Shop mechanics-.-

[Turbo617]

They will say everything to fix to make money. Their floor jacks was all broken, so my car was put on a lift. I was getting my front tires replaced.

He saw under my car and pointed out its very wet and quoted $2000 in repairs. All I had to do was look to my right at the garage entrance and see the huge puddle ( guess its too big to be called a puddle, let's call it a creek...) I had to go through.

He then points at my brand new oil pan and says " your down pipe is shaved in half, the price of being lowered, and also your oil pan obviously needs replacing if your pipe looks like that and you have scratches on your pan.... I told him, you can clearly see the scratch is fresh, he wasn't convinced and said he has been working as a auto tech since I was in diapers. I pointed at his uneven, Tryna rival a speed bump hump in between the lift arms and you can see fresh scratches aswell....

All in all... Dude said $2500 in repairs.

Just needed to vent a bit. I feel bad for the few cars he had in the shop, those customers are getting ripped off.

Someone brought in a 92-93 CB7, she looked like a hard working mom who needs a break. I overheard and she asked for a quote on changing her spark plugs, spark plug wires and a oil change, he charged her $500. I told her ill do all three for 40. Her face lit up. What is wrong with some shops.....

[wed3k]

its all about knowing the right people. i do all my own tires, alignments, engine building and smog. it's because i know people and how to use the equipment.

[Turbo617]

Usually I stick to who I know.

But my route home got detoured and I swerved to miss a huge pot hole.. My tire caught it..slow leak. I stopped by the closest shop.

Guess it was my fault. I was going 40 (speed limit is 55) on unfamiliar roads.

[ferenza]

Yes ,the almighty shadetree mechanic.Plenty of them. They are who inspired me to take my ass to school. I do my own work and everything else in between.Shops think they can pull fast ones on people who dont know much because they dont know better.

My friends and I had a garage next to a shop for about three months while we were swapping his engine.He was charging people up the wazu for simple services .One day a lady aasked if we do work and she wanted brakes on her neon put on.My friend test drove the car and we did her brakes for $40 with a full pad slap and brake flush.She was happy.the guy was charging her 160 just for pads and rotors.She that summer we not only finished his car but made around 2k in cheap work because the lady was sending over her people and customers to us even though we werent a shop.

[Leung]

i've got this neighbor that's poorer than dirt because he's in school, works as a pizza driver and has two kids. Well he beats the piss out of his poor nissan and doesn't have any tools to do any work so i only charge him, like 25 bucks to do brakes BUT the only catch is that he can't bring me shitty parts. I will tell him to take them back if he brings me no name or bottom of the barrel quality parts. The reasons behind that is i don't want to be replacing them again like a month later since he's uber rough with his car that and i'm only charging him 25 bucks to install it. A lot of the shops that i deliver to use my store's really crappy brand line but charge out the ying yang for installation simply because they don't know any better and they want to keep their profit margins high.

[deevergote]

That's why it's good to know about your own car, so you know when they're blowing smoke up your ass!

[toycar]

Same problem applies to every "service" industry from medical care to having your A/C charged.


The more you can do on your own, the better off you are going to be in the end. I work on my own furnace, handle my own plumbing problems, roof my own house, install my own windows, trim my own tree's, work on my own cars etc etc. You get the point.


No need to get face raped over service you can just as easily do yourself. Probably sounds silly, but if you understand how an ignition system works in a car, you would understand how an ignition system works on a furnace.

[oyajicool]

Shops have to make money off of us to keep their doors open for business, but not by stealing like that with bogus charges. We have to arm ourselves with knowledge as mentioned already.

[Shadow91]

i've got this neighbor that's poorer than dirt because he's in school, works as a pizza driver and has two kids. Well he beats the piss out of his poor nissan and doesn't have any tools to do any work so i only charge him, like 25 bucks to do brakes BUT the only catch is that he can't bring me shitty parts. I will tell him to take them back if he brings me no name or bottom of the barrel quality parts. The reasons behind that is i don't want to be replacing them again like a month later since he's uber rough with his car that and i'm only charging him 25 bucks to install it. A lot of the shops that i deliver to use my store's really crappy brand line but charge out the ying yang for installation simply because they don't know any better and they want to keep their profit margins high.

Ive had to do the same exact thing with a couple of my friends before who just want to get the absolute cheapest shit to put on their cars and i will just tell them, thats fine, but dont expect me to help you then.. haha

[Cb_JoeyG]

I work in the shop at a Ford stealership, so i know alll about this shit. The parts department gets the cheapest parts possible and charges List price on them which can double the price of the parts, then the labor charges like at my shop are 105$ an hour, Dont take long at those prices to get well over a grand into a repair

[crazymikey]

Same problem applies to every "service" industry from medical care to having your A/C charged.


The more you can do on your own, the better off you are going to be in the end. I work on my own furnace, handle my own plumbing problems, roof my own house, install my own windows, trim my own tree's, work on my own cars etc etc. You get the point.


No need to get face raped over service you can just as easily do yourself. Probably sounds silly, but if you understand how an ignition system works in a car, you would understand how an ignition system works on a furnace.

You couldn't have said it any better. I do all my own work within my own capabilities, unless I need specialized tools I don't have, or the work being done needs some licenced.

[Soufkackicustom]

I get told all the time iam high...but say a lift kit that says 7-8 hours to I stall is $500. I think we are pretty cheap on manual labor....bit tire changing....yeah thAts going to run you $30 each and up.but I have a reason for that. Iam the only one who can do it in a hour radius (I deal almost completely with plus size custom wheels) and I just plopped down $15k for a tire machine just to change those kinds of wheels...yeah I see it alot where the guy down the road just ripped a $400 28" tire trying to put it on by hand for $20...hell as more cars come with reversed mount or people swap aftermarket rims for stock hub caps......wal mart has been one of our big customers. If I see something wrong with a customers car, I'll tell them....usally it's to have someone eles look at it, and let me know what they say...if I can do it, I will meet or beat that price. It's the only way to make it in a small town...the only exception is lift kits....iam high and I know it.....but iam not going to cobble together your suspension because you can't afford it....once it's apart...it's not going back together till its right. And I let them know a roll back will fit under ther it car on my lift. Bad ball joints, bushings, idlers and the such.....your going to replace it...I'll show you it's bad, or I'll have your suspension less car off my lift on a tow truck. I need to make a living, and killing someone to beat a price is bad for business.... Hell our test mule is a 2004 impala on 26's...71,000 miles he hits a pot hole and the lift dosent fail, it actually ripped the rear subframe mount out of the car.....the car was weaker then the lift kit we made

[Turbo617]

I guess you all was in my shoes before. I'm slowly learning, it's just, shops..., why.

[Soufkackicustom]

I guess you all was in my shoes before. I'm slowly learning, it's just, shops..., why.

I have a shop. So it's not all shops....just some (ok most) that do it. I understand why from the business side. Each spot on the floor needs to turn a certain amount of money to stay profitable. This started at dealerships and chain places where you not only have over head, but franchise fees that have to be covered...so you pay for that in your repair too. We solved the cost of the building by selling storage sheds and metal buildings. They pay for the physical shop it's self, so all I have to worry about is making payroll out of the actual business. Since we been there 10 years, we keep rolling the initial inventory investment over....so it's basically all paid for. And one up side to a small town, is there isn't alot of competition, so if something is needed, it's ordered which means its paid for before I buy it, which keeps over head down, and iam not worried about turning over $500,000 or so of it... The only real stock I have is car audio...I it's pretty low.....probally around $20,000 or so.