Repairs
Auto Repair Has Never Been More Important
July 1, 2010 | 
Author Automotive service and repair has changed dramatically over a generation, according to the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), an independent group that tests and certifies the competence of auto technicians nationwide.
Today, high-tech systems that were unheard of 30 years ago – anti-lock brakes, electronic engine controls and computerized diagnostics – are commonplace. It doesn’t appear that the swift pace of technological advancement will slow any time soon, either, with the advent of hybrid vehicles and such features on the horizon as interactive suspensions, constantly variable-speed transmissions and 42-volt batteries.
For automotive service professionals, this means continual training and coursework to keep up with the torrent of changes. Disparaged years ago as “grease monkeys,” mechanics today have become automotive technicians, every bit as comfortable behind a computer screen and keyboard as under the hood with a wrench.
ASE is reminding motorists to follow the service schedules listed in their owners’ manuals before making a long-distance drive. While few people would ignore an ominous service engine light, many do skip oil changes. Yet in survey after survey, ASE-certified master auto technicians say that the old-fashioned oil change is one of the most vital services for getting the most from your automotive investment.
ASE was founded in 1972 as a nonprofit, independent organization dedicated to improving the quality of automotive service and repair through the voluntary testing and certification of automotive professionals. Its 400,000 certified technicians wear blue-and-white ASE shoulder insignia and carry credentials listing their exact areas of certification. Their employers often display the ASE sign.
Posted in Repairs | 
Tags: ASE, Auto Repair Has Never Been More Important, Auto Technicians, automotive service excellence, Automotive Technicians, electronic engine controls, Exact Areas, grease monkeys, Hybrid Vehicles, Independent Group, Independent Organization, national institute for automotive service excellence, Oil Change, Oil Changes, Owners Manuals, repair, service, Service Professionals, Service Schedules, shoulder insignia, Speed Transmissions, Swift Pace, Technological Advancement, Volt Batteries | 
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Auto Repair Estimates And Car Repair Prices – The Real Information To Avoid Car Repair Scams
Worrying whether or not you were overcharged for your car repair is an awful feeling. There’s tons of advice on how to avoid getting ripped-off, but few discuss the actual car repair prices. We really need to look at the charges on a car repair estimate or auto repair invoice to determine if we’re paying too much.
The focus needs to shift from giving outdated and ineffective advice to addressing the “actual” and “specific” charges. Are they legitimate charges? Can they be justified by industry guidelines?
Now car repair estimates can be confusing. So let’s break it down to get a better idea if your auto repair shop is billing you appropriately.
First, a glossary of terms is in order, as the auto industry has a language of its own…
Aftermarket Parts: parts not made by the manufacturer.
MSRP: Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price
OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer. Manufacturer approved parts designed specifically for your vehicle.
TSBs: Technical Service Bulletins. Notes and instructions provided by the manufacturer for known and specific concerns(they are not recalls).
Flat Fees: services such as alignments that don’t get broken down into parts, tax, labor
Miscellaneous Charges: these can include, but are not limited to shop supplies – rags, chemicals, hazardous waste disposal fees, waste oil …etc.
Labor Rate: a repair center’s hourly charge to service your vehicle
Labor Time: the amount of time or hours determined that it will take to fix your vehicle
Labor Description: the step-by-step written details of repairs and/or services
Ok, let’s look at the Anatomy of an Auto Repair Estimate:
There are six basic components to a car repair estimate
1) Customer/Vehicle Information
2) Parts
3) Labor
4) Miscellaneous Charges
5) Flat Fees
6) Summary of Charges
Customer and Vehicle Information
Using a generic “top down” style estimate, the top portion simply contains your personal information and your vehicle’s specifics: year, make, model, mileage…etc, as well as your request or concern.
We also want find the shop’s labor rate. The labor rate is critical in determining if you paid too much. Most repair centers don’t list the labor rate. We’ll discuss why shortly.
Auto Parts
Parts are listed usually with a brief description, as well as the quantity, and the price. There are three types of parts: OEM (parts made by or for a manufacturer). These are the parts installed by a dealer, although many local shops use OEM parts too.
