took my car to the shop...

Told them I wanted an oil change, to see why its running rough, and to see why the steering is loose.

get a call the next day

Him: Yeah, we looked at your car, everything is working properly, we cant
figure out why its not running right.

Me: Ok, and what about the steering?

Him: It needs a new or rebuilt grearbox.

Me: Ok, in there now is a Quick ratio box, will the replacement be the same?

Him: Oh no, it work fine.

Me: Butttt....It wont be the quick ratio?

Him: No It steer straight.

Me: Well I want to keep the origional box, can you just rebuild that one?

Him: No.

Me: ok, what do I owe you for the oil change?

Him: $89 + tax for everything

---------------------------------

So is it me or is $89 for an oil change a bit high? He looked at the car, but couldn't do anything to it.

and tax? cant you only tax physical goods, not a service?

Re: took my car to the shop...

No tax on labor here.

Re: took my car to the shop...

I think you got off cheap considering all they checked. Whether they found anything or not you still have to pay labor for their efforts......

Re: took my car to the shop...

you have to pay for the diagnostic and estimate. A flat rate technician spent time looking at your car, which is not free. That is actually quite cheap, at a competative shop with qualified techs would have charged 0.4 of an hour for the oil change, 1.0 hour of labor for looking into the running poor issue and maybe 0.5 hour for the steering suspension issue inluding a test drive. We have to do this because people will use you for your diag then pay a lesser qualified tech to fix it. i agree it shouldnt be like that but that is how customers have driven it.

no one will rebuild your custom geared gearbox, unfortuntly. they were wrong about not communicating better with you in regards to it running poorly, sometimes a problem or fault is not evident at that time or to them, request a test drive with the shop foreman or service manager. if they can not duplicate the situation there are methods of capture the event with a take home data recorded, most dealerships have them, but most techs dont use them. basically when you are driving your car, and it acts up, you hit a button and it takes a snap shot of relative data that a technician can later review.

sorry to hear about your bad mechanic experience, its an industry in need of change. thats why i left

Re: took my car to the shop...

I don't take my vehicles anywhere but the dealer. They know what they are doing and don't "experiment".

Granted, some are better than others.

If you REALLY shop and compare what you get for the dollar, you might be surprised at what a bargain the OEM dealer is.

As an example, my local dealer offers an oil change, tire rotation and a 23 point inspection for $39.95, including a hand wash/vacuum and dry.

It's $29.95 after a manufacturer rebate. Even at the $39.95, it's a bargain.

NONE of the "Quickie" places can touch that and I know I'm getting the right stuff.

They know me by name. They check for any updates (service bulletins, recalls, etc.) and do quality work.

If I need something like Brakes, their prices are within 10% of any of the Quickie places and they don't replace what doesn't need to be. If the OEM pads went 60K, why should I chance a Quickie place pad deal?

I see no reason to go anywhere else.

Re: took my car to the shop...

I don't take my vehicles anywhere for anything anymore if I can do it myself. I don't even get them inspected anymore (I renew online, say they're "out of state"). I can't even get a tire patched without it being screwed up. I saw the other thread about quality products being hard to find, I think quality workmanship and customer service are even more scarce today.

If I need tires I order them online and drop the wheels/tires off to have them mounted. The last time I bought tires and dropped off the vehicle to have them put on I ended up with 2 cross threaded lug nuts on my wife's car, which I found when I went to do a brake job. The last time I had my car inspected they scratched the he** out of 2 of my nice blemish free aluminum wheels with the impact socket.

My last issue was when I dropped off a wheel & tire to get the tire patched (instead of me plugging it), I told them it needed a patch, the hole was already circled with a grease pencil, and I told them valve stem was leaking & needed to be replaced. I picked it up, put it back on the wife's car and it's out of balance, they didn't rebalance the tire after breaking the bead to patch from the inside (the original wheel weights are in the same spots, evident by the dirt buildup around them).. Then a week later I notice the tire looks low, check it, 15psi, upon closer inspection, they didn't replace the valve stem either. Wow.

And to the OP: did they tell you it'd be $XX per hour for diagnoses? If it wasn't going to be "free" they probably should have mentioned it up front. Under $100 for a shops time to diagnose an issue really doesn't seem bad though.

Re: took my car to the shop...

Places of business are only as good as the people working there. If you had a bad experience, tell the Management NICELY. Nine out of ten, they'll make it right.

