where would you go for electric door lock and cruise contriol repair on your 8-10 year old car?
Dealer service?
Independant shop?
Buddy down the street?
Other?
Any good independent shop can perform the repairs you mentioned. Should be relatively easy although some cruise control modules can be surprisingly expensive.
Unless you’re “buddy down the street” is exceptionally well equipped with knowledge, tools, and information resources, do yourself a favor and don’t even consider taking it to him. Dealerships and higher level independents should be quite capable of dealing with the problems.
I started the same type of question/thread a few weeks ago. I have a 2002 Passat. The neighborhood mechanic had trouble diagnosing the exact problem. Then I took it to the dealership…they fixed it fast. They are more expensive per hour, but they are schooled in your cars problems and take less time (at least in my situation).
Your dealer mechanic is more expensive, but is more likely to get to the heart of the problem very, very quickly. They have a huge database of the liklihood that a is causing b* just because they’re been able to populate it over the years. A local mechanic doesn’t have this infrastructure to count on. So the dealer can start by looking at the #1 cause and rapidly testing it, while the local guy has to do bona fide troubleshooting. This isn’t to say that the local guy isn’t a good mechanic; in fact because he has to troubleshoot everything and the dealer doesn’t, he may be a better overall mechanic. In a way, this could influence price. The dealer may put the right part in right away the first time, whereas the local guy may charge you for every part that he replaces until he gets it right.
Proof? I have no proof, and I’m not trying to hurt the little guy – for obvious things like clutches, tuneups, oil changes, new heads, anything mechanical that doesn’t require massive troubleshooting, you’re probably going to have no problems with the local guy.
Sometimes he does. The better-grade independents invest in various information resources, including technical service bulletins, scan tools with detailed descriptions of common problems, and peer-to-peer networking. While this is not as extensive as a dealer’s information database for a given make, it is usually adequated to efficiently diagnose and repair most problems.
There’s significant expense involved in acquiring this information (not to mention tools, training, and competent help), so don’t expect budget prices from the more capable shops.
A good dealership service department will offer the most competent service on their cars. Unfortunately, not all dealerships have good service. A good independent shop is generally a better choice than a mediocre dealership.
For further advice, see my post (#3) in this thread.
Ok, this is more of an IMHO rather than a general fact, but generally the bigger, the more convinient, the more obvious the establishment (such as a dealership, gas station mechanic, etc.) the more likely are you to overpay for repairs (and perhaps do some that you don’t need).
I’d go to a buddy down the street and ask him who his mechanic is with whom he’s on a first name basis.
I’d be wary of saying things like this in GQ, but I’m sick of my friends complaining to me “I just spent $800 to get my brake pads replaced, and they said I need to recharge my AC and replace my timing belt and that’s going to take a week and be another $1000”.
Aftermarket door locks and cruise control would take about $200(Audiovox CCS-100 and A1 Electric W01-RF104 )parts and 8 hours labor to completely replace/install for a complete amateur. An installation job for a professional would probably take 2 hours tops(just a WAG though). So even if you need everything replaced don’t let them charge you more than $400 total.
YMMV.
groman, I’m sure you mean well, but you don’t really know what you’re talking about.
*…the bigger, the more convinient, the more obvious the establishment (such as a dealership, gas station mechanic, etc.) the more likely are you to overpay for repairs (and perhaps do some that you don’t need). *
What do you mean, “overpay?” You mean pay more than the cheap rate a half-qualified, half-competent place would charge? Or more than the loss-leader price chain operations advertise? (By the way, it’s the chains who typically oversell.) Paying more than some other place charges doesn’t necessarily mean overpaying. Generally you get what you pay for.
*…I’m sick of my friends complaining to me “I just spent $800 to get my brake pads replaced, and they said I need to recharge my AC and replace my timing belt and that’s going to take a week and be another $1000”. *
What the heck does getting brake work done have to do with needing A/C and timing belt work? It’s not the shop’s fault that your friends cars are in a condition where several different things are needed.
Aftermarket door locks and cruise control would take about $200(Audiovox CCS-100 and A1 Electric W01-RF104 )parts and 8 hours labor to completely replace/install for a complete amateur. An installation job for a professional would probably take 2 hours tops(just a WAG though). So even if you need everything replaced don’t let them charge you more than $400 total.
Ah geez! Those aftermarket accessories are for cars that don’t have those features from the factory. Using kits like that can’t repair the factory system (and they usually can’t be installed because the factory components are in the way). And obviously the prices for those have no bearing on what it might cost to diagnose and repair the factory set-up.
Adopting an arrogant attitude like “don’t let them charge you more than $X” is a pretty sure way to alienate a high quality shop. They’ll be happy to send you down the road to the cheap shop, where again you’ll get what you pay for.
