't see a rotation occur while I sat in his office even though it was marked as completed. We had a nice chat and some laughs. While actually rotating the tires lug studs snapped and they replaced them. So kinda karma

I was very kind and mentioned I'd hope it was an honest mistake, we're all human, and that I keep an eye out for things like this when I'm paying for work and hadn't had issues before. The service advisor provided a reasonable solution to my time being wasted, in my opinion, and they corrected the issues.

Bad apples everywhere, if you own up to it I can forgive unless it's every time.

Anyway, car idles with almost no vibration now. Guessing the new plugs?

 

[JHZR2]

I like our local Subaru dealership. They seem honest and do good work. Just scheduled all the work below for $1470.

Brake fluid flush, tire rotation, coolant exchange, spark plugs, PCV replacement, transmission fluid drain and fill, differential drain and fill.

I still haven't found an independent shop that charges less and the dealer uses OE parts and fluids

I know you’re done with the job… but it seems like a lot. Markups on OE fluids are probably worth $100-200 of that, since you have two gallons of coolant, probably about the same amount of atf, and maybe a total of a gallon of diff/transfer case fluids.

Just markup.

Some dealers are excessive on cost because they give coffee and donuts. Reality though is that labor is expensive regardless of if it’s a dealer or a shop.

Usually I’d agree OE parts. Spark plugs I’d generally be less hardline on. I bet there’s $20 in markup just on those four plugs.

So is this a $1470 job? Doesn’t seem like you’re getting good value for a lot of simple tasks. But at OE fluid and parts markups, it’s a $1470’job, otherwise it’s a $1200 job, which is still $$ for what it is, but it likely is 3-4 hours of work. If you can diy some next time, I would.

 

[Dave Hess]

Seems a bit high to me. Maybe not too bad I suppose. At my dealership it’s 1 hour for coolant service so $150, brake flush is 1 hour so $150x 2 so $300. Tire rotation is .4 hours but it’s menu priced at $32. Spark plugs depend on which engine and the service time it calls for usually 1.7 hours on most cars. Transmission fluid and diff fluid is usually 1 hour. PCV it depends on the engine usually.

Do you work on cars for money outside of your job ?

 

[AutoMechanic]

Do you work on cars for money outside of your job ?

Occasionally but most of the time I don’t. Just depends what it is and if I have time.

 

[Johnson Johnson]

I like our local Subaru dealership. They seem honest and do good work. Just scheduled all the work below for $1470.

Brake fluid flush, tire rotation, coolant exchange, spark plugs, PCV replacement, transmission fluid drain and fill, differential drain and fill.

I still haven't found an independent shop that charges less and the dealer uses OE parts and fluids

If the nipples are wet and the fitters and fluids changed I'd have no issue with that, if....

 

[andrew_j]

I think the shop is making a ton of money because they overlap tasks but charge labor rate as if they did one after another.

You are happy and they are really happy you bundled it so they make way more money .

 

[Owen Lucas]

At Honda that would be 1/2 the cost for my CRV