Aftermarket parts are non OEM parts, and there are various degrees of quality, depending on the brand and where they’re made – China versus USA, for example.
Then there are Used parts purchased from a salvage yard.
To determine if you paid too much for parts, first find out what type of parts are being used. With OEM parts, you don’t want to pay more than MSRP, although most people do without realizing it. Premium aftermarket parts are similarly priced across brands, although beware not to pay more than MSRP, which again, many folks do. Used part prices are all over the place, so pick the price in the middle.
Auto Repair Labor
Labor is billed in tenths. So 1.0 equals 1 hour. 1.5 equals an hour and a half.
Labor rates range from $60 to $100 per hour at local repair shops and $80 to $140 per hour at the dealer level. Labor times are based off established industry guidelines, which are frequently abused.
If you don’t see the shop’s labor rate posted on the car repair invoice, ask your service center for the rate. Repair shops can manipulate the labor rate (among other things) with a labor matrix. Matrix pricing is a complicated and ethically questionable practice discussed at length in RepairTrust literature. What you need to know is that you can pay as high as $150 per hour rather than the posted labor rate of $105 per hour.
To ensure that you’re being charged properly, you’ll want to multiply the number of hours billed (which is also often not posted) by the shop’s labor rate.
Most labor descriptions are poorly written and difficult to understand. So ask questions.
Here’s a “clear” labor description for a 30,000 mile service on a Toyota Camry.
Performed 30,000 mile service per customer request, and in accordance with manufacturer guidelines. Changed oil and filter, installed new air filter, cabin filter and performed all necessary tests, checks, and procedures, including road test (miles 30,123 – 30,125). Performed lubrication services and confirmed proper vehicle operation. Set tire pressures, and checked fluids, belts and hoses. Note: vehicle is pulling slightly left. Needs alignment
Miscellaneous Charges
The bulk of your car repair invoice will be parts and labor, but we can’t forget about Miscellaneous Charges. These charges can include, but are not limited to, shop supplies – rags, chemicals, hazardous waste, disposal fees, waste oil …etc. The latter of these may be billed out separately in a summary at the bottom of your repair invoice.
Very few of these “extras” are actually used during regular repairs. Miscellaneous charges are calculated off the amount of labor hours billed, not the amount of miscellaneous items used.
Flat Fees
Flat fees can be another very tricky area. Flat fees are services, such as an alignment, which don’t get broken down into parts, tax and labor. This makes it difficult to determine the real and fair price. On the plus side, most flat fees are competitively priced.
Be warned however, another term for Flat Fee is called Menu Selling. In other words, you might see Tune Up: $99.99 or Transmission Flush: $89.99. Follow your manufacturer’s recommendations only, not a dealer’s or repair shop’s menu.
Summary of Charges
The last part of an auto repair estimate is the summary of charges. It’s usually found in the bottom right hand corner of the invoice. Check it against the charges above to ensure that it all adds up mathematically, as well as logically.
This basic estimate outline may differ from your particular invoice, which may have other categories such as “Sublet” or “HazMat.”
A sublet charge is added when your auto repair shop uses another vender to fix or repair your car, such as a glass company that replaces your windshield.
A HazMat charge may include waste oil or other disposal fees. Just make sure that the charges are warranted, as again, they too are often calculated off the labor time rather than actual need.
In sum, understanding the “actual” charges, asking the right questions, and breaking down your auto repair costs is the best way to avoid paying excessive car repair prices.
Auto Repair: The Top Ten Mistakes Made By Your Mechanic
Number One:
Not confirming the concern. Confirming a repair concern is a basic diagnostic principle frequently overlooked. To fix a problem, the first thing one must do is recognize it.
Number Two:
Insufficient Road Testing. The importance of a thorough road test (even for an oil change) is well documented in automotive training manuals. Yet, many technicians consider driving the vehicle into the shop good enough.
Number Three:
Misdiagnosing. For the above reasons and a multitude of others, your vehicle is misdiagnosed more often than not. Mechanics will spend hours chasing the wrong problem, wasting your time and money.
