At first it annoyed me, but not gonna lie his posts are easier to read on my phone than the others.Sun will come up tomorrow and… CKN will post in bold too…
DIY auto repair means not having to deal with obnoxious auto repair shop prices
- Thread starter pacem
- Start date
De Anza College has always had a great industrial arts program as far back as I can remember....1970's.Nightmare Garage (what my father called, Wyotech) in Fremont had a good program, if the students took it seriously. When my father taught there, he told me an average of 1-2 students out of 30 would take the course work seriously. Most would disappear after first break. What a waste of tuition.
Ha!
Yeah, I start to walk away when I hear “scripts” like this. “We offer the lowest price in the region” I heard once when getting a quote on tires.
Wyotech's gotta pay for those 4-color ads in Hot Rod magazine (admittedly, less and less as print media dies off) and commercials on Sunday Powerblock TV.
Nightmare Garage (what my father called, Wyotech) in Fremont had a good program, if the students took it seriously. When my father taught there, he told me an average of 1-2 students out of 30 would take the course work seriously. Most would disappear after first break. What a waste of tuition.
99% of the time you'll get a better education for pennies on the dollar (literally) at a local vo-tech. Student loans are questionable and student loans for vo-tech (excluding medical school) are just dumb, but plenty of guys owe tens of thousands for Wyotech
Prices like that are why I do a lot of my own repairs. I have been screwed in the past on repairs and so has friends and family members.
A few years ago a shop charged my son $146 in labor to replace a W spring in one side of the rear brakes on his 2003 Cavalier because they said the spring was broken. They were already in there to replace a wheel bearing on that side which they also charged an additional $146 to replace that. The $146 labor for the spring was a pure rip off on their part because my son had no clue.
A month later when I helped him replace the rear brakes on that car, I showed him how easy it was to get to and replace that spring because we had to remove it to do the brakes.
There are plenty of shops that do stuff like that to the uneducated.
A few years ago a shop charged my son $146 in labor to replace a W spring in one side of the rear brakes on his 2003 Cavalier because they said the spring was broken. They were already in there to replace a wheel bearing on that side which they also charged an additional $146 to replace that. The $146 labor for the spring was a pure rip off on their part because my son had no clue.
A month later when I helped him replace the rear brakes on that car, I showed him how easy it was to get to and replace that spring because we had to remove it to do the brakes.
There are plenty of shops that do stuff like that to the uneducated.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
^^^ Very true. For some, not all.
Even with casual nonjudgmental conversation.
Last edited:
Yes they do. Years ago I bought my 98 Chevy K1500 brand new. I didn't feel like doing the first greasing of the front end and related parts so I took it to the dealer where I bought the truck. I had bought the OEM service manual for the truck so I knew where all of the grease fittings were. After they were done and I went to pick the truck up, I looked under the truck to make sure that the fittings I could see had been done. I also knew that there were two that were covered by the plastic shield under the front of the truck. I could see no signs that the bolts holding this shield had been removed. I went and told the service manager that I didn't think they had greased those two fittings behind the shield and sure enough, they had not done so. To say the least I was not happy about that and the service department was not too happy that I had caught their incomplete work. I learned right there that I needed to do as much as my own work as possible if I wanted it to be done right.
I like it when customers know what's going on and I can speak with them in technical terms.
But it does get annoying when you have the weekend warrior who glosses over details in his mind and thinks "it's just 1-2-3. I could do that in 30 minutes." If it's so simple, then do it yourself.
Don't be THAT guy. Pay for skilled labor, shop space, inventory of specially tools -- OR politely decline and put on your big boy panties and go do it yourself.
Suddenly Step 1 becomes "where is my floor jack?" And Step 2 is remembering how much you hate sliding around on your back in your driveway.
But it does get annoying when you have the weekend warrior who glosses over details in his mind and thinks "it's just 1-2-3. I could do that in 30 minutes." If it's so simple, then do it yourself.
Don't be THAT guy. Pay for skilled labor, shop space, inventory of specially tools -- OR politely decline and put on your big boy panties and go do it yourself.
Suddenly Step 1 becomes "where is my floor jack?" And Step 2 is remembering how much you hate sliding around on your back in your driveway.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 5,914
I’ve done many brake jobs in my life and I doubt I could get er did at 30 min per wheel. Replacing calipers requires bleeding, and replacing rotors requires the bracket to be removed. I’d likely spend closer to 60 min per wheel and I’m not in a race.
Now with a lift and my impact wrench in 2018 I did 4 rotors and pads in about 2.5 hours. If I’m slow so be it. But I honestly don’t see a dealer doing the job mentioned 15 min per wheel.
