I got an oil change done and it turns out the shop checked my alignment and battery. I did not ask for these tests. They are recommending an alignment and say I’ll need a battery soon.
What is your reaction when a shop tells you need work based on tests you didn’t ask for?
Depends totally on the shop. Some are trustworthy, some are not. If you don’t know enough to tell the difference, assume not until they’ve proven themselves.
I brought my wife’s 2008 Jetta into the dealer for an oil change. They were running a special, and it was cheaper than I could do myself. When I got it back, they had a big list of things that needed work. One of them was the rear brakes, which they wanted to do for $700. I replaced pads and rotors on all 4 wheels for $200 myself (I have to admit that the rear’s were really difficult). They also noted the source of an oil leak, and wanted to fix that for $1,400. I looked up the problem on the Web, and found that I could do it for a few hundred dollars and an hour of time by following a sneaky shortcut. So, I’m going to do that this weekend.
So, I don’t mind that they did the inspection. Yes, they probably are trying to upsell, but in both cases, the worked needed to be done, and most people are not going to want to do those jobs themselves.
I voted “pressure tactic”, but it really does depend on the shop. Jiffy Lube and other similar quick oil change places are notorious for using the cheap oil change as basically a loss leader to get people into the shop, and then “recommending” a bunch of other services you may or may not actually need. “Hey, we tested your coolant and recommend a radiator flush.” Or my favorite, showing the customer the air filter and asking if they want it changed. For stuff like that I would say, “Well, does my car’s maintenance say it’s time to flush the radiator or change the air filter?”
If I was at the dealer or a trustworthy independent shop, I would be more likely to believe them.
There’s a middle ground in there for most places, but I voted the first option. To me it’s information; what I do with it is up to me.
This exactly. I’d never trust a quick change oil place, but I have a good dealer that I trust.
I trust the auto shop I regularly use, I’ve been going to them for over 20 years. They don’t do tests I didn’t ask for, and they always tell me what they’re going to do before they do it, including tests. So it hasn’t come up. But I voted “pressure tactic” because I just made the assumption that only a shop who didn’t know me would do that. I would say “No thanks” to any work they suggested, and then, depending on my mood, I might add “Sorry you wasted your time” or “I’ll have my regular shop look at it.”
Unfortuantely, this is most of my answer. It would also depend on how critical the component was they said was failing. If it’s my brakes, yeah, I’m going to get those fixed. Need a battery? I’ll probably take care of that on my own.
I have a local shop here that’s very trustworthy. A few years back when got about $7k of repairs on my wife’s truck to fix a pretty serious problem. We got the truck back home and noticed the problem flare up. It turns out they didn’t really fix the problem and we went back to the shop expecting a big fight. The owner looked at everything and said something like, “Our guy clearly didn’t pay attention to your [my wife’s] instructions, didn’t look at what he should have looked at, and ended up replacing parts that didn’t fix the problem.” They took full responsibilty, fixed the issue, and in essence we got a lot of labor and parts for free. I was ready for a serious fight but they were open and honest about what happened are more importantly fixed it.
If that shop tells me they found something, I’m going to trust them.
Yeah, and then they tell you that it’s 9 bucks for the filter and 10 bucks labor. Dude, you already have it in your hand, the labor should be free!
Still depends on the shop.
Many years ago, when I was young and more innocent (and as now female, which unfortunately may be relevant), I took my new-to-me car to a dealership to have it inspected.
They told me (after a brief attempt to claim that they couldn’t fix a cracked turn signal lens, solved by my asking them in a loud voice pitched to carry to everyone in the waiting and sales room whether they seriously expected me to buy a new car because they were no longer providing turn signal lenses for a two year old model – lo and behold, it suddenly turned out that they had one) that the car had passed inspection, but I was about to need new brake pads, they were almost worn out.
I said ‘that’s funny, I just had the brake pads replaced a couple of months ago.’
They said ‘maybe they put them in the wrong way around, places unfamiliar with the car sometimes do that.’ (The car was a SAAB; this was about 1975 in the USA, and that was an unusual make here at the time.)
