Have any Car Repairs

I wanted to share my view on any car repairs you will ever have. I have had a few in the past and I want to pass on this information on how to save money when you come to a point when your car needs to be repaired in any way.



If you know what is wrong then all the better because it will help you out, but most likely you will not know what the problem with your car is. First you need to call around and tell them that your car needs to be looked at and when they can look at it. Some require an appointment. Next ask what is the price to get it looked at. This can range anywhere from $40 - $90. Most call it a diagnostic fee. Most car repair centers have specialized computers that run your car through a diagnostic test and it reports what is wrong. They like to tell you that once they find out the final price to fix your car then this fee is not applied. So take your car to the place you found and the car repair shop will then call you later with a quote on what it will take with parts and labor to fix the car. They will give you just one price. Then you need to ask for the breakdown of the quote including all part numbers and costs for each, labor time and labor costs of each and write it down. Before moving on, you need to know where the price point is. If it is less than $150-$300 you probably just need to say fix it to the car place. This can be iffy sometimes because you might be able to still repair cheaper but it might cost you the same. Also this only works if you are willing to wait for your car to get fixed longer then what the car place will quote you.

The next step is the most critical. You need to ask the car place if they can wait and see if you can find some of those parts yourself instead. (This is tricky, because they could always charge you for delays or holding fees so make sure you ask if it is okay to try to find some parts yourself if it takes a couple of days to a week). They usually tend to work with you. They like to see if you can find cheaper prices. Car places might even match the prices you can find. REMEMBER TO ASK again to see if they will charge you anything else while you try to get parts. If they do try to charge you for any holding fees then you need to do your best to get your car back or out of there as quickly as possible and just pay for the diagnostic fee. The main part was just to get a quote on what parts and labor was needed. Last step is try to find the parts yourself and get the labor done yourself or get the best price for the labor too.

For example, I got a quote for only 1 part I need on my last car problem. The part itself was going to cost me $338 through the car place. I found it on the internet for $55. I had the car place install it for me though. I had to pay for the diagnostic fee even though they said it would get applied to whatever they do, but it still saved me over $200. So they charge a lot for all parts and liquids. Even try to get any Coolant, oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid from walmart or a local car sales store. Again they were trying to charge me $28 for coolant and I got it instead for $9 at walmart for the amount they needed. Labor work is approx $70-$100/hour for any work done. So getting your car repair manual would save a lot of money if you have tools. Some things you can repair yourself. Again the toughest part is just to find out what is wrong.

Hopefully this will be helpful to you for the future.