Shopping around for big $ repairs

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NMBurb02

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Do you guys shop around at multiple local mechanics when you need an expensive repair done or do you just stick with your "go-to" guy/shop regardless of possible price variations?

The reason I ask is that the rear main seal on my Burb needs to be replaced and I might finally give in and have it replaced instead of living with the growing oil stain on the driveway. My preferred shop quoted me something like $800 (don't remember exact amount, I was given the quote a few months back) as it's mostly labor costs due to the need to drain and drop the transmission and transfer case and would require about a full day. I like that shop because they have been honest with me (helping me prioritize repairs, re-used oil with only 1,500 miles on it after replacing oil pan gasket instead of charging for new oil as was in the initial quote, saying that I should just live with morning oil burning instead of paying $500 to replace worn valve stems on a previous vehicle, etc.), they use AC Delco parts, the owner goes to my church, and they do the maintenance/repairs on the church vans and trucks. However, they are a 20 minute drive from me (longer if there is any sort of traffic) and I would have to leave it for a good while, requiring me to move car seats between cars (not an easy process for me as I am anal when it comes to having them cinched in there good and tight - no LATCH) in order to be able to get home when I leave the car.

There is a local shop that could give me a ride home and they are a small two-man shop with lower rent and overhead, so they could be $50-100 cheaper. I haven't gotten a quote from them yet as it feels like I am "cheating" on my main shop. Good reviews on Yelp and they did a good job of replacing an A/C compressor, so I am comfortable with their quality of work.
 
Call a performance car shop. They might be short of work and be willing to do some stuff cheap.

I dynoed my Accord at a shop, and asked how much they would do my clutch for. They said $300 if i supply the parts! [censored] yeah! Everyone else quoted me $1500
 
I paid more than $800 to have the rear main replaced on my Tahoe and my Tahoe is 2WD so it's a lot easier.

If you crawl under the Burb and look at the trans bell housing there is a little circle cover. Take a small flat head screwdriver and pop it out. Take a flashlight and look into the hole at the flywheel. If you see oil on the flywheel gear in the center sprayed out towards the edge of the gear it's most likely a rear main leak. If you peak in there and see no oil on the center of the flywheel gear it's leaking somewhere else.

Good luck.
 
Sometimes having a good relationship is worth something. Sometimes not much.

This isnt quite a cut and dry effort, so the just in case may be worth a bit.

Ive never found a hassle that we werent able to take care of with a little bit of time and minor amount of effort. That includes to get a car to the right shop.

If you feel the more expensive guy that you have dealt with is the right shop, will use the right parts, and set you up for the long run, then thats worth a little money and hassle.

If it makes no difference, why pay more?
 
My understanding is their labor rate may be different, but the major cost difference is when they estimate what is broken and need to be fixed. I once had a shop that said all 4 of my engine mounts are bad, but another that said only 2 of them are bad.

Basically it boils down to whether the mechanics want to spend time diagnose or throw parts at the car when he doesn't know what is broken.
 
You could ask your regular shop to call you when business is slow if they can get you a price break, or if they can take their time around other work.

Up here things get real slow in the winter and sometimes dealers have a 1/2 off labor special. I expect they'd pad it so it'd be more like 40% off but if they go off book time you may do all right with your main seal.
 
A lot of times you get what you pay for. Larger repairs are usually the ones I am more concerned about getting done correctly. I'm willing to pay a little more when I know it will be done right, than pay a little less and use a shop I haven't used before. Could everything be fine? Sure, but you have to decide if that is a risk you are willing to take.
 
Relationships are built on trust, it appears that you trust the shop who performs your repairs, why throw them under the bus for a hundred bucks? If you have the repairs performed elseware your go to shop may not welcome you back with open arms.
 
I'm trying to find a "go-to" guy. I may have with my last visit. We'll see what his quote is for a timing belt to see how his pricing stands up. Unfortunately his shop is kind of out of the way.

If so, I'd probably be willing to pay a bit more if I know he does good work. To a point of course. I'm not going to pay hundreds more for work, especially if it is something routine. But with a 200k car, I'd prefer to have someone who doesn't just throw parts at a problem. Besides, if he is that overpriced, I don't think I would make him my "go-to" guy in the first place.

Plus this most recent guy came out and suggested I shop for my own parts and just have them shipped to the shop. I like his attitude and he seems to know the car from our conversations. My car sounds awful at the moment due to the rattling cat, and many shops would probably seize the opportunity to insist it needs to be fixed "now". Instead this guy told me that I "technically" should pass inspection (no leaks and no CEL) so I should probably give it a shot and if I can't deal with the noise, give him a call. I'm going to fix it, but I like the approach that provides objective advice on the situation rather than trying to squeeze dollars out of me.
 
Originally Posted By: VicVinegar
Plus this most recent guy came out and suggested I shop for my own parts and just have them shipped to the shop. I like his attitude and he seems to know the car from our conversations.


Eh, those are the kind of shops that you must be careful with. A good shop owner should understand that customer-supplied parts has a tendency to cause serious headaches, and he definitely should not be soliciting that kind of behavior. Plus, selling parts is an important portion of a shop's profit - if he's foregoing that opportunity, it really makes me wonder if he knows how to properly run a business....do you really want to trust your car to a poorly-operated auto shop?