BTW, my local dealer will match or beat ANY (installed) legit. tire price.

Value vs. dollars? The age old question.

Re: took my car to the shop...

Dealerships used to have an earned reputation for overcharging and performing unncecessary work, but that's changed (at least around here). I just got rid of my Sierra because it was about to nickel and dime me to death. However, I have the highest praise for the dealership that sold it to me. Their service department was beyond reproach. Wish I could say the same for the trucks they sell.

Re: took my car to the shop...

I've never found a place that can beat the cost of tirerack pricing on tires & the cost of having them mounted/balanced at the nearest wally world.. not even close.

On a side note, maybe the issues I've experienced are more prevalent near a big city..??.. So much population that places don't have to worry so much about repeat business? I will say that when I had to get trailer tires in a hurry (had a blowout) in a small town in southern missouri, the shop I found provided excellent service and they did quality work.

Re: took my car to the shop...

If you get full synthetic oil, it will usually raise the price about $20-$30 dollars. I use to take my old car to mom and pop shops and different ones.

After I got my (new to me) MDX I am going to the dealer. I really don't pay all that much more and they look at more stuff, wash the car, and do other things that the quick places do. The dealer and bigger shops log all maintenance on Carfax, which helps, when it comes to selling the vehicle. I didn't mind paying what I did for my MDX, after seeing how well it was maintained on Carfax.

I sold my 96 Toyota Avalon w/ 130k miles on last year and got $3,300 for it. It is amazing how well good maintenance and records help sells a car. The guy I sold it two was worried about the CV joints and Rack and Pinion, these were parts that would normally go on the 96 Avalon. Luckily I had invoices for the repairs to show I already replaced them.

-Hostage

Re: took my car to the shop...

Learn to do maintenance yourself. Once you have that down, you can start doing repairs yourself and save some big bucks.

The only time my vehicles see a shop is for transmission work.

Re: took my car to the shop...

eclark53520 said:

Learn to do maintenance yourself. Once you have that down, you can start doing repairs yourself and save some big bucks.

The only time my vehicles see a shop is for transmission work.

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What do we preach here? GET THE MANUAL! Nobody does/will.

If you don't have it, DIY is suspect, on todays vehicles. You DIY a 2011 vehicle, I can guarantee you will mess it up. Everybody second guesses the engineers. Ten years ago, I'd say-maybe. Today-NO. We are not that bright.

The bonus is (with technology), you don't have to do all the stuff you did on a 80's-90's vehicle. No matter who built it. That's all good.

Re: took my car to the shop...

98Shabah said:

I don't take my vehicles anywhere for anything anymore if I can do it myself. I don't even get them inspected anymore (I renew online, say they're "out of state"). I can't even get a tire patched without it being screwed up. I saw the other thread about quality products being hard to find, I think quality workmanship and customer service are even more scarce today.

If I need tires I order them online and drop the wheels/tires off to have them mounted. The last time I bought tires and dropped off the vehicle to have them put on I ended up with 2 cross threaded lug nuts on my wife's car, which I found when I went to do a brake job. The last time I had my car inspected they scratched the he** out of 2 of my nice blemish free aluminum wheels with the impact socket.

My last issue was when I dropped off a wheel & tire to get the tire patched (instead of me plugging it), I told them it needed a patch, the hole was already circled with a grease pencil, and I told them valve stem was leaking & needed to be replaced. I picked it up, put it back on the wife's car and it's out of balance, they didn't rebalance the tire after breaking the bead to patch from the inside (the original wheel weights are in the same spots, evident by the dirt buildup around them).. Then a week later I notice the tire looks low, check it, 15psi, upon closer inspection, they didn't replace the valve stem either. Wow.

And to the OP: did they tell you it'd be $XX per hour for diagnoses? If it wasn't going to be "free" they probably should have mentioned it up front. Under $100 for a shops time to diagnose an issue really doesn't seem bad though.

Click to expand...

Your much more "trusting" than I.
I always think that the shop is not really going to give me 100% if and when I buy the stuff elsewhere and hire them to install.

Re: took my car to the shop...

Sometimes I do have to 2nd guess the engineers of today's automobiles... maybe many of them are great with CAD software and had a fantastic GPA in college, but when I see some of the things they do I have to wonder if they've ever held a tool, changed a water pump, alternator, power steering pump, etc.

