Five Overpriced Car Repairs and What to Pay For Them

While it is not a big deal for me to do my brakes, my mother would have a lot of trouble with it. As well, swapping the battery, serpentine belt or headlamps would also be problematic for her.

There are some circumstances where it is simply unavoidable to have a shop do what for some of us can easily handle ourselves.

You meen you wouldn't help your mother out and do those repairs for her? Shame Shame. lol

I used to do her car, furniture, and appliance repairs, but now the 1,003 mile drive to her house is problematic for me. So, now I just overpay some guy to do that stuff for her.

I see where that would be a problem. You have to take care of mom nomatter where she lives.

1) Headlamp bulbs are no longer "deceptively easy to change". It took me a good 15-20 mins to change one of mine, working in a very cramped space by feel alone. I came very close to giving up.

2) I took my car in recently for a main dealer service. They said the rear brake pads were 90% gone, would I like them to change them for me? I was so appalled with their service thus far, I declined, and went out and bought the pads to do it myself. When I got around to doing it I found that the pads were no more than 55-60% gone, so I'll do it later. I won't be going back to that dealer!

I would rather spend 15-20 minutes changing my own head lamps than pay a dealer fifty bucks, of course I do a lot of my own work to save money. Those dealers rip you up one side and down another for simple repair work. It's a crime what they charge for repairs.

I drive a '76 CJ5, and for long time it used to pull sideways while braking, I went thru all of the recommended check points and replaced almost everything: from hoses to master cylinder, to brake pads, to drums, to pad holding hardware, to wheel cylinders, bleeding valves, adjusting screws and all.

After over a year with the same problem, I checked it again (by the way, the brake pads had over 60% beef left), and I discovered a leaking proportioning valve, couldn't find it on stores, went to a junk yard, bought a newer type for $10.00 and used the insides to repair the original; now I screech tires even on dirt roads (ok, ok, that's not possible, except on the movies). Even when fixing your brakes ain't rock it science, I was about to go to "an expert", who would have charged slightly more than 10 dollars.

What should I remember of this experience? It was real fun to see people's freaking out at me on their mirrors, while I was showing my theet and furiously stepping on the brakes !!.

Yahlasit

They forgot the most common and obvious one. Oil changes.

4 - 6 quarts at $1.50 a quart and a $3 - $6 oil filter plus less than 10 minutes of actual work all for $40 plus a 50 cent a quart disposal fee where they then later sell it to a used oil dealer for 25 cents a quart.

Exactly, I took my car to one of the more reputable oil change franchises and they told me I was in need of new wiper blades. Well I knew they were getting bad so I said what the heck and had them go ahead and put new ones on. When I got the bill my jaw about hit the floor when I noticed they had charged me sixty dollars for a set of wiper blades I could have bought from a local retail store and installed for fifteen dollars. That goes to show that they will stick it to you hard for any kind of automotive work not just for labor but for parts too.

While I agree with your outrage at being charged so much for wiper blades, shame on you for not asking the price before authorizing them to do the work. In so many cases it we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of.

Much worse when we do that knowingly; worst case, when we do it on porpuse.

Yahlasit

As a boy apprentice I couldn't afford to take my car to "the man" to get serviced and repaired. So I learnt how to do that myself.

Now some 40 odd cars,bikes and trucks later I'm still doing it. The few times I have had company cars and been forced to go to the dealer. I've been annoyed by the add ons, and yes $60 wiper blades were a favorite touch. ($10 at the parts store) Another is the "Injector Clean" at 30,000km, Seriously! My 86 900 Turbo ran(hard) for 200,000km without even looking at the injectors I used to change the oil and filters every 10,000km. Used to annoy them when I'd drag the service advisor out to go over the work they supposedly done. I used to date the oil/air filters to make sure that they changed them...

I have found that I have a better understanding on how to repair my cars than the dealer spanner monkey but then I'm a gearhead not just a punter.

Though it really irks me to having to repair the repair...

Still if you do find a good consciencious mechanic, then yes its worth paying that little bit extra. Especially if you get time poor or need to refer someone else...

Being poor does have its advantages. I bought an '83 mustang (5.0l) and the beast was giving a lot of blue smoke out of the tail pipes when power shifting. I took the thing apart, removing the engine to have it rebuilt, did a valve job, inspected the tranny, change the differential (broken tooth on one of the planeteries). All this under a tarp in the backyard during Montreal's 'centennial' ice storm ('98, i think).Before re-assembling the engine, I removed all upholstery and fixed all the rust spots for a "new" paint job (300$ after preparation at a shop that painted truck wheels).

Once the work was done, we dug a trench through the snow and put the car back on the road. I had bought a Hayne's™ book and learned everything as I was going along. Very educational, plenty of frustrations and joyful accomplishments.

Can't even imagine what a garage mechanic would've charged for something like that...