Shopping Around for Car Repairs

Yesterday, I mentioned that we needed to have the car looked at. It has been showing signs of needing some sort of attention for a few months now, with a sort of “hiccup” as we’ve been idling. Yesterday, things went up a notch with a rather violent series of hiccups that almost resulted in the car “turning off.” Anyway, I drove it to the GM dealer, since I couldn’t think of where else to take it for a thorough and model-specific diagnostic.

This was a mistake that was, happily, rectified some hours later.

After running the tests, I received a call telling me that the spark plugs and boots needed to be changed and my fuel injection system needed some servicing. Oh, and, by the way, I should have a transmission flush and a power steering flush, since it has been done on the car yet, and it’s almost to 100,000 miles.

Total bill: $800.

Seemed a little high to me. So I told them not to do anything  and I’d get back to them.

First of all, I knew I didn’t need a transmission flush because we did it a few months ago, for about $100. So, if I assumed that the fuel injection and the power steering flushes were $100, the flush total would be $300 (with the transmission flush that I already knew I wasn’t going to get). The mechanic at the dealership told me that the four spark plugs and boots, plus labor would be $245. And, of course, it’s $100 for the diagnostic. Total: $645. Obviously the dealer planned to charge much more for the flushes.

I decided to shop around. First of all, I looked quickly online while I called my husband to ask him to get recommended mechanics from his buddies at school. I got a general feel for how much the parts should cost for all this stuff. (Hint: It is significantly less than what the dealership was charging.) While I did that, my husband polled the other graduate assistants and came back with some names. I did some calling around. The nice thing about the $100 diagnostic was that at least I knew exactly what I needed.

In the end, I picked a shop that charges $119 for the fuel injection, $60 for the power steering flush and $176 for the sparkplugs and boots. This includes labor and tax. So the new total is $355. Plus the $100 diagnostic. And my new mechanic tells me that they’ll run the diagnostic (they have a fancy computer, too) for free. Wish I’d know that beforehand. I could have saved $100.

Lesson learned? Just like any other expenditure, it is a good idea to shop around for car repairs. And to be vigilant in order to avoid rip-offs. Ask questions, know roughly what things should cost, know what’s going on, and get a second opinion. Oh, and the dealership probably isn’t the cheapest place to be.