As for the OP, you have a relationship with a shop whom you trust. It may be a bit more difficult to get to them, but this is for a major repair and paying the extra coin is worth it, especially if you value a quality repair.
 
I have a local shop that I have developed a very good relationship with and his price tends to be very competitive. I'd rather keep on having a good thing. To put this in perspective, this guy have worked on my Citroens, my Lada, my aircooled Beetle, my watercooled Beetle, and our Pontiac Grand Prix. He's the right mix of good work, price, and willingness to try something new. He will get the parts sometimes, but given my esoteric fleet normally has me get them.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Originally Posted By: VicVinegar
Plus this most recent guy came out and suggested I shop for my own parts and just have them shipped to the shop. I like his attitude and he seems to know the car from our conversations.


Eh, those are the kind of shops that you must be careful with. A good shop owner should understand that customer-supplied parts has a tendency to cause serious headaches, and he definitely should not be soliciting that kind of behavior. Plus, selling parts is an important portion of a shop's profit - if he's foregoing that opportunity, it really makes me wonder if he knows how to properly run a business....do you really want to trust your car to a poorly-operated auto shop?

As for the OP, you have a relationship with a shop whom you trust. It may be a bit more difficult to get to them, but this is for a major repair and paying the extra coin is worth it, especially if you value a quality repair.


It usually happens when the shop knows the price he got you will make you jump out of a window. They rather you bring your own parts and get no warranty than you left forever angry blaming them the high quote. Sometimes they suggest you look in junkyard for hard to find discontinued parts.

This happens a lot to really old cars. The lazy mechanics tell you to junk it and not worth fixing. One shop told me my wheel bearing noise is actually from the transmission, and it is not worth fixing a 17 year old corolla.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: PandaBear

It usually happens when the shop knows the price he got you will make you jump out of a window. They rather you bring your own parts and get no warranty than you left forever angry blaming them the high quote. Sometimes they suggest you look in junkyard for hard to find discontinued parts.

This happens a lot to really old cars. The lazy mechanics tell you to junk it and not worth fixing. One shop told me my wheel bearing noise is actually from the transmission, and it is not worth fixing a 17 year old corolla.

In most industries, price-driven customers are the kinds of customers that a shop should not want. Price-driven customers add little value to a business's client base, as they tend to show no loyalty and are generally quite difficult to work with. BYO parts are a real issue because many of these customers expect the mechanic to redo the job for free, in the event of an early/unexpected part failure. People also tend to bring in low quality parts or the wrong part # for the application.
 
In my case, his response to shop around if I wanted to wasn't in regard to an objection on price, but a question about brand. He had quoted a certain brand, and I asked about another. I don't doubt his brand would work, but I've seen more feedback about the other. My thought was maybe his supplier doesn't carry the other brand, and he'd rather not spend the time tracking down the particular part. The operation seems to be him and another mechanic, with his wife doing scheduling and part ordering.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Originally Posted By: VicVinegar
Plus this most recent guy came out and suggested I shop for my own parts and just have them shipped to the shop. I like his attitude and he seems to know the car from our conversations.


Eh, those are the kind of shops that you must be careful with. A good shop owner should understand that customer-supplied parts has a tendency to cause serious headaches, and he definitely should not be soliciting that kind of behavior. Plus, selling parts is an important portion of a shop's profit - if he's foregoing that opportunity, it really makes me wonder if he knows how to properly run a business....do you really want to trust your car to a poorly-operated auto shop?

As for the OP, you have a relationship with a shop whom you trust. It may be a bit more difficult to get to them, but this is for a major repair and paying the extra coin is worth it, especially if you value a quality repair.


I'd like to find a shop like that. I've been fussy about what parts to put onto my VW, and often want better/different.

My recent strut replacement was done with adjustable struts. When I picked the car up, the mechanic said he wasn't impressed with my struts. He set them to full soft! and thought they were still too stiff. In a year or two I'll have him remove them and set them to more stiff. My fault, I wasn't clear enough in how I wanted them set up... But I have a sneaky suspicion that he reused all the bolts, and at the moment I'm not sure if suspension uses one-time bolts or not. The only charge on the bill was labor.

I think I'd rather pay a bit more and find a good shop. Especially if I can get them on board with what I want (all bolts replaced if it's called for, use the better parts, whatever).
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
In most industries, price-driven customers are the kinds of customers that a shop should not want. Price-driven customers add little value to a business's client base, as they tend to show no loyalty and are generally quite difficult to work with. BYO parts are a real issue because many of these customers expect the mechanic to redo the job for free, in the event of an early/unexpected part failure. People also tend to bring in low quality parts or the wrong part # for the application.


All businesses are price driven to a certain extend. It is very common for a customer to buy from a different vendor when the old vendor couldn't provide what they want at a good price. Also there's huge market in auto parts so it is not impossible for the customer to find parts that work with the car but the shop couldn't get from his distributor, and wasting 1/2 hour to buy just one part for you isn't cost effective.

Also, if you are only choosing customers that are not price conscious, you'll likely not stay in business for long. Businesses have to adapt to what customer wants unless they are doing so well they could focus only on one group of customers.
 
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