Tag Archives: prices

I enjoy reading the tips and suggestions on finding an honest or good mechanic. These can be found on various government and consumer websites. I think the same guy wrote all the suggestions for all 50 states.

You’ll be advised to check around by word of mouth (WOM), and make sure that you see ASE or AAA posted somewhere. Check out the facility—makes sure it’s clean. Check with the BBB. You’ll be acronymed and common sense suggested to death. None of it will really help.

Many wonder whether or not there vehicle will make the trip. Provided you follow factory routine auto maintenance schedules, Pre Road Trip Car Maintenance is simple. Here are some Pre Road Trip Car Maintenance tips and suggestions.

Here’s what to do:

According the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it is estimated that automotive service consumers are scammed tens of billions of dollars every year. Repair shops—dealerships, local shops, and franchises—are repeatedly at the top of consumer complaint lists every year. Multiple undercover investigations have caught repair centers red-handed ripping people off. Government agencies across the nation warn against service center repair scams. Consumer advocate groups constantly provide tips and suggestions to avoid getting ripped-off. Service industry insiders continually step forward to expose service industry abuses. Study after study reveals that service centers are manipulating industry guidelines. There’s a real problem! Yet, there are still skeptics.

The above comments are sweeping strikes against an industry so vital to the community. Yet even these known facts don’t take into account the unknown. Ripping people off in the automotive service industry is so ingrained in the business design and culture it’s considered normal. In other words, before one even begins to uncover excessive charges, this self-regulating industry hasn’t just stacked the deck, it has built and entire house of cards.

Most know the most glaring auto repair pricing abuses: Service centers overcharging $100’s even $1000’s for repairs, or charging for service that was never done at all. To be sure, this still happens every day. However, there are many other techniques which involve flying just low enough to avoid detection. The savvy service centers increase the price so as not to set off any alarms. It’s become so common that it’s not just an accepted industry practice, but even service customers have accepted paying higher prices.

Knowing how ingrained price-gouging is within the automotive service industry, it’s shocking (although understandable) that even service customers have succumbed to excessive car repair prices. I frequently hear service customers’ state: “Yeah, I know I was ripped off, but my car’s fixed now.” Or, “I know they charge too much, but they’re convenient.”

A primary reason why it’s difficult to get a car fixed right the first time is the lack of qualifications of the technician who’s actually fixing your car. Local studies and decades of research reveals that 70% of automotive technicians are not qualified to work on most car systems. This includes technicians from dealerships, local shops, and franchises.

Over a decade ago, automotive manufacturers were predicting widespread shortages in “qualified” technicians. Now, given that 80% of the functions of the average car are controlled by electronics, qualified technicians are in even greater demand. This is evident by the numerous advertisements for master technicians which often include $5000 sign-on bonuses.

With all of today’s traction control and stability control systems, and front-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and four-wheel drive vehicles, it can be a bit confusing when trying to decide the value and importance of snow tires. Following is an easy-to-read break down of 10 rules.

Rule 1: regardless of traction electronics a vehicle has, in the snow, it boils down to rubber-meets-the-road-traction

For a repair shop, there is little profit in the $29.95 oil change. By the time a shop pays its technician, pays for the oil, the filter, and the hazardous waste disposal fees, there’s no money left. This low profit margin is worsened by the extremely competitive “Quick Lube” business, which forces local repair shops to refrain from raising prices, despite rising costs.

This all begs the question: If oil change specials, which range from $15.95 to $29.95, clearly produce very low profits, then why do so many service facilities advertise oil change specials?