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Car repairs are such a SCAM!
UGH!
The A/C Compressor in my car needs replacing. It went out last summer (right before that week of 90s in August!) and I've managed to survive without it - but I will not survive an entire summer . . . even if it is cooler this summer, my car is black with black leather interior and any day abovet 75 turns it into an oven. Not fun.
Anyhow - When it went last year, I was told by a dealership repair shop that the fix would be at least $1200. Talking to a co-worker, he said that an independent repair shop should be able to do it for $600.
So today I decided to call around. called two independent shops and one quoted me $1200 - worst case scenario - but the part alone was supposedly $800, then labor and other parts and freon flush and all sorts of other charges . . .
Called another shop and was quoted less than $700 all in! I asked about some of the other itemized things I was quoted from the previous shop and the guy told me that those things don't usually need replacing (first shop told me I had to replace it to keep the warranty - what warrranty???) or were already included in the price.
Sooooo ridiculous! I have one more shop to call (the one we usually go to) but already I am pissed off that shop #1 and the dealership quoted me almost DOUBLE what shop #2 quoted. All I can figure is that they are using the "name brand" replacement compressor - from Subaru - but from what I've read, you can use a generic/non-NB one and it is just as good. Since we really don't plan to keep my car for too much longer and it is hardly worth anything, generic is fine be me!!
Re: Car repairs are such a SCAM!
I just had a similar issue. My power steering pump went out and the dealership quoted me $260 for the pump plus and hour of labor at $70. I called NAPA to check on the price of a part - remanufactured - and it was $65. Since it was likely the dealership wouldn't be too excited to use reman stuff I took it to a small garage (local Cenex station) and they charged me $60 for an hour of labor to put it in. Save me $200!!
Also speaking of replacing parts that aren't necessary - have you ever been told your air filter needs changing? Between DH and I, I think its happened five times. Once DH SAW THEM take a fake airfilter off the shelf and come up front to the waiting area to tell him his filter needed replacing. Unfortunately, I fell for it once
.
IT SUCKS!!!
I feel like we (the general public) are in a corner sometimes because we simply don't know any better and rely on them (auto repair folks) to take care of things somewhat honestly. Every time DH takes one of our cars in for an oil change, they try to scare him into a repair. He fell for it the first few times, but quickly wised up that they wave the red alarm flags for the slightest little (non)issue.
My father installed new struts for me at Christmas and I took it into a local chain shop for re-aligning (Dad couldn't do that part) and the shop tried to convince me that the struts needed new pads and the whole job had to be redone for a charge of $400+ - even after I told them the struts had been replaced 48 hours before! I quickly got my dad on the phone and handed him to the mechanic - not sure what he said but after talking to my dad, the mechanic backed off on the supposedly necessary repairs. I felt so silly and helpless having my dad talk to him like that, but I KNEW it didn't need the work and they wouldn't believe me!
It totally sucks that they do this, and I think its worse when women go in for repairs because I think all repair people/places think we're naive or stupid...
This post reminds me why I love having my own repairman at home. I don't think my Jeeps seen a repair shop its entire life for anything.
Our A/C is out on our 15 year old Caddy, it went out last fall. I'm hoping DH can fix it, otherwise I told him we're getting a new (used) car. There's no way I'd be without A/C with our humid summers, totally feel you there.
We are sooooo fortunate DH can do all of our car repairs. Otherwise I would not feel comfortable relying on our 15 year old Caddy (217000 miles) and our 7 year old S10 (193,000 miles) for our daily driving needs.
We try and quote both OEM and generic/remanufactured parts if available for the customer to decide. Some only want OEM and some don't care. Also if labor guides say x amount of time and they get it done quicker, we charge the actual time. Yes in a way that is "giving" away money but it actually has increased our business because our customers know we are not taking them to the cleaner.
I had this exact thing happen to me once. My dad sells car parts for a living so whenever they tell me I need something done, I always say no and then check with my dad on his price (he gets things at cost) before we do any repairs. So I was shown an air filter once, took my car home to my dad and he looked at the filter to see which one he'd need to look for pricing on and my filter was white. The one they showed me was blue! Needless to say, I haven't gone back to that place for an oil change since.
