It’s not crazy talk, it’s crazy cost in this day and age… If I had the funds, my car would be in the stealership for every ‘issue’. My local Toyota is walking distance from me! Its service is due in Feb ‘25, so it’ll be back with Toyota for that. I’m putting a new drop link, ball joint and lower engine mount on soon as I get the parts, so I’ll check the ABS sensor and clean it at the same time.
Back a few decades they would do an initial assessment for free. I distinctly remember when that ship sailed: I had a cut-and-dry issue, phoned dealership, described the problem and made an appointment, thought that would be that. Brought the car in, got a call an hour later, saying something like "you were ritght, the so-and-so is bad, needs replacement. It'll be $100 for today, and when would you like to bring it in for the job...".
Yeah, exactly. People want diagnostic fees now too, and charge per hr that it takes to do the diagnostic as well. Some mechanics waiver the diagnostic fee if they carry out the repair/fix at the same time. But even independents will charge a diagnostic fee now regardless of if they’re repairing. They just add the diagnostic fee on top. Money money money…
You can blame unscrupulous customers for that. In the days of free diagnostics (on the understanding that the same shop would carry out the repair), people would bring their cars in, get the free diagnostic, and then go back home and do the repair themselves or at another (presumably cheaper) mechanic leaving the diagnosing shop out of pocket. It didn't take long for that to get old for mechanics.
That and the tens of thousands of dollars that a competent shop has to spend for equipment, training, and information services. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
^ A good analogy of that is a "simple" tire rotation. A shop will roll your car onto a lift, hit the lug nuts with an air impact, with a final go-round with a torque wrench, will take about 15 minutes. For me to do that with floor jack, safety stands, wheel chocks and a corded-electric impact, rushing, would be at least an hour. And I'll be pretty pooped; those wheels never get any lighter... But the typical dealership customer doesn't think about that, sees how fast it happens, and is used to tire rotation being "free", when in fact it's often the "loss leader". They'll look around while in there, notice splitting CV joint boots, failing suspension, oil leaks, knackered brakes. Which is fair enough, if they're honest
