Latest responses to “Dealing With A Car Breakdown and Paying Rip Off Repair Shop Prices” Copyright 2012, MoneyBlueBook.com 409510 2010-06-24T16:00:09-07:00 Berrys Auto Clinic Well, we're a Mom & Pop shop, Berry's Auto Clinic & Transmission (www.concordtransmissionrepair.com) and its just too bad we couldn't have helped - of course you would not have stopped in. I've been to every GM school that a previous employer could send me to (prior to starting my own business) and have worked on and rebuilt every part of a car to include building a race car from the ground up. (except for the chassis which won the Daytona 500 years ago) So no more broad generalizations, you just never know who you will run into at a Mom & Pop auto shop. PS. Most of the NASCAR guys around here bring their family cars to me for servicing. Sincerely, Dave Berry 409500 2010-05-24T16:25:18-07:00 jami davalos Wow it happens far to often, I consider myself pretty car smart, so when my check engine light came on my co-worker recommend I take my 04 Navi to his friends shop that he had just open up. I was told I needed a valve job it would be $1200.00 but because I was recommend the shop would do the job for $900.00 I took that as a complete job asked around about this kind of work and this was a good deal never disgussed parts on top of labor any how a month later and only 2 word conversations when I had to hunt someone down I was hit with a $1329.00 repair bill on top of the $ 500.00 down I already gave, yes my fault nothing in writing but that just shows how unprofessional this shop is too so come to find out only 2 valves on one side were replaced when asked what happen to the agreement the owner replied I have bills to pay I was also told by my co-worker there is a few cars at his shop that he has with people refusing to pay well thats where I am at besides telling them that I can not afford any extra work done and if was going to cost me more do not do the work I called the police couldn't do anything reported them to BBB nothing now it looks like I shouldn't even take them to court?? I just found it odd that this shop also has a car lot in AJ where my Navi is sittng I have no choice but to let my very expensive suv go. What to do big time lesson learned DON'T GO TO GQ AUTO REPIAR IN MESA. 409490 2009-03-27T20:27:31-07:00 Chris Janda Money is wasted on excessive maintence and on unneeded parts, mainly at dealerships and national chains. At "independent" shops incompetence is your worst enemy. We independents have the most difficult job---fix everything--- There is a long and hard learing curve and you want to avoid paying for it. It is a complicated industry, I believe it would some effort on the part of the consumer to avoid over paying for car maintence and repair. Is the average person really willing to read a 200 page book, attempt to comperhend it, and take it to practice? 409460 2009-03-21T14:44:08-07:00 Raymond Chris, Most definitely! I have always wanted to know more about the marketing and sales ploys that professional car dealerships and amateur fix it shops implement to get ordinary consumers to grossly overpay for their car repair needs. The age-old car repair scam is something that needs to finally get exposed and brought to the mainstream public's conscience again! 409480 2009-03-21T00:09:45-07:00 Chris Janda I own an auto shop, we put an alt. on a 99 accord this week for $300+tax, I tow cars to my shop for $45. I want to write a book revealing the truth about car repair, mainly geared towards all the unneeded maintence, but also revealing our perspective and how to deal with us. Do you think this would be helpful? 409470 2009-03-03T17:58:09-08:00 SO LO K A R AUTO ON CHICAGO DR IN WYOMING MI . HE IS A RIP OFF HE CHARGED ME A ROTOR AND CAP PLUGS $520.00 NOW IS THAT A RIP OFF OR NOT. DO U THINK I CAN TAKE HIM TO COURT. OWNER NAME KIRT. KAR AUTOMOTIVEM INC 409380 2008-07-14T17:28:16-07:00 JoJo Its so sad that learning a lesson costs so much! A similar event happened to me just last week with my 1993 subaru legacy. OK. what do you expect for a 15 year old car, right? Well it is our local beater car and we love it so when it stopped running due to the alternator we wanted to fix it. The car would start up right away after jumping it so we figured we would jump it after returning from vacation. Of course when we came back to jump the car, it would stay on for a few minutes then die. Eventually it wouldnt even start. I dont have AAA and knew it would be very expensive to tow so what we did was take the old battery out in our driveway(it was gonna need replaced anyway) and put a new one in ourselves. After calling around was suprised to find out that our local sears had the battery for the cheapest price. Walmart was even more expensive. Put the battery in (my husband is NOT mechanically inclined so I will say ANYONE can do this) and jumped the car. Since it was a new battery it held the charge and we were able to get to our 5 mile destination without a stall out. Just saved 100 bucks on a tow truck doing that! Before vacation called a subaru dealer who wanted $380 dollars for the alternator but I remembered when my very first new car needed an alternator I went to this little shop who fixed it perfect and for a great price(as you see I am very cheap!) He didnt have the alternator that I needed but said to go down the road to Advanced Auto and buy the alternator myself, 118 dollars, then took it back to him. He put the alternator in 80 dollars for the labor, and I had my car in 2 hours! Far cry from 380 at subaru dealer (and it probably would have been there all day) and saved on the tow too! ( 50 dollars for battery) So I feel I got a good deal! It felt almost as good as hitting a sale at the local department store! It is time consuming but it really helps to call around to get prices and I