Now with a lift and my impact wrench in 2018 I did 4 rotors and pads in about 2.5 hours. If I’m slow so be it. But I honestly don’t see a dealer doing the job mentioned 15 min per wheel.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 5,914
You should see a specialty Porsche shop near us. So many cars there’s nowhere to put them. 928s, 944s, 911s, Cayennes, panameras, never seen a Macan, Boxsters, MB, BMW. I emailed the guy and he never so much as responded which tells me he doesn’t need my business. We’re in Phila ans some cars have MD and VA tags.
I’ve asked something along the lines of “I see you are charging X hours of labor on this service, I can’t see how it takes that long, can you explain?”
Gotten some decent answers, like “It’s what the book time shows” and “I won’t charge you more than that unless we find a bigger problem.”
One time while I was getting an oil pan replaced on a road trip, I got quoted 6 hours of labor, which didnt make sense on my Suburban at the time. The owner/service advisor, he said “I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a Chevy guy, let me ask my mechanic who would be the guy to do it…” He comes back and goes “Yeah, I’m not sure why Alldata says 6 hours, he said that’s an 2 hour job tops.”
Good shops, and even not so good shops, are busy here. Lotta high end German cars around here; those shops are always booked.
Shops are crying for help.
Had my 2018 Subaru at the dealer a few years ago for an oil change.. Service lady walked out and showed me the engine air filter. It was kind of dirty, so I told her to install a new one. (even though I had a brand new one at home)
Got the bill. They charged $30 to install the new one. Shame on ME!
Got the bill. They charged $30 to install the new one. Shame on ME!
Win some, lose some. Flat rate techs can lose their shirt on certain jobs. I go to work to make money, not lose it; I'll stay home if that's the case. Especially us who work in the rust belt where you just start snapping things if you don't know what you're doing; think penetrating fluid and a torch. I could hear a Florida tech complaining to his boss thorough the glass when changing a serpentine belt on my Honda because it was a beach car, gimme a break. Take the wheel off, remove the splash guard and get you serpentine belt tool out man, stop crying. I never argued about the price, I paid the shop (already had the belt with me) and still gave the tech a tip. I know what it's like working under a heat advisory in South Florida during the month of July. You gotta pay to play when you can't bring ALL your tools on vacation. It is what it is.
Sorry for the rant.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 5,914
Can you imagine if people did this in the world of IT?
We paid $800k for a system and it doesn’t work. What is amazing is a PM at our co said who is responsible for following up and making sure this stuff works? Crickets. The co told us we are out of support hours, so someone said but it doesn’t even work, and now we need to pay more?
What may or may not be shocking is the co. Is German and there was always 1 person that could fix anything, one. He told us I have fires at cos way larger than yours so I would appreciate it if you give me some context rather than rely upon my memory to know what issue you’re having
Where I’m going is if “the book”
Says 3.5 hours to do the plugs, then a shop
Is justified in charging it. If the tech can do it in 1, he wins. He’s flat rate. This is the real
World so it’s pointless to argue, I can diy in 2 and a pro can do it in 1, so why are you
Charging 3.5. I have no idea where book rates come from but it’s justified.
$800k may have been the cheap bid by far and the next bid was maybe 25% more for good reason. Sounds like a lot of money however it’s meaningless without knowing anything about specifics.Can you imagine if people did this in the world of IT?
We paid $800k for a system and it doesn’t work. What is amazing is a PM at our co said who is responsible for following up and making sure this stuff works? Crickets. The co told us we are out of support hours, so someone said but it doesn’t even work, and now we need to pay more?
What may or may not be shocking is the co. Is German and there was always 1 person that could fix anything, one. He told us I have fires at cos way larger than yours so I would appreciate it if you give me some context rather than rely upon my memory to know what issue you’re having
Where I’m going is if “the book”
Says 3.5 hours to do the plugs, then a shop
Is justified in charging it. If the tech can do it in 1, he wins. He’s flat rate. This is the real
World so it’s pointless to argue, I can diy in 2 and a pro can do it in 1, so why are you
Charging 3.5. I have no idea where book rates come from but it’s justified.
No worries! I understand when you need to pay to play, this was the case here. I was happy with their shop rate and the parts costs, while the man was my age, late 30s, he looked Iike he used an Excel spreadsheet to give a quote instead of auto shop POS system. So when he read off 6 hours, he like me was a bit surprised too. This was out in northern Nevada.
Yes, I later learned when I worked in a shop, Alldata at one point had some inconsistent job times, you had to read thru the procedure to figure out why…
Similar threads
