Searching for a 3rd opinion.

Walkinshaw · 07-06-2005, 09:50 PM

My sister doesn't live at home and is of the 'i dont know a bloody thing about cars' persuasion. She recently got her car serviced at a dealer in the NT. This came back as the invoice. To me a few things were EXCESSIVE. Look at the cost of non genuine pads, 3L of coolant and "missalanious"....

Ive made every endevour to remove anything that may allude to who did the servicing. Im just looking for confrimation that there is a few things a bit amiss here.

Also wouldnt the water pump be reasonably accessable whilst doing the timing belt, making the $160odd in labour to fit a new gasket extreme??

Cheers

Walkinshaw · 07-06-2005, 09:53 PM

Car is a 97 lancer btw.

MITCHAY · 07-06-2005, 09:55 PM

Yeah i dont see why they would charge that much for timing belt and water pump. I got water pump and timing belt kit (seals and belts) for about $500 on the TX5. Sounds a bit excessive to me. Shop around is all i can say. If a person doesnt know shit all about cars then SOME mechanics wil take em for all they got which is just plain wrong.

Walkinshaw · 07-06-2005, 10:08 PM

well she is 900km from here, and she lives 300km out of Alice so it makes it hard for me to assess bills/repairs of her car.

neb · 07-06-2005, 10:14 PM

i just got my car roadworthied.. part of it was front brake pads and front discs. i got charged $65 for brake pads, and $40 to machine discs. so that is more expensive than what i paid..

MNM96 · 07-06-2005, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neb

i just got my car roadworthied.. part of it was front brake pads and front discs. i got charged $65 for brake pads, and $40 to machine discs. so that is more expensive than what i paid..

I priced a timing belt at REPCO9 (Which stands for Rip Every Poor C..t Off) and it was only $36.00. Labour as the timing belt was already off, 1 Hour MAX! She has no doubt paid. Tell her the best bet would be to throw a brick through the blokes front window each week until she doesn't feel ripped off!

Cheers,
Mike.

PS. Forget I said the whole Brick thru window bit!

Dave_au · 07-06-2005, 11:52 PM

Mitsubishi's service manual should outline the average hours expected for each service or service component, use that as a guide. Some timing belts can take hours to service and adjust.

brenx · 08-06-2005, 10:02 AM

If you've ever replaced a fwd car? It's not a straight forward job and requires you to work in 1-3" of space. You you have to start dismantling. The disc machine and coolant are the only things a little over priced but that sounds like it's a dealer service. Biggest mistage you can make is to use a dealer.

Pads for my Hyundai S-coupe were $65, disc machine if you remove the disc is $10-20 per disc, you can buy 5lt of concentre for around $41 not 3lt.

As said above a dealer just refers to his service book. His service book says the amount of hours to do the job. Then they add the parts cost to it. Bingo massive bill. As they overstate labour in a big was.

It's good they found a water pump leak as that'll save the engine in the long run.

My example is Ford charged me $2500 to replace a head and head gasket on an EL. They a) didn't replace the head I marked it and b) kept the car for a week to do the job. I've replaced the gasket twice myself and inspected the head. Total cost is $210 parts + 5/6 hours labour. Work it out minus the parts. I was being charged a whooping $381.66 an hour! Man I wish I earnt that every hour.

08-06-2005, 10:10 AM

First suggestion I'd make is price the parts locally (and even genuine if need be) before sitting down with the service manager and/or dealer principal to discuss the outrageous bill.
I'm arguing with a holden dealer over a diff additive and oil that as far as I am concerned is warranty, and that is only $60 odd, not a $1200 bill.

4.9 EF Futura · 08-06-2005, 10:32 AM

Yeah im just wondering about the implications of FWD... i.e. bloody magnas where the engine mount needs disconnecting and the engine is lifted from the bay just to access accessory belt.

Yeah $40 odd for 3L coolant sounds like dealer rates, as does $85 worth of pads... most of the parts seem a bit exy for NG... fuel/air filter, timing belt @ $120...

Miscellaneous sounds a bit rough @ $135 odd. Labour seems reasonable unfortuately... that's a fair bit of work that's been done.

jonbays · 08-06-2005, 10:33 AM

Its just full service book standard hours at mid range hourly rates not a total rip off just charging well for everything that can be justified by the book. There is a bit of a double take here as the jobs can be done together which would have resulted in less hours but i doubt its unfair enough to cause any concern in a repair industry council complaint.

I know how it feels though I have a sister who is similarly unsympathetic to all mechanical things and whilst growing up together she never had to worry as i would drive her acr and fix things for free before they went badly wrong as soon as I moved interstate there wasn't much i could do but listen patiently to her complaints.

unfortunately women often get a bad deal from the auto industrty and its got to change. If i was a dealer principal i would be getting my secretary off my lap and getting her into a trainee scheme in new and used sales and service recpeption to deal with all my female customers.

As a brther and a father these things sort of come to you later in life but they are good ideas if you are in the trade guys think about it.