pl8ster
January 16th, 2017, 03:34 PM
So I have a graphic designer who works for me (?!) and he's a great guy. He bought a 2011 Camry a bit over a year ago, fit his criteria of 'decent daily driver' pretty well. Nice car, leather and stuff, the non-hybrid trim level that included the LED brake lights, about 70k. He's not too knowledgeable about cars at all, makes me feel kind of like an expert. A couple of weeks ago, he started experiencing some weird electrical issues, like the speedometer would randomly go to zero and the windshield wipers would refuse to work. Weird intermittent stuff. He told me he was going to take it to the Toyota dealer where he bought it and have them take a look at it. I mentioned that the garage across the street from our office building could probably take a look at it, but I got the impression he thought his car was maybe too new for an independent garage like that, so I didn't rock the boat.
The dealer charged him $130 for the pleasure of 'diagnosing' the problem and gave him a repair quote. He didn't tell me exactly how much the quote was for, but he looked pretty shaken after he spoke with the dealer and said it was "a lot of money" (my brain went to $1500-2000). I suggested he could take it to the garage across the street from our office and have them take a look for a second opinion. Another co-worker chimed in with a positive review of the place, so an appointment was set for today.
After lunch today, the guy at the garage called him back and told him he'd identified the problem as the ignition relay, would be $185-200 all in with parts and labor. Then he showed me the repair estimate from the dealership...
Forty-six hundred fucking dollars. Plus tax.
Which included a $2700 ABS module (?!) and a host of other electronic bits - but, interestingly, not an ignition relay. The garage had to order the part and will have the repair completed tomorrow, but the guy sounded pretty confident about his diagnosis. Assuming he is in fact correct, how in the blue hell did the dealership get to $4600? And, again, assuming the ignition relay is the culprit, what action (if any) would you take with the dealership? $200 at an independent garage vs. $800 at a dealership for the same repair would be within reasonable expectation IMO, but $200 to $4600 with wildly different diagnoses is in another solar system. I said that if the new ignition relay worked, I might take the receipt from the garage to the dealership, along with their repair quote, and have the service manager try and explain it. Wonder if it would be worth the trouble to try and get the $130 diagnostic fee refunded? Probably would be akin to getting blood from a stone. FWIW, this is part of a chain of dealerships across three states.
The dealer charged him $130 for the pleasure of 'diagnosing' the problem and gave him a repair quote. He didn't tell me exactly how much the quote was for, but he looked pretty shaken after he spoke with the dealer and said it was "a lot of money" (my brain went to $1500-2000). I suggested he could take it to the garage across the street from our office and have them take a look for a second opinion. Another co-worker chimed in with a positive review of the place, so an appointment was set for today.
After lunch today, the guy at the garage called him back and told him he'd identified the problem as the ignition relay, would be $185-200 all in with parts and labor. Then he showed me the repair estimate from the dealership...
Forty-six hundred fucking dollars. Plus tax.
Which included a $2700 ABS module (?!) and a host of other electronic bits - but, interestingly, not an ignition relay. The garage had to order the part and will have the repair completed tomorrow, but the guy sounded pretty confident about his diagnosis. Assuming he is in fact correct, how in the blue hell did the dealership get to $4600? And, again, assuming the ignition relay is the culprit, what action (if any) would you take with the dealership? $200 at an independent garage vs. $800 at a dealership for the same repair would be within reasonable expectation IMO, but $200 to $4600 with wildly different diagnoses is in another solar system. I said that if the new ignition relay worked, I might take the receipt from the garage to the dealership, along with their repair quote, and have the service manager try and explain it. Wonder if it would be worth the trouble to try and get the $130 diagnostic fee refunded? Probably would be akin to getting blood from a stone. FWIW, this is part of a chain of dealerships across three states.