Number Four:
Throwing parts at a problem. To compensate for lack of skills, mechanics often just throw parts at the problem in the hope of getting lucky. It’s common to hear mechanics say I replaced this, this, this, and that, and the problem’s still not fixed. This goes right back to mistake number one: confirm the problem with diagnostics, then proceed.
Number Five:
Not addressing primary concerns first. Technicians often spend an inordinate amount of time looking for easy sells that will fatten their paychecks. There’s nothing wrong with this provided there’s no charge for the inspection, it doesn’t conflict with your time, and the upsell suggestions are valid (they’re frequently not). However, this type of free inspection and the subsequent upselling too often overshadows the primary concern. So…what’s wrong with my car?
Number Six:
Overconfidence. Too often unqualified technicians get in over their heads. Rather than defer to a more experienced technician or facility, they often keep going and do more harm. How’s it go…The road to hell is paved with good intentions?
Number Seven:
Taking shortcuts. In the ongoing effort to beat the clock, technicians will create a host of problems: breaking parts, snapping bolts, short circuiting sensitive electronics. Refer to Auto Repair: How Can They Screw Up an Oil Change for a great discussion.
Number Eight:
Poor Repairs. Whether through incompetence or laziness, mechanics frequently don’t do repairs correctly. It’s often sloppy work. Forgotten bolts, parts not lined up correctly, or components not re-installed properly are common. It gets worse with computer repairs: incorrect software programming, coding, and resynchronization protocols are just a few.
Number Nine:
Not confirming repairs. After a repair is complete, it’s important to re-check to ensure that the problem is indeed fixed. Too often parts are thrown in and the car is pulled out only to pull in another victim.
Number Ten:
Making a mess. If the above nine mistakes weren’t bad enough, there are now greasy fingerprints on the hood and steering wheel, and two big greasy boot marks on the carpet.
Posted in Repairs | Tags: auto, automotive training, car, common, concern, guide, help, info, Insufficient Road, maintenance, Number, price, prices, problem, repair, road to hell, sensitive electronics, software, tune-up, unqualified technicians, upselling, vehicle | No Comments »
Auto Repair: How Can They Screw Up An Oil Change?
“It’s all about beating the clock.” This quote comes from a wise old service manager, advising me on how to maximize my income as a flat-rate technician. If you have ever wondered why your car doesn’t get fixed correctly, or all your concerns weren’t addressed, you can blame, in part, the flat-rate pay structure.
Flat-rate simply means that your mechanic is paid a flat fee for a particular repair, regardless of how long the repair actually takes. In other words, if your car needs a water pump, which pays two hours of labor, and the mechanic completes the job in one hour, he gets paid for two.
In theory, this can work to your advantage. If the job takes longer, you still only pay the “predetermined” labor amount. In THEORY, not reality!
The flat-rate pay structure is designed to drive productivity. It’s very effective. The flat-rate pay system encourages technicians to work hard and fast, but it does not promote quality.
In terms of getting your car fixed correctly, the flat-rate pay structure has disastrous effects. Flat-rate technicians are constantly looking for shortcuts to beat the clock in order to maximize the number of hours they bill. Experienced flat-rate technicians can bill anywhere from 16 to 50 hours in an 8 hour day.
It’s these shortcuts and the breakneck speed at which flat rate technicians work that result in some of the most idiotic mistakes. In the rapid-fire pace of a shop I’ve witnessed technicians start engines with no oil. I’ve seen transmissions dropped, smashing into little pieces onto the shop floor. And I’ve seen cars driven right through bay doors—all in the name of “beating the clock.”
Flat-rate technicians can get quite elaborate with shortcuts. My favorite was the implementation of an 6-foot-long 2-by-4, which was placed under the engine for support while a motor mount was removed. It made a job predetermined to take 1.5 hours achievable in twenty minutes. A win-win, right? The technician makes extra money; you get your car back faster.
Actually, in many cases the placement of this 2-by-4 damaged the oil pan. Moreover, it caused the car, your car, to balance precariously 6 feet in the air, while the technician manipulated the car lift to access your engine mount.
This tactic was abruptly discontinued when a technician’s 2-by-4 snapped causing the car to crash nose down onto the concrete floor.
