A friend is lending his 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan (< 80,000 km) to his daughter for a few weeks while she (the daughter) looks for a 2nd vehicle.
He wanted to do an oil change before turning it over to her, suspecting the hood won't get opened for the next few weeks. We were planning to do it at my place, but he got a coupon from a nearby chain muffler-and-brake shop advertising a full synthetic oil change for $49.99. (All prices I'm quoting here are in C$.)
My all-in (12% tax included) cost of materials to do an oil change is about $40 for 5 litres of SuperTech and an oil filter, so he was looking at not much more ($49.99 + 12% tax = $55.99) to have the shop do it.
He had the work done this morning, and dropped by a few minutes ago to show me the invoice. Unsurprisingly, the invoice exceeded the expected $56 ...
They sold him a couple of expensive wiper blades as well, and I think there were some other oil-change-related charges - disposal fee, and some other stuff. He was in for over $110.
But the shocker was the stuff they "found" that needed repair.
1. Brake fluid flush - c. $200.
Yes, the fluid is brownish - I would change it on my vehicle. (In fact, each oil change I usually syringe out most of the fluid in the reservoir, so in the vehicles I look after it usually stays pretty clean.) Anyway, he's picking up some DOT 3 brake fluid, and we'll do a brake bleed tomorrow, likely for < $25.
2. Front brakes - They quoted about $1200 (plus tax!) to do the front brakes (rotors, pads, and calipers). I inspected the brakes a few months ago when we did the seasonal tire changeover. They were fine then. We'll have another look at them tomorrow, but I suspect they'll still be fine. The van has only been driven parts of two winters - the rest of the mileage has mostly been put on in the summer. Therefore, I'd be surprised if the calipers are rusty (the usual cause of failure here). On these vans, the rear brakes tend to wear out first. Strange proportioning, I suppose. We did the change the rear brakes earlier this year (pads and rotors), so at least the shop had enough decency to not say they needed replacing.)
Anyway, the $49.99 oil change could have quite quickly become > $1600. Buyer beware!
He wanted to do an oil change before turning it over to her, suspecting the hood won't get opened for the next few weeks. We were planning to do it at my place, but he got a coupon from a nearby chain muffler-and-brake shop advertising a full synthetic oil change for $49.99. (All prices I'm quoting here are in C$.)
My all-in (12% tax included) cost of materials to do an oil change is about $40 for 5 litres of SuperTech and an oil filter, so he was looking at not much more ($49.99 + 12% tax = $55.99) to have the shop do it.
He had the work done this morning, and dropped by a few minutes ago to show me the invoice. Unsurprisingly, the invoice exceeded the expected $56 ...
They sold him a couple of expensive wiper blades as well, and I think there were some other oil-change-related charges - disposal fee, and some other stuff. He was in for over $110.
But the shocker was the stuff they "found" that needed repair.
1. Brake fluid flush - c. $200.
Yes, the fluid is brownish - I would change it on my vehicle. (In fact, each oil change I usually syringe out most of the fluid in the reservoir, so in the vehicles I look after it usually stays pretty clean.) Anyway, he's picking up some DOT 3 brake fluid, and we'll do a brake bleed tomorrow, likely for < $25.2. Front brakes - They quoted about $1200 (plus tax!) to do the front brakes (rotors, pads, and calipers). I inspected the brakes a few months ago when we did the seasonal tire changeover. They were fine then. We'll have another look at them tomorrow, but I suspect they'll still be fine. The van has only been driven parts of two winters - the rest of the mileage has mostly been put on in the summer. Therefore, I'd be surprised if the calipers are rusty (the usual cause of failure here). On these vans, the rear brakes tend to wear out first. Strange proportioning, I suppose. We did the change the rear brakes earlier this year (pads and rotors), so at least the shop had enough decency to not say they needed replacing.)
Anyway, the $49.99 oil change could have quite quickly become > $1600. Buyer beware!