I said, ‘that’s funny, I had them replaced downstate where my parents live, at one of the oldest SAAB dealerships in the country.’
I took the car to a local mechanic, and asked him to look at the brake pads. The brake pads were fine.
So – yeah. Didn’t vote in the poll, because it depends on the shop. If my regular shop notices something that causes them to run a test and they report a problem I didn’t know about, I’m going to believe them, because I’ve got other reason to trust them. If it were a random oil change place where I didn’t know the people, I’d say ‘thanks for telling me’ – and I’d take it to my regular mechanic and have them check it; and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they said the car was fine.
My regular mechanic also does my oil changes, though; partly because I don’t want to put up with that crap.
Well the labor should be half off. They already did the “remove” part, so now they just need to do the “and replace” part. 
j/k. New filter or old, they still need to put it back together.
Funnily-enough, a recent one for me was a garage that quoted me £1,400 (same number, different currency) for an oil leak they found during the service.
I said I’d think about it, and later a mechanic friend had a look underneath and said there was no leak (and weeks later, there’s no a drop of oil from anywhere I’ve parked).
So I dodged that one, but sadly can’t say I’ve not fallen for stuff like that previously.
I really trust my shop. In all the years I have used them, they found a problem only once and they replaced the left front suspension for about $300 and a strange noise that I heard every time I went over a pothole (ubiquitous in Montreal) disappeared.
Yeah, I feel fine about it.
But, it doesn’t mean I necessarily believe them, nor am I interested in buying some random shop’s parts and labor. Yeah, nice try, WrenchRandoLuber…I think the engine compartment’s air filter is just fine, sir! And did you say tie rod end? I think you meant control arm bushing, and, yes, I know all about that. Kind of different things, mister man!
However, and this seems to be a theme in this thread, it’s different when it’s a mechanic I know and trust tells me about something.
At best I’ll say thank you and ignore what they say. It can get worse.
I’ve had the opposite problem. I take the car in for some basic service, they do their 100 point check or whatever, and tell me everything is fine, and then that weekend a coolant hose splits.
Of course I’ve also had the quick lube places try to play games:
Showing me a paper towel with some red oil on it, “here is your transmission fluid.”
I shrug, “looks good to me.”
Tech wanders off having completed the management required up-sell.
As almost everyone has said, some shops I’ve used I’ve trusted. Particularly when over several years the dialogue has gone from, “you have some seepage, but nothing to worry about,” to “remember that leak, probably time to deal with it. [Ray Magliozzi voice] Because I’ve got a boat payment due.”
I took my car back to the dealer for some recall work, and of course the 108-point check uncovered a minor maintenance issue, a looming threat (my tires), and an imminent disaster (my entire front steering and suspension was badly worn and in danger of falling out any second!)
I let them take care of the minor maintenance issue and took the car to my trusty independent mechanic. He pronounced the tires still had a few thousand miles left in them, and that the dealer was a lying scumbag because my front suspension and steering showed very little wear, much less near-failure levels.
Two months later, when one of my tires got a nail in it, I opted to replace them at that point and save the $25 it would have taken to plug the hole.
The example in the OP sounds to me like they’re trying to drum up business rather than looking out for your best interest.
When I was a teenager I had a Pinto with steering problems. The shop I took it took gave me an estimate of things wrong with the car that greatly exceeded the value of the car (not hard to do). I laughed. On top of it all they misdiagnosed the problem. I was a shade tree mechanic and started poking around. It ended up being a $9 part from a junkyard.
but to the op. You can check your battery yourself with a volt meter or buy one of these. I keep one in every car. It will tell you if your battery voltage is low which is a sign it’s about to die and it will show the alternator charging it.
I had a 125 cc scooter in Taiwan and it seemed whenever I would take it in for an oil change they would have a laundry list of things wrong with it. Then I found out that a guy I knew has a shop himself and he always was honest with me. Sometimes, he would fix something just by adjusting something, and he wouldn’t charge, and other times he would stop something which would be more serious.
So, it depends on the type of shop.