Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Originally posted by: Zee
the thing with stealerships is that they charge you parts and then labor. but they charge you labor for each. say you need new brakes. and new alternator belt. now lets say labor charge is 95 an hour.
so they will charge you 60 for brakes, + 95. then they will charge you 30 for an alternator belt + 95.
that's why people avoid stealerships unless it's covered by insurance or warranty.
You really should get informed. That isn't even remotely correct.
Dealerships use the same labor guides that independent shops do.
If brakes pay 2hrs to replace pads and machine rotors, that's what they charge...PLUS, they usually have a reduced labor rate for maintenance items like brakes and tune-up stuff.
If you are having brakes and a belt done, the charge for labor will be whatever the book pays for each job.
Brakes and a belt are not overlapping jobs in any way, so a customer would not and should not get any credit for the mechanic already "having it apart", thereby getting a break on labor.
Average belt replacement labor runs from .3 to .7 hr. Some are more if they're really hard.
I always find it funny that everyone here always, and I mean ALWAYS, jumps on anyone who takes their car to a dealership. "That's an easy job, it shouldn't be that much". "Those parts are half that price off the internet". etc, etc.
They forget a few things: Some people can't work on their own cars. The OP here had no idea what sensors needed to be replaced. Someone who knows what they are doing needed to diagnose it for him. It is NOT simply a matter of hooking up a scanner and the code tells you what to replace. Sometimes it's that easy, but not normally.
As far as the oil leaks are concerned.....we don't even know what his problem really is. "one in the gasket and/or distributor area"?? And people start spouting off about the cost with that description? (not ragging on you for not knowing, OP)
It's easy to second-guess prices after you already know what the problem is. I think people here, who work on their on stuff but have never done this for a living, are too quick to simply look at the actual FIX, and not the entire process.
Yes, dealerships are oftentimes more expensive than an independent. Difference is, dealerships will be more likely to have a competent mechanic than an independent. It's not easy to find a GOOD independent mechanic. So if you don't know one, you just may well be better off taking your car to the dealer. You might pay more, but you also have somewhere up the line to go if things don't go right. There is the general manager, the dealer principal himself, then the manufacturer. At the independent, you're pretty much screwed if they mess up and won't fix it.
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