Hummmmmm prolly will go for the dealer as we are new to the area and will go for an estimate before work commences. Too hot to do with the A/C
I don’t want to start a pit thread right now(maybe later), but a large percentage of shops, especially dealerships, will estimate the largest amount they think you will pay without outright leaving and going someplace else regardless of repairs needed.
Just one of many anecdotal examples:
The Chrysler dealership estimated me around $300 to replace the driver side visor. $160 parts and $140 labor. Sure, it included a garage door opener, and the installation included plugging in a standard power connector and screwing in 2 torx screws. A replacement chipped key with a remote fob was around $150 parts.
I don’t know if any studies have been done, I’d be interested in reading them. In my own personal experience, prices on the same type of service and parts vary as much as 3x-4x across shops, and depend a lot on how the person looks when they bring the car in. IF they look like an easy target, they can wind up with an estimate for things broken that aren’t really.
Car repairs are worse than car sales, because most of the time people can walk away from the sale, but once their car is broken, and they went to the trouble of getting the car to the repair shop, they already feel like they’ve made a commitment and most likely won’t shop around, won’t get a second opinion.
How much a high-end aftermarket part costs should be a reasonable estimate of how much it would cost to get an OEM replacement in this case. Because at the very worst they can just install the aftermarket cruise control and hook it up to the existing buttons. Same thing with power door locks.
Just to clarify, the visor is just a piece of cloth on a metal frame with a 3 button universal garage door opener in it. Total net cost to the dealer should be well under $10, so I’d happily pay $30 for it. The key should be even cheaper.
No. A tiny percentage might try to do this. I’m sorry you have this impression, but it’s not accurate.
The 140 labor certainly sounds high for what you describe, but the parts prices don’t strike me as necessarily out of line. Just because you think something is more expensive than it should be doesn’t mean that the dealership is trying to rip you off.
Surprisingly, car manufacturers and dealerships don’t base their pricing on what you think it should be. And let me know if find any key w/ chip and remote combination for less than 30. That would be startling news. (Hint – ain’t no such thing.)
Again, a tiny percentage of shops might operate this way, but it’s not the norm, or even close to it.
Says who? I find that to be a ridiculous assertion. You have any facts to back it up?
No, they almost certainly can’t. It’s extremely unlikey the systems are compatible in that way. And there’s always the possibility that the problems lies in the buttons (actually the switches operated by the buttons). Aftermarket accessories generally do not relate to factory systems. Apples and oranges.
If I can remember, I’ll drop back by this thread and post what we find out.
I didn’t immediately mention it, but now I’ve got to make a similar decision. My front-wheel drive car (back home) has yet more front end problems. I’ve had the front end worked on twice under warranty (and I hadn’t know there was a problem). Of course now that the warranty is expired, there’s something really noticably wrong. The whole car vibrates, especially at slower speeds. Over time, it’s been getting worse, and starting to shake at higher speeds. I’m just guessing it’s something in the front end – the dealer told me one time that front end problems on front-wheel drive cars with big V8’s are common. Or it could be something as stupid as the tires, which just sit up to two months at a time. In any case, I’m not asking for a diagnosis; the mechanic will do that.
So my choices are: it’s not electronic; it’s obviously something mechanical. But… the dealer may do after warranty assistance because I’m a good customer and have always gone for their stupid two-hour oil changes. However they closed their suburban office so now I have to drive into the friggin’ city of Detroit to get there. Or I could find a closer dealer with whom I have no relationship. Or find a local front-end shop really close to the house. Also since my trips home are weekend only, they’ve got to be open on a Saturday, and be willing to let my car sit in their lot for an unknown amount of time. The dealer, though, knowing my relationship, history, and employment may assume I’ll just pay whatever amount they ask. A new dealer doesn’t know me and I have no relationship to foster, so they may just take me for whatever they want to. And the local front-end shop probably counts on word of mouth to a high degree, and maybe will understand that having a 5 year old car means that I’m not rich enough to have a 5 month old car. And he’s more likely to be open until noon on Saturdays.
So, even with my opinion above, I’m seriously considering not going to the dealer (if I could know for certain about the after warranty assistence, that’d sway my decision).
I believe that most if not all chipped keys/remote fobs have to be programed to the car, and since no labor was listed for that, I believe that the $140 probably included the labor to do that. Depending on the difculity could run upwards to an hour of labor. (and yes it can take that long)
Dude you don’t even have a fucking clue. Even if you could possibility do this ( and on many cars you flat can’t, would you like me to name a couple?) You would have to pay a very good technician to go in and do surgery on the stock wiring harness, and adapt it to the aftermarket crap that you want installed. You would be eaten alive in labor charges. I have the ability to do this, and if someone were to come to me with such a harebrained idea and insist that I do it, I would try to talk them out of it. But if they insisted, it would be a straight time job, at a premium labor rate. This is not the way to save money, trust me.