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Auto Repair Rip-off...

justpassnthru

Active member
Veteran
Just to bring some light to an age old scam, which gets more disgusting with age.

I took my little Honda CR-V to the dealership in Loma Linda, CA (Spreen Honda) and was told it needed new brakes and rotors to the tune of $975.00 and about $2K of additional crap. It was there for an electrical problem and the transmission. i won't even write the list of things they wanted to re-build and never address the issue it was in for.

Immediately, i went and took it elsewhere..
Similar bull. Took it to yet, a 3rd auto repair place.

My brakes are just fine and over 50% of pads left, rotors are fine and have lots of room for re-surfacing.

Sure hope no-one else falls prey to these blood sucking liars. Trying to scare me with the threat of brake failure with my life on the line.

The 2nd repair place did mess with the brakes and the last place adjusted them free.

And to make it all worth the trouble, the 3rd place was across the street from the 2nd place, that kept it one month. Told me to go buy a new car. then left a message on my phone they had an "offer" for me, to sell it to them.

I let them watch it get repaired in a week, across the street. What a scam. The place I let repair it told me, that replacing brakes is an age old scam.

Not to even mention, Riverside Toyota tried the same trick with brakes 15 years ago. My little Toyota still has the same brakes and still look pretty newish.

Please gals, don't let an "honest" dealership reach into your purse and grind it clean! :laughing: jpt
 

supermanlives

Active member
Veteran
I have saved so many peeps money on brakes when they asked me for a second opinion... I can do brakes but cant turn rotors/drums anymore....when I was in school for brakes I had everything at my disposal and made big $$$$$$$ on the side...the instructor asked me how many cars I actually had lol....rotors aint a guess you measure em and check for thickness and warpage,then visual inspect.....disc brakes are so easy ,I love the easy cash. drum brakes are a bit harder but not that bad...
 

StoneyK

Member
Veteran
This is qhy it pays to take the time to do your own maintenance and repairs...
No one has to tell you how your car is doin...you know.
Stealerships are the worst... if you have to take yoir car somewhere find a local guy you can create a relationship with or find a feiend who is handy an needs some cash
 
I had to get a certificate from a mechanic to register a car.
The first one said A,B,C is wrong with it. I thought sounds like bullshit to me so I took it to a second garage. This one said D,E,F is wrong with it but he didn't say anything about A,B,C being wrong with it.
They just make up things so they can then get paid to fix it.
 

aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Not to even mention, Riverside Toyota tried the same trick with brakes 15 years ago. My little Toyota still has the same brakes and still look pretty newish.

Please gals, don't let an "honest" dealership reach into your purse and grind it clean! jpt


Bringing in a male presence...it's amazing how differently auto repair places treat you. And I NEVER go to a dealership after being a "shag girl" 38 yrs ago @ Chevy dealer.....it's called highway robbery!!!

Rewind "FARGO" and watch the stuff dealership pull.

Get personal recommendations of trust worthy auto repair shops from folks in the area. Just because they are AAA certified....that means nothing. Or if they have the JESUS fish symbol on their advertisement.

Reading on-line reviews help.

Luckily, I have had great luck with mechanics listing on craigslist.

I feel for you JPT....gouging is not acceptable.
 

justpassnthru

Active member
Veteran
Not to even mention, Riverside Toyota tried the same trick with brakes 15 years ago. My little Toyota still has the same brakes and still look pretty newish.

Please gals, don't let an "honest" dealership reach into your purse and grind it clean! jpt


Bringing in a male presence...it's amazing how differently auto repair places treat you. And I NEVER go to a dealership after being a "shag girl" 38 yrs ago @ Chevy dealer.....it's called highway robbery!!!

Rewind "FARGO" and watch the stuff dealership pull.

Get personal recommendations of trust worthy auto repair shops from folks in the area. Just because they are AAA certified....that means nothing. Or if they have the JESUS fish symbol on their advertisement.

Reading on-line reviews help.

Luckily, I have had great luck with mechanics listing on craigslist.

