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Sticker shock!

I

ioni

Senior member
So I just got my car back from the shop. Ended up having to get my air intake hose boot replaced. Anyway, before starting work on my car, they pulled up the part in their system and showed it to me on their computer. It was $381. I was able to talk $150 off. So they do the work, I go home and look up how much a boot costs. $62.... WTF! I knew it was cheaper to repair yourself, but 85% cheaper! Is it like that for most car parts in shops?
 
Is it the same part from the same source? OEM (manufacturer parts) are always more expensive than aftermarket.
 
Was it an original part from both sources? What car?

The only explanations I can come up with is:
1) generic vs. oem part
2) suggested retail vs much cheaper online price
 
ioni said:
So I just got my car back from the shop. Ended up having to get my air intake hose boot replaced. Anyway, before starting work on my car, they pulled up the part in their system and showed it to me on their computer. It was $381. I was able to talk $150 off. So they do the work, I go home and look up how much a boot costs. $62.... WTF! I knew it was cheaper to repair yourself, but 85% cheaper! Is it like that for most car parts in shops?
Click to expand...

Yes it is like that in most shops. You pay for convenience of not having to do it yourself. The shop (if 3rd party) likely pays near the price you looked up, so they have to mark it up to make profit.
 
That was probably something you could have replaced yourself. But yes, repair shops will add about 10% - 20% markup to the cost they pay (wholesale, in most cases) to the price of the part.
 
kinda weird in ways... my current shop that i go to, they know i'm a DIY and they work with me in most cases.

I had to get some EVAP parts from nissan. I picked up 3/4 parts from the Junkyard. Last part i was not able to get so they told me $80 for the part from local dealership. I didn't have a problem because i felt it was a fair price because it will be done same day and etc. I got home and looked up prices for giggles. I was no able to find that OEM part anywhere from the many discount nissan dealerships online for less then $125. I called my local dealership and they wanted $175. There is no aftermarket part available for this part, i've looked. So apparently they can sometimes get it for cheaper then you can if they have a good relationship with a certain dealership.



I know in the case of Advance auto, list price for us might be $100, we use a coupon code that everyone knows about get 33%. Makes it $67 our cost. But they sell it to the shop for $50 and they mark it up 40% to be $70. This is some cases i've seen and talked to some parts people. While we might pay $3 more, we have that extra warranty. If you bought a part in and it fails, the shop will say your on your own, or best case they give a discount the 2nd time around and make your buy their part. Now if they bought the part and installed it. You should not pay a dime.


An intake boot in 90% of the time is almost always a DIY job. It can be as simple as 2 band clamps on a 4 cylinder that is right on top. Or maybe a little elbow grease for the ones that hide their throttle body.
 
bruceb said:
That was probably something you could have replaced yourself. But yes, repair shops will add about 10% - 20% markup to the cost they pay (wholesale, in most cases) to the price of the part.
Click to expand...



What?!? When I was a tech it was a lot more, many times double on their cost.
 
Yes, they are crooks. I recently got an estimate that was $2500 from a new place that didn't know me. I took it to my regular guy and was charged $1100 for basically the same work.
 
I just spend $620 for all new brake pads (I supplied the pads), 2 front rotors, adjust parking brake and synthetic oil and filter change at a decent Chevy dealer. A little on the high side, but they claimed a total of 5 hours of labor (might have taken that long).
 
bruceb said:
I just spend $620 for all new brake pads (I supplied the pads), 2 front rotors, adjust parking brake and synthetic oil and filter change at a decent Chevy dealer. A little on the high side, but they claimed a total of 5 hours of labor (might have taken that long).
Click to expand...

5 hours for a brake job and oil change? I've never done either but I find it hard to believe that is right... unless adjusting a parking brake is a 3 hour job.
 
Well, they had to install the front rotors, remove and resurface the rear ones. An oil change takes about 25 mins at most. Parking brake is either tighten the cable or set the parking brake shoes (like you do with drum brakes) or perhaps both.
 
bruceb said:
I just spend $620 for all new brake pads (I supplied the pads), 2 front rotors, adjust parking brake and synthetic oil and filter change at a decent Chevy dealer. A little on the high side, but they claimed a total of 5 hours of labor (might have taken that long).
Click to expand...

"A little" on the high side?

Tell me that they at least changed the brake fluid and bled all 4 corners.

I doubt that they resurfaced the rears, unless you watched them do it.
 
The current shop I'm at marks parts up about 25%.

The last place I was at aimed for 250%.

It's...a wide gamut. And most places will lean toward the 'taking advantage of you' side.

[edit: number unintentionally misleading. To properly correlate, that first one should be '125%,' or 'cost plus 25%.' As opposed to 'cost plus 150%.' Still obscene.]
 
Last edited:
You may be correct about the rears not needing resurfacing. I checked it when I got home, and from the feel could tell they still had lots of dirt, but not grooves. And they did not say if the brake fluid was done or not, but I do have a very nice brake pedal feel now.
 
At $620, how much was the front rotors. I would assume $100 per rotor. So u spent roughly $420 on labor for front/rear brake job.

Unless u have a crazy setup, parking brake adjustments is not much more since u have the rear brakes apart. They might need to adjust ur parking brake handle which takes like .3-.75 of an hour but should be included in a standard brake job.

At dealership rates its good. I normally hear $250 labor for each axle.
 
Parking brake is drum shoes inside the rotor. You need to set the shoe preset drag, then adjust the cable from the parking brake pedal. Rotors, per the invoice were $50 each and they also did a full synthetic oil change (with filter)
 
Yup. I'm used to the internal parking brakes in the hat of the rotor. When u pull the rotor, its not anymore work to adjust. Normally its about a handful of clicks on the star wheel, unless its leaking.
 
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