Sometimes the shortcuts create very subtle disturbances, which create problems overtime. A quick example: a vehicle had its transmission serviced with a new filter, gasket, and fluid. During the procedure, the technician was able to save time by bending the transmission dipstick tube slightly, in order to get the transmission pan out faster. The vehicle was reassembled, and the technician re-bent the tube back into place and off it went—no worries….
Six months later, the vehicle returned with an intermittent misfire. The engine wasn’t running on all cylinders. After extensive diagnostics, it was discovered that the transmission dipstick tube had chaffed through the engine harness, intermittently grounding out an injector. Hmm, that’s strange. Don’t usually see that.
The high-speed environment and the subsequent shortcuts illustrate the devastating effects of the flat-rate, sales-driven pay structure on the quality of car repairs.
No wonder even an oil change gets screwed up!
The poor quality of work encouraged by the flat rate pay structure is disconcerting enough. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop here. The negative effects of flat-rate get exponentially worse, as it opens “wide” the door to rip you off!
Posted in Repairs | Tags: bay doors, breakneck speed, car, disastrous effects, Don, little pieces, pay, pay structure, technician | No Comments »
Ask A Mechanic: Wading Through The Mess Of Car Repair Prices And Auto Repair Estimates
If you were handed an estimate to replace a water pump on your car, would you know if the price was fair? Could you trust the price? How about for a tie rod end, mass air flow sensor, or an evaporative emissions sensor?
Most of us don’t know what these are, never mind the price. Yet it is components such as these that are commonly used to over charge you, the car repair customer.
We no longer live in an age of trust, so how do we ensure that our auto repair costs are legitimate.
How many times have you suspected that you paid too much, but couldn’t prove it? How many times did the price seem exorbitant for even simple repairs?
To illustrate just how “At Risk” the everyday auto repair customer is to excessive car repair prices, here’s a recent real life example from a “reputable…?” dealer.
A client brought her Audi to an authorized Audi dealership for a standard timing belt maintenance service.
The price for this service averages $1575 at the dealership level, (including pulleys, water pump…etc) and about $1275 at the independent repair shop level.
Yet the woman left the dealer with a bill for $2025.68.
What happened?
According to the repair order, there were no abnormal circumstances, no problems noted by the technician such as rust or any other extenuating circumstances that would have perhaps increased the labor, or added additional parts.
In short, it was a straight forward service, but the bill was $450.68 higher than it should have been. There is simply no legitimate reason to have “that much” discrepancy.
How’d they get away with it?
The answer is very simple, and it’s a point that I don’t want anyone to miss:
They get away with it because they can!
Think about it. The average person doesn’t know how much auto parts cost. And who knows how much labor time a repair should take? To what sources does one turn to find out this information? Who even has the time to investigate!
Upon examination of this woman’s repair order, it was found that she was charged a full 4 hours “more” than the standard labor time. At $100 per hour, this added an additional $400. The remaining $50.68 came from the parts, which were billed higher than MSRP.
She was quoted $2,025 for a repair that tops out at $1575. The woman didn’t know. She just paid the bill and left.
How many times do folks just pay the bill and leave? Pretty much that’s all one can do given that there is no accessible information for the car repair customer to adequately question a repair bill. Furthermore, very few even know what questions to ask!
The auto repair industry has been over-charging for decades—sometimes subtly, sometimes boldly, definitely frequently. The evidence for this is overwhelming; yet, there are no easy solutions available for the car repair customer.
Government agencies can’t help. The Better Business Bureau can’t do anything. Even supposed “car repair experts or advocates” lack the understanding of the breadth and insidiousness of the car repair business at all its levels.
A dealership operates differently than an independent repair shop, and a franchise, like Midas, is totally unique. Who really knows what goes on in the underground of such a diverse and complex industry?
The Solution?
First and foremost, car repair customers need access to information on car repair prices. Without this, they’ve got nothing tangible in which to determine fair charges. They also need to be able to navigate the maze of parts and labor charges for car repairs and maintenance.
Like everything else, information is the key to ensure fair treatment. Without it, the car repair customer will continue to “swim with the sharks” without any protection.