I feel for you JPT....gouging is not acceptable.

haha, the local guys told me to go to AAMCO...I can't imagine anyone going there, either. Particularly a woman. They'll cheat anyone, I use to know a manager of one of their shops!

I learned about transmissions when my old Firebird was fairly new. AAMCO wanted to rebuild mine, at 20K miles. The trans guy around the corner was much more honest. He serviced my car and put little magnets in the trans fluid pan and said, "That will keep the fine shavings from re-circling thru the moving parts."

That car had over 200K miles on it at 26 years of age..the engine and trans were in great shape, no repairs. Now that I think of it, it would have been a good idea to put some magnets in the oil pan, too.

No need for magnets now in plastic and aluminum cars! :dance013: jpt

On the bad side, I looked in the back of my little Honda yesterday and they took the jack and tool kit! doh..
 

JointOperation

Active member
Not to even mention, Riverside Toyota tried the same trick with brakes 15 years ago. My little Toyota still has the same brakes and still look pretty newish.

Please gals, don't let an "honest" dealership reach into your purse and grind it clean! jpt


Bringing in a male presence...it's amazing how differently auto repair places treat you. And I NEVER go to a dealership after being a "shag girl" 38 yrs ago @ Chevy dealer.....it's called highway robbery!!!

Rewind "FARGO" and watch the stuff dealership pull.

Get personal recommendations of trust worthy auto repair shops from folks in the area. Just because they are AAA certified....that means nothing. Or if they have the JESUS fish symbol on their advertisement.

Reading on-line reviews help.

Luckily, I have had great luck with mechanics listing on craigslist.

I feel for you JPT....gouging is not acceptable.


same thing happens to my gf.. every time.. i have to bring the cars down now.. because if she does they try to get her to replace a ton of parts.. even if its fine?... lately though.. been trading bud for labor. lol. if i can do the work i will . but im not going to do big jobs.. without all the tools lol..

edit:.. another thing.. we ended up knowing a dude who worked at a dealer.. and we brought our car in.. and another guy ended up looking at our car kuz he wasnt there at the time.. we had 1200 in parts and another 800 in labor.. and then my buddy came in the next day.. and was looking at the parts they supposedly PUT IN... and the list.. matched up with HALF.. of wat they actually did for work.. the rest.. they were made up..

mechanics will discover problems if there business isnt doing as well as they like..
 

944s2

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
yeah,,i tend to stay away from main dealers although I do take our r32 to vw,,but that's more for the stamp and for the corrosion check,,,as a rule I will always go with a renowned specialist first,,
prices that main dealers charge are just rip off,,,s2
 
100 an hour for labor is not rediculous.Tools,gas oil,lubricant,employees and the government takes half of that.I own a towing and auto repair business and charge around 75 per hour.I dont scam people but sometimes uninformed people think i do.Example.Your car comes in with 150k miles the car is misfiring and stalling.I spend 1 hour diagnosing the car to find out its an o2 sensor.Most modern v6-v8 cars have 4 02 sensors. I recommend replacing all of them.Same customer goes to another garage and the guy replaces 1 sensor.The customer is happy but a month down the road the car is acting up again.

The point of my rant is cars are complicated.Obviously brakes are not and the op was being scammed.Being a mechanic is hard aggravating work that takes education and money.When you car is broke dont go with the cheapest guy.Often times the cheapest guy doesnt do the best job or have the neccesary equiptment.
 

944s2

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
100 an hour for labor is not rediculous.Tools,gas oil,lubricant,employees and the government takes half of that.I own a towing and auto repair business and charge around 75 per hour.I dont scam people but sometimes uninformed people think i do.Example.Your car comes in with 150k miles the car is misfiring and stalling.I spend 1 hour diagnosing the car to find out its an o2 sensor.Most modern v6-v8 cars have 4 02 sensors. I recommend replacing all of them.Same customer goes to another garage and the guy replaces 1 sensor.The customer is happy but a month down the road the car is acting up again.

