Sunday, October 24, 2010

How not to overpay for car repairs


I for one am not exactly a "car guy" and every time I need a water pump replaced or timing belt repaired I head right on over to the nearest garage and turn over the keys to my beat up,old Ford Escort.  Their have been many times I have just simply payed for services having no idea if the price was fair or if I was getting screwed over by some jerk who figures I would never know they difference, and of course there have been times when I just though to myself, How could this cost so much. Here's a few tips to make sure your not getting ripped of by your mechanic.


1) Ask ALOT of questions, make sure you know exactly what parts and type of labor your car will need.

2) If possible, wait there while the repairs are being made, this makes it harder for them to charge you for unnecessary repairs.

3) Request to see the part that is causing the problem and have them tell you why it is causing a problem to insure that they can't just clean up the old part and pass it off as new or install a new part that didn't even have a problem to begin with.

4) Do your research ,If you know whats wrong with your car, you should know how much you should expect to pay for parts and labor before you walk in the door, sites like repairpal.com make this very easy.

5) Shop around, I find that estimates can vary by hundreds of dollars depending on where I am, but also remember you get what you pay for so don't always jump at the cheapest price, alternatively don't be stupid enough to go with the highest estimate either, shoot for the middle.

23 comments:

Tony said...

yeah this is good stuff, its always good to know how your car works that way the mechanic doesnt screw you. If you cant learn, then its always good to have a friend whos more mechanically minded.

Kichuwa said...

Nice pic. Useful advice.

Overall awesome

dopdavid said...

good ideas,
im lucky i have a mechanic that i trust and know :)

Anonymous said...

haha nice car XD

Anonymous said...

I've been ripped a few times

Genesis said...

this is some good advice, and since my car is falling apart advice im gonna have to use.

Aaron said...

This is great! As my BMW 740i is acting liking a creaky old wooden ship right now, I need to get some repairs.

NePsuj said...

hahaah, nice for offroad

Darko said...

interesting...

Synthetic Soiree said...

Is that your car in the picture? No wonder it needs a lot of work done on it! *hehe*

Mamin odabir said...

Hahahaha this car looks like it came from Transformers xD

gomby said...

Definitely useful as most shops will use the ignorance of the customers to their advantage and mark up the price 3x more than what it should be

Darko said...

nice...

!Cars, Cars, Cars! said...

This is far too cool. Keep it up, I'll be back.

The Angry Vegetarian said...

I can agree to this completely. My girlfriend used to take her Mercedes into this nearby German automotive place and she's come back with a thousand dollar repair bill. Eventually I got suspicious and decided to go there instead of her (automotive places love to rip women off). Even though I knew absolutely nothing about anything, I knew enough to ask what was going on and have them fully explain themselves. They are still rip offs, but they don't eff with us anymore.

Light Weight Baby! said...

lol, that would be an awesome offroad vehicle

Nostalgist said...

agree, car repairs are fucking expensive :-/

Mr. Moment said...

good guide, it is too bad that it is basically going to always be half for parts and half for labor... because they will just tell you to take it somewhere else if they feel you jacking them around

Discerning Gentleman said...

thanks for the helpful information on repairs

Flippy said...

All good tips! Also really depends where you go. Find reviews online and stick with the good ones.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tips. My car window is badly in need of repair and I've been told it should cost $12 by some and $250 by others... and I just don't know what to do. Perhaps these tips will help getting precisely what I need at a good price.

One said...

Also: If female, do everything on this list twice.

good tips!

! WALLPAPERS BY ERDNUSS2 ! said...

wow nice.
supportin and fllow

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