always make a mental note of someone that did a good job since I dont have a regular auto mechanic. You need a car and they know that. So many places have very high unreasonable prices but when you are stressed and in need of a quick repair, certain buisnesses just feed off of your stress and your misfortune and take advantage of you. That is why it is so important to take a couple deep breaths, relax and think through what to do without doing something impulsively. Of course in your situation your stress was heightened by the fact that it was night. I agree that you should only go to the dealer if you are under warranty. I also agree with Mrs A that I probably could have saved the 80 dollars and got my husband to put it in but after the morning of replacing the battery I figured he used up ALL his mechanical abilities for the day! I was once told that parts and labor on foreign cars are always more expensive but I think that dealer was way out of line. Your car seems way too new to have such expensive problems. I never had a toyota or a Honda, and I know people who love them, but I will keep my 15 year old subaru! OH and get a AAA membership (or whatever auto club you prefer) I had one in the past but let it expire. Im getting it again just in case my car feels the need to act up again! 409450 2008-06-17T20:50:10-07:00 Funny about Money Augh! Did this really happen to you? First, if I were you I'd want to know why a 2004 Honda, which is practically new, would crap out and require a $1,200 repair. Find out if Honda is having what is known as a "secret recall." You have to proactively ask the dealership about this--sometimes things go wrong that they don't announce publicly but they will fix if you know about it and ask for it. Second, the law of physics known as the First Rule of Road-Weary Drivers is "after your car is off the warranty, never, ever, EVER get repairs done at a dealership." Dealers are notorious for gouging on car repairs and maintenance. Find an honest, competent independent mechanic and build a relationship with him (or her!): get your oil changed there, and trot the car over to the shop for minor fixes. How do you find such a paragon? First, ask your friends and fellow churchgoers. Second, failing that, go to the PBS site of the radio program called Car Talk. They have a section where readers recommend local car repair mechanics. Or pony up a few bucks and join Angie's List, where consumers will tell you all about their car repair guys and every other trade & craft on the planet. Third, AAA is not the only outfit that will come tow your junk away, nor is it necessarily the best. Check with your car insuror to see if you can get towing insurance for a few extra bucks, which probably will be cheaper than AAA. Discount Tires used to have a towing service--if you buy your tires there, ask about it. If you live in the Southwest and have cell phone service through QWest, you can get towing service for an extra few cents a month. If you're superannuated, AARP has a towing service. These things are all over the place--ask around. AAA is pricey and you can wait upwards of an hour for their trucks to show up. Fourth, do not even THINK "leave your car there for some tow truck dude to haul off on his own." No, no, no, no, no. Twelve hundred freaking dollars sounds totally out of line. Go to a car mechanic's shop and ask if the piece of equipment the dorkuses put in there is really worth that much. If the answer is, as you suspect, that a new alternator & installation should cost somewhere between $300 and $600, raise hell and put a block under it. A very brief Google search brings up an alternator for 2003-05 Accords for $110; as Mrs. A. points out, replacing an alternator is not brain surgery. If you can confirm, with any degree of believability, that you were ripped off, call the manager of the dealership, complain to the corporate headquarters in writing, and if you don't get satisfaction real quick, complain to the the Better Business Bureau and your state attorney general's office. Next time, buy a Toyota. Though all of the above applies to all dealerships, you should at least have the satisfaction of not giving that particular covey of crooks your money. 409410 2008-06-14T23:38:40-07:00 Mrs. Accountability I'm no auto mechanic, but I've had cars long enough that the first thing I thought as I was reading was your alternator had gone bad. You know some of these parts can be taken off and replaced VERY EASILY by oneself. :-) I think owning a Chilton's and Hayne's repair books are worth their weight in gold. One time many years ago I had a battery go dead and went to an auto parts store to get a new one. One of the guys installed the battery for me, but he put it in backwards. He was beating the post onto the wrong side (I was alarmed and went in and told the manager but it was already too late by the time we got back outside). Well, it fried out my alternator and the manager of the store replaced my alternator while I waited, of course for free and he was probably praying the whole time that that wasn't the only thing that was fried. Anyway, my point is, the alternator is usually easy to get at, and once you have a few tools you can save yourself tons of money. I also keep AAA and pay for the premium service because I work 50 miles from my home and often am almost 100 miles from home. I also would not give up on my vehicle just because an alternator went out, but that's just me. 409390 2008-06-10T22:13:35-07:00 Amy Dealerships will always charge you outrageous prices for car repairs. They will also usually try to upsell you if you are in the waiting room. I would only take my car to a dealership if it were the only option. With dealerships you know you're going to get ripped off. If you go to a mom and pop place at least you have a chance of getting fair pricing.