I get better service at my local shop than any of my friends have received at a dealer. I’ve worked on cars that were repaired by dealers. Not impressed by the quality of their work. I’ve seen many a new car come back from dealer service with missing panel screws, misrouted hoses and generally sloppy work. Dealer mechanics are under the same constraints to rush through work as any other shop. Their certified mechanics are no different than any other certified shop. And when it comes to something complicated like a transmission, I’d rather have a shop that does nothing but transmissions work on it.
Nothing in this service pack is complicated. Bleeding brakes, changing the oil, and replacing a pollen filter are the most routine of maintenance. Certainly it’s nothing that a certified mechanic can’t handle.
Since larsenmtl has comparison shopped and found his original quote the lesser of the 2, I’m not going to beat a dead horse. I’m not surprised that there was an $80 difference between the 2.
But don’t think a “genuine Audi” part is somehow better than aftermarket. There are specific factory parts I won’t use and in some cases will pull from new vehicles. The cost of parts may or may not indicate quality and filters are an area where prices are all over the map. We’re talking “pollen filter”. That amounts to a few feet of hepa material encased in a plastic frame. Put another way, about 1/3 of the material in my $2 hepa vacuum cleaner bag. It’s not rocket science. $36 for a “pollen” filter. give me a break.
It is not worth the time to agonize over ever single part and figure out whether a cheaper alternative can be found online. Unless you place very little value on your free time (or enjoy scrounging for pollen filters on poorly-designed, poorly-organized websites), you’re better off just finding a competent mechanic who is familiar with your vehicle to handle this stuff for you.
The competent mechanic may be either an independent or the dealer, but it is not the guy at the gas station advertising emissions tests, 10-minute oil changes, and engine flushes.
so why is your shop at $69 dollars per hour and the shops I was teaching at the seminar charging $100+ per hour?
Well you could argue that the more expensive is padding their wallets. Or it could be they have a more expensive cost of business.
Anybody, but anybody can go buy a set of wrenches at Sears and call themselves a mechanic. Hell I can hire those guys for by the dozens for $10 per hour. Or I can hire a master technician that is computer literate, can use the factory (or aftermarket) diagnostic tools, can do accurately diagnosis, and repair the car without doing any further damage. These guys are going to cost you substantially more than$10/hour. Like maybe 3 times more.
Or let’s talk equipment. The factory diagnostic unit I was instructing on this past weekend consisted of a laptop, a communication interface, and a software subscription.
The laptop is $1700.
the interface is $1700.
The software is $8000 per year.
Or there was the aftermarket tool that was being demoed. It was $8500 for the tool + 1600 for the subscription. Or you could ask Gary T how much is All Data subscription is.
The guys that attended that seminar this past weekend are specialists. Extreme specialists. They realize that you can’t successfully work on every car on the road at a small shop. The equipment and training requirements will overwhelm them. These 70 odd shop owners realize this and spent the money to come to Nevada with their technicians in order to learn how to fix cars, and use the equipment. The guys at $69/ hour weren’t in attendance. I wonder why? could it be they don’t give a shit? Or perhaps they aren’t smart enough to understand that they don’t know, what they don’t know. Macgiver you have had two professionals that together have more years experience than you have been alive tell you that you are wrong. You might want to consider that you are in over your head here and have made a mistake.
If you need a question answered then why is one dealer charging $80 more than the other for routine maintenance. Do you not understand the concept of routine maintenance? That’s what were discussing.
Great, you just agreed with my use of specialty shops which I’ve advocated all along. If I need transmission work I take it to a transmission shop. I don’t take it to my $60 shop. It’s not their specialty. But none of this matters because this is not a thread about anything remotely complicated.
So how’s the view up there on your horse? This is routine maintenance. I’m not weighing in on anything more than an oil change, brake flush and a visual inspection. I take my cars to different shops based on the need of the repair. I don’t need an “Extreme specialist” to change my oil. And no amount of high horse grandstanding will change that fact. The advise I gave was sound, look for a certified shop for a 2nd quote.