There are some things that just go together – peanut butter and jelly, Bogart and Bacall, wine and cheese, but auto repair and phone quotes are definitely not one of them. There has been a huge trend lately for companies to put in bids for particular services, and while it works well for certain industries, we strongly caution against it when it comes to automotive repair. It’s not because we are old school and not open to new trends, but rather the opposite! See if you can follow our reasoning.
There are literally thousands of parts in today’s automobiles and many of them are closely intertwined. For example, let’s say that Dusty Carr is driving around and notices that his brakes are making noise, he calls Mr. Fixit Auto Repair for a quote on brake pads and they say sure, we can fix that for $150.00 out the door. Sounds great, so Mr. Carr takes his vehicle in only to find that he needs new rotors and calipers to go along with his brake pads. His new total is hundreds of dollars more than anticipated and he is beyond frustrated with Mr. Fixit Auto Repair because their quote wasn’t accurate.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we had a customer call us for a quote on a new hybrid battery pack for their Prius. They had called around to other shops for diagnostics and knew exactly what they needed so were just looking for a price from us. Unwilling to be an “absentee mechanic” we asked to actually look at the car before quoting a price. Once the car was in the shop, we discovered that it didn’t need the hybrid battery pack at all, but instead just a standard 12-volt battery. The original quotes for the hybrid battery pack replacement ranged from $3,500.00 to $4,200.00 – The actual cost of the repair was $200.00!
Automobiles are one of those things that need to be seen to be diagnosed. Mechanics can make best guess estimates all day long, but bottom line is that without seeing the actual vehicle, there is no way to accurately diagnose the problem or quote a price for repair. Of course we understand that pricing is certainly a factor when choosing an auto repair shop, however it should not be the only thing to consider. You want to find an auto repair shop you can trust to give you an accurate diagnosis of your vehicle, along with fair pricing for the repairs. When you find that perfect combination, you won’t need to look anywhere else!
