Kind of a rant but bear with me.
Why does it seem like *ALL* car repair shops are complete shysters? I know my way around car repairs and rarely take a vehicle in except for tires and alignments (or finish body work) but on the rare occasion I do I'm batting 1000 for them trying to rip me off, often in very obvious ways. I've had Ford dealers out-right lie about things that need repaired as well as grossly inflating the cost (hood switch repair for $300 estimate comes to mind, it was in no way corroded or failing). I've had body shops invoice for parts that were very obviously not replaced. One time I had a shop write for new rear UCA's on a Crown Victoria because the ride height sensor was popped off (it just needed popped back on! Less than a 5min job).
Recently I rebuilt the front suspension on my truck... OK well maybe not quite but I did control arms and tie rods. Took it into a well reputed local shop for alignment- twice. The first time they didn't get the alignment right and it was exhibiting an cocked steering wheel with touchy steering input. The second time they claimed it was normal... Today I had a front end alignment scheduled at a different shop which HAS done good work for me in the past (on alignments). Checking in, the first thing the counter guy asks is if they already gave me a price. When I answered no (maybe I was testing him... I dunno) he immeidately tried to upsell on a four wheel alignment- on my F150! For those that don't know thats a solid rear axle on leaf springs. So I told him this and of course he stood his ground, when I said I feel like hes trying to upsell me an uneccessary service he stated they can do the front end alignment but would have to charge extra for adjustments! *** is wrong with the car repair industry? If they are doing this to me what are they doing to people who don't know better???
So now I can either gamble with yet another shop for an alignment or I can buy/make tools to DIY the alignment myself. I did a driveway alignment once before on a beater and it turned out quite well despite being a giant PITA so maybe its worth it to just invest in some DIY-grade alignment tools... For once I'd like to be able to just pay somebody an appropriate price for the correct repair and not have to worry about crawling around my driveway for half the day
Why does it seem like *ALL* car repair shops are complete shysters? I know my way around car repairs and rarely take a vehicle in except for tires and alignments (or finish body work) but on the rare occasion I do I'm batting 1000 for them trying to rip me off, often in very obvious ways. I've had Ford dealers out-right lie about things that need repaired as well as grossly inflating the cost (hood switch repair for $300 estimate comes to mind, it was in no way corroded or failing). I've had body shops invoice for parts that were very obviously not replaced. One time I had a shop write for new rear UCA's on a Crown Victoria because the ride height sensor was popped off (it just needed popped back on! Less than a 5min job).
Recently I rebuilt the front suspension on my truck... OK well maybe not quite but I did control arms and tie rods. Took it into a well reputed local shop for alignment- twice. The first time they didn't get the alignment right and it was exhibiting an cocked steering wheel with touchy steering input. The second time they claimed it was normal... Today I had a front end alignment scheduled at a different shop which HAS done good work for me in the past (on alignments). Checking in, the first thing the counter guy asks is if they already gave me a price. When I answered no (maybe I was testing him... I dunno) he immeidately tried to upsell on a four wheel alignment- on my F150! For those that don't know thats a solid rear axle on leaf springs. So I told him this and of course he stood his ground, when I said I feel like hes trying to upsell me an uneccessary service he stated they can do the front end alignment but would have to charge extra for adjustments! *** is wrong with the car repair industry? If they are doing this to me what are they doing to people who don't know better???
So now I can either gamble with yet another shop for an alignment or I can buy/make tools to DIY the alignment myself. I did a driveway alignment once before on a beater and it turned out quite well despite being a giant PITA so maybe its worth it to just invest in some DIY-grade alignment tools... For once I'd like to be able to just pay somebody an appropriate price for the correct repair and not have to worry about crawling around my driveway for half the day