Anyone have a rough estimate of how much I may be looking at paying for a new starter in my 99 alero?
Feel free to include what you might expect for labor as well.
The car needs to go in tomorrow and I don’t want too much of a shock when the bill comes :mad:
L4 or V6? One is rediculously easy, the other a bit tougher. This makes a difference in determing how much something will cost. The starter itself will run about $200 to $225.
v6… probably the more expensive one, right?
At my rates, starter replacement with a rebuilt unit would be 305, plus 45 for testing (if necessary) to determine it is indeed the starter that’s faulty.
Yep. The starter on the L4 is right out in the open. That was my experience on a 96 Olds Ciera, the Alero is the same basic car.
Wow, it looks like all of you have better mechanics than I do. I was quoted at about $450 for a new starter and about $400 for a rebuilt one.
Does this seem incredibly excessive to anyone else? Am I getting ripped off by these guys?
You’re all the experts!
New, not remanufactured, for the L4 is $148.00 at my local parts store. It’s an easy job to replace it on the 4, as has been mentioned. So, it all depends on labor costs.
Hmmm. “Better” may mean cheaper to you, but I generally equate “better” with competence, quality, and integrity, which can often cost more than what I would consider “worse.”
That said,it surprises me that it’s that much higher than I would charge, but are we comparing apples to apples? Perhaps their quote includes the testing, for example. As to “incredibly excessive” or “ripped off,” that’s hard to judge. Auto repair price levels vary with geography (region of the country, big city/small town, etc.) and with the quality and expertise of the individual shop.
As to how much the starter itself will cost, that’s fraught with different perspectives. I buy at a wholesale price from my parts store, and mark it up noticeably in providing it to my customer. But the market is such that the price for a walk-in retail customer would not be much more than my wholesale cost. And there are price differences based on brand and quality level. It’s not really possible to make a meaningful price comparison with no more info than “it’s a starter that fits this particular car.”
Overall, though, I would say that 400 for testing and installation of a high-quality rebuilt starter does not sound alarmingly high to me.