The point of my rant is cars are complicated.Obviously brakes are not and the op was being scammed.Being a mechanic is hard aggravating work that takes education and money.When you car is broke dont go with the cheapest guy.Often times the cheapest guy doesnt do the best job or have the neccesary equiptment.
well said toker,,,,modern cars are very complicated
especially in the higher end cars,,
,,,,i much prefer my classics,,,,good specialist,, I don't cheat on service times and parts replacement and "at the end of the day" ,,you get what you pay for,,,,
unfortunately main dealers do seem to try it on,,,s2:tiphat:
 

GrowerGoneWild

Active member
Veteran
Yeah, I hear ya.. the wife got totally ripped off at a lube shop. I instructed her to check the front differential because of a possible leak, top it off if needed. That was it.

Somehow they convinced her to get a fuel filter, cabin filter, oil change, oil change flush (BTW is NOT recommended by GM) full differential service.. NONE OF IT NEEDED. Less than 10Kmi on the FF, I use synthetic oil and Bosh Filters, and a filtermag.

300+ dollars later.. These fuckheads dumped my synthetic oil and put conventional back in the engine to top it off.

What a bunch of rip off fuck tards, I was an ASE/ICAR mechanic, I had her do it because I had to go out of town for a bit, It sickens me to think that shops consider this an acceptable practice.
 
My advice is to always go to the ghetto, or better yet the COUNTRY and find a private-non franchise store. They tend to be accustomed to less affluent clients who just need the "basics", and they also charge less per hour than big name shops, AND they tend to have BETTER TECHNICIANS in my opinion... Because smaller shops tend to have less turnover, and they make tech's work on a broader spectrum of car problems.

I prefer country mechanics the most, because everybody who lives in the country has a friend who could tear down and rebuild most cars with their eyes closed, and I believe that keeps country mechanics honest.

Gear head stoner's are a GREAT resource! Get them baked and give them bud to take home, they may not have to be the person who does the repair.... but they can tell you if you are getting fucked.
 

GrowerGoneWild

Active member
Veteran
I prefer country mechanics the most, because everybody who lives in the country has a friend who could tear down and rebuild most cars with their eyes closed, and I believe that keeps country mechanics honest.

I thought they were cool too.. but I took in my car for an electrical problem.. (I didn't have a OBD2 scan tool) Anyways they replaced the sensor (TWICE) and those hillbillies left my truck in 4 low, and it was muddy like hell.. I know my truck is setup for wheeling, but not cool for them to go wheeling in it..

They did help me out in a jam, I needed a patch and a new ebrake cable and they fixed it up quick. I stuck around that time..

I think its a crapshoot if your an outsider..
 
That's messed up, for future reference it is REALLY easy to scan obd1 codes at home with the internet for reference. And go to autoparts stores or oil changes places, they will run codes for free.
 
pizza makes a good point most cars from the late 80,s to 95 have a self diagnostic light.Usually you have to insert a JUMPER wire beetween two wires and count how many may times the check engine light blinks.You count the short and long blinks to come up with the code.

Newer cars can be diagnosed with a smart phone code reader or the auto parts store for free.But not all codes will give the answer of exactly whats wrong.
 
Agreed, they will tell you the system that is bad, and that's about it. I worked on a mid 90's caddy which had a really over the top code system, it had obd2... But it told me power seat faults and that certain power mirror movements drew too much power- This system WOULD tell you the exact part at fault. Its awesome until your car gives you 40 codes, 39 of which you could care less about.
 
Most caddies in the mid 90s were crap.More electrical gizmos then the first space shuttle with crap engineering.In the late 80s to mid 90s all american cars came with a rudimetary fuel injection that was hard to diagnose and often failed.I own a 95 ford tow truck that is the perfect example.After years of ownership and failure i converted the fuel injection back to carburetion.Since this time the truck hasnt quit.funny enough everyone told me it was impossible.The truck runs better then ever and only has one wire connected to the engine for the distributor.Simple is better sometimes.
 
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