We go to certain places for certain things for each car if DH doesn't have time to fix stuff. It really depends. BMWs go to Orr Autosports (spendy but VERY good), engine blocks go to Cylinder Head Service (it's hard to get an appointment but they are fantastic), alignments we request a specific person at Motorwerks.
The best luck we've had with my Altima:
Dave's Shell Station off of Riverside right across the street from the co-op.
However, my DH is a car person and he does all of his own repairs (he's taken apart about 5 BMW engines and put them back together, plus he works on racecars) so I'm pretty comfortable with his suggestion when my car needs work.
He knows a lot of people in the business and he HATES dealerships unless he knows specific mechanics. You pay whatever price the dealership says it is even if they don't take the whole allotted labor time on the car. So NEVER go to a dealership unless you're getting it for free.
You're going to have better luck finding a smaller independent place that's not a chain where they have protocols that they have to go through. The independents see what needs to be done, they call you with a quote, tell you the most important thing to be done and then give you a choice of what you want done - they want your business and so it's worth it for them to be honest with you.
Eep, sorry, that got long!
In any case, if you want any recommendations, let me know - I'm sure DH knows someone!
Thanks for the advice!
I'm going to take it in to Discount Auto Center on Raymond in St. Paul - - it is pretty close to where I live and I believe it was recommended by a coworker (he's a car guy and couldn't remember the exact name, but knew it was in the area). Fingers crossed they are good! They supposedly have a bunch of good reviews online, but then when I was looking closer, I noticed almost all of them had the same posting date . . . . not sure if that is a glitch in the system or if the mechanics and their buddies got bored one day and decided to whip up some good reviews . . . oh well. No harm in trying, right?
Even if the AC only last through the summer, I'll be happy - hopefully it will be my last summer with this car!
Dealerships are crap when it comes to repairs IMO - unless it NEEDS to be done there, more times than not they seem to overcharge.
I wont say the company name since thats advertising but my dad owns a mechanic shop with his brothers - when one of our dentists (our entire family goes to the same office and generally in the same week it seems haha) - went to her dealership they over charged and never actually fixed the problem. my dad ended up going down there and they refunded all her money and my dad was able to fix it (and included normal labor) for less than half of what they charged her. ridiculous.
Wow! I wish I knew your dad - that is awesome of him!
I've already sunk over $1k into my car in a quest to fix the AC. It has been a LONG process and I had it in twice last spring - to the dealership - and refused to pay the second time since the supposed "fix" of the first time didn't really fix it. They tried a few more things then told me if those fixes didn't do the trick, it was the compressor. Well, guess what - it WAS the compressor, but they had to "fix" everything else - and charge me for it - before they came to that conclusion. GRRRR.
I
My car's AC compressor went out last summer, too. Not willing to fork over the $$$$$$ to fix it (wasn't working at the time), the mechanic showed me a lever on the AC that I could push with a big stick to kick the compressor back on. It was getting stuck in the off position. So about once a week I pop the hood and hit the button and my AC works fine. Not ideal, but cost effective.
Do you have a big stick?
well . . . I normally don't brag about it . . .
But seriously - I WISH I could do that - unfortunately, I am pretty sure my compressor is kaput. The car has 123k miles on it and the compressor died a slow death with lots of hissing and gradual weakening. As tempted as I am to wack it with a big stick, I don't think it would fix the problem.
HOWEVER, in other related good car news, the check engine light that mysteriously popped on in the middle of all this compressor stuff, went off on my drive in this morning. I wasn't terribly worried - it has mysteriously gone on before and just as mysteriously gone off. We are pretty sure there are some faulty sensors tripping it up. So yay - one less thing I have to have "fixed". I am SO done with this car! It has been wonderful to us, but if we werent' already up to our eyeballs in home expenses, I would sell it and get a new car in a heart beat!