The computers in todays automobiles that scare many DIYers are actually very helpful in figuring out problems.. Gotta love the code scanners.

Re: took my car to the shop...

DJ said:

What do we preach here? GET THE MANUAL! Nobody does/will.

If you don't have it, DIY is suspect, on todays vehicles. You DIY a 2011 vehicle, I can guarantee you will mess it up. Everybody second guesses the engineers. Ten years ago, I'd say-maybe. Today-NO. We are not that bright.

The bonus is (with technology), you don't have to do all the stuff you did on a 80's-90's vehicle. No matter who built it. That's all good.

Click to expand...

funny you mention that. i purchased two trucks. same brand, same dealer, 1 year apart. only difference between the two trucks was that I allowed the dealer to do maint on one and I did everything on the other. these are newer trucks 2002.
few years down the road, dealer maintained truck is dead, 71,000 miles on it. they call me to come get it, because they can't figure it out. wound up dumping it to get another vehicle. (different brand) everytime the dealer worked on that truck something else would break within a couple weeks. one time I let them work on truck #2 and yep something else got screwed up while they "fixed" it. that truck now has 130,000 miles on it and runs flawlessly.
my vehicles right now are '02, '07 and '08 car and trucks and '09 and '10 bikes. I'll do my own fixing thanks. they're not hard to work on once you get over the fear of the electronics in there. it's still internal combustion engines. suspensions are very much the same as before. brakes and such all the same.

oh yes I do have a manual on all of the vehicles.

Re: took my car to the shop...

Only thing I take my cars/trucks to the shop is Tires and alignments.

I do all my own work. Maintenance, engine and transmission work. I started tinkering with cars at a young age and it's saved me thousands over the years.

Most recently I did head gaskets in my Impala. Including the machine shop work for the cylinder heads, it was right around 350 bucks. I got curious and called the dealership and asked how much a job like this would cost... They told me on that car average 1200-1600 dollars. If you have the ability and tools. Do it yourself.

To the comment with the newer cars. The basic principal is still there, you just have to diagnose a little more, 60% of the with newer cars, engine trouble is sensor related. And most sensors can be tested.


As for Manuals? I have a couple somewhere. I use Mitchell OnDemand. It's software the has almost all makes and models. Except for a few of the proprietary vehicles.

Re: took my car to the shop...

After some trial and error, I found it best to locate a local mom and pop type shop. They are very far and few any longer but I managed to locate an honest one that has been in business for 20+ years. They charge half the dealer labor rate, and easily and quickly take on difficult dealer only types of jobs and as amazing as it sounds are actually honest. As for the 89$ plus tax, I agree that it seams reasonable and doubt they'd be breaking the law by charging tax on the labor if it's not legal. That is a huge no-no if caught though I had a contractor try to pull it on me once. The first thing that went wrong with my 4 wheel drive system in my truck forced me to locate a good shop since other than my new found shop, only the dealer would touch it. I always think of the old Seinfield episode here though new cars are light years more complicated then back then.

Re: took my car to the shop...

I use to do my own work on changing oil and even brakes, etc. My g/f got a (new to her) Toyota Avalon 2006. I decided to change the oil, which was a lot more complicated than I was use to. Had to remove this oil filter housing and replace a small filter on it, replace some o-rings, and reinsert it in.

A month later the car is on the side of the road dead. Take it to a shop and they said the engine is dead since the oil sprayed every where. At first I turned white, since I thought I might have messed up causing a $4-$5k repair. Then I realized we just brought it to that shop a few days ago and they saw no leaking oil. After some research, I found out that the 2006 Avalon had a faulty VVTI oil return line (high pressure) and they have ruptured many times previously. Spent many months trying to get Toyota to cover the cost, they ended up paying for about 85% of the cost we spent. That didn't cover the full cost of the repairs and the grief and stress my g/f had.

To make a long story short, I don't want that shock or worry of me possibly doing something wrong. Also Toyota gave us some flak as we didn't get work done at the dealership.

I ended up getting a new vehicle for myself and it wasn't a Toyota.

-Hostage

Re: took my car to the shop...

I take all my toys and trucks to Suncoast Marine in St. Petersburg, FL for service.

Re: took my car to the shop...

Do you ever get them back?

roscoe said:

I take all my toys and trucks to Suncoast Marine in St. Petersburg, FL for service.

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