My pickup needed upper control arms. Tire wearing funny and I knew it needed done to get a proper alignment. Take it to the local firestone shop. Guy comes out and tells me 932.65 bucks total. I bout fell over. 191 per side for a control arm and 176 labor per side plus 81.68 for sales tax. I told him I needed to think about that for bit I was thinking the whole job ought to be about 400. So he tells me if I apply for a credit card he can take off ten percent. Has some other plans to get me to allow them to do it right then also.

I went straight to the nearest parts store. 99.99 per side for control arms. Now I'm no genius but I know firestone could have called them and had parts delivered for about 25% less than they cost me. I have no problem with that and called firestone to ask why their price was almost double. Nobody really knows and the guy on the phone, same guy that wrote it up, tells me the guy who figured it all isn't there now.

I call another shop and they tell me they can do it for 600 and take it to get an alignment at another shop.

I don't have a lift or air impact tools or air ratchets or anything but strongarm powered mechanics tools. I replaced both sides in about two hours. Still needs aligned. I still feel my original assessment of 400 bucks was pretty close to what should have been charged. With a lift and air tools the time to remove and replace would easy be cut in half. ( I took several breaks, had to go in and out to get tools, had to figure out how to do it) Could have grossed 250 over parts cost and took maybe two hours to put on new parts and align.

I am not real happy about it all. Some of you have to be in the business. Can you tell me why it cost so much or were they trying to gouge me?

I’m not a mechanic but my brother and several friends are. Most shops charge labor by the book rate. There is a universal book (can’t remember what exactly it’s called) that gives an estimated labor time for every auto job under the sun. Shops take the book time and multiply it by their own shop rate, and that’s the labor quote. Shop labor rates range all over the place. Name Brand shops (like Firestone) pretty much always have a higher rate. Shops that spend the money for lifts and equipment to make the job faster, recoup that cost through a higher rate. A poor-boy shop without the right equipment might charge a lower rate but take longer, costing the same in the long run.
The trick in my opinion is to find the small local guy who does good honest work for a good rate vs. speed. I’ve got a couple of em, but I’m not sharing .

As far as the parts, either he was gouging you or you bought some cheapo control arms from Auto Zone that’ll break in a year or 2. I can’t say without knowing, but there are good and bad quality parts.

parts are moog brand. I believe they are just fine. bought from advance auto. lifetime warrenty

I always think everyone is trying to gouge me when I get a price for anything. I have a lot of good backyard mechanics around here that charge reasonable and guarantee their work. Sometimes Im even in there helping out A guy use to be able to live cheap-not anymore.

The first mistake was taking anything to a big name shop like "Firestone". That's just as bad as taking it to a dealer. They gouge everyone and some of those places (not sure about Firestone) also work on commission. Your best bet is to talk with friends or ask around town for a little mom and pop garage, ask about their reputation, specifically ask if they are trusted not to rip you off. It's a shame but a lot of garages are complete rip offs. My family was in the business for over 30 years. I've seen it all and I've seen the tricks that other places have pulled. Things that you would never even question like telling someone the starter is bad, taking it off, repaint it, put it back on and charge them for a new one plus labor. I've seen that done more than once. My father was an honest man which is probably why we had hamburger helper 4 nights a week rather than steak. It took me a lot of searching to find a garage that I'm half way comfortable with after my father retired and sold his business and I still watch them like a hawk.

How about 1200.00 to replace a heater core in a 2009 journey, the whole dash has to be removed.

However to expand on KenaiKid 's comment. The "book" he is talking about are called "Flat rate book" It tells you how many hours the job should take when done by the numbers. A good mechanic can usually do it much faster which is where the make their money. So if the flat rate for the job is 10 hours time and the shop have a Rate of $95 and hour, that's $950 in labor they will charge. Plus a markup on parts which is usually anywhere from 25%-50% that I have seen.

Firestone part markup was almost 100% over my cost. Their shop rate is 100 an hour. So for them to charge 176 the book would need to call for 105 minutes per side. I did it outside in the cold, without a lift, with all hand tools, no air, in not much more than that for both sides. Just want to make sure I'm telling people correctly when I tell everyone I know they are crooked as a dogs hind leg.

I took a car to a shop to get fixed. They couldn't fix it but charged me $700 for working on it anyway. Had it towed 25 miles to a dealer and they figured out there was diesel in the gas.
With that being said, keep in mind a mechanic has to have a building to work in, tools, jacks, lifts. I wouldn't want to maintain a business of any kind. Overhead is horrible.

Any of the big franchised shops are sky high and government/hard to find help is going to kill small shops.

A local shop is going to put two fuel pumps and fix a leaky gas tank on my 150 in trade for me putting a door in for the owner. I supply parts. Ebay is a good place to find parts for less.
Working under a truck/car sucks.

$500 to replace water pump on my son's Colorado. He pulled it in my garage and done it in an hour. Pump was $50.

Took my 2007 Ram 2500 Diesel to Plaza Tire to have my tires rotated after 15,000 miles. They did the tires and brought me an estimate for just over $1,000 for front end work they said I needed. I said "thankyou, not at this time." Took the estimate and my truck to my local mechanic (trusted shop) and told him to fix whatever needed fixing. Next day got a call that the truck was ready. Talked with him. No work needed, no charge for checking it out. That was 70,000 miles ago and I now have 85,000 miles on those same tires. I don't do business with Plaza tire anymore.

When you go to Firestone, or Meineke, or Midas, or Pep Boys, you are going to a franchise. Franchises cost several thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars per year to gain perks such as licensing, exclusive parts, and advertising. They pass on this cost to the consumer. Smaller, independently owned garages, such as Joe Schmo down the street will cost you sometimes as little as half of what you may pay at a franchise. They can take advantage of preferential pricing at parts store such as Advance, Fisher, O'Reilly, and others. What I would caution you against is assuming that just because a garage has a lift, or special tools, that they should charge less because they can do the job faster. Those tools cost a lot of money. Our diagnostic tools, for example, cost $17,000, not including 6 month updates to the tune of 1200, for foreign and domestic. It costs even more money for motorcycle, heavy truck and European. We only charge you $65 for a hookup, but many people would think that they could go get their codes read for free at Advance. Our diagnostic tool does a lot more than just read codes. Our lifts cost $13,000 a piece. When you have Snap-on tools, an individual socket can cost you anywhere from $60 to $250. Last time we were appraised for insurance value, our tools and equipment alone appraised for $750,000. That's just the equipment and tools inside the garage. That's not including trucks, rollback, lowboy, tractor Etc. The investment that mechanics make in their tools isn't a hobby. And let us not forget the cost of that garage, waste disposal, insurance, utilities, that giant air compressor, all of the clean up materials, etc. What about our labor cost? Want your truck fixed right away, do you? Well, that means you either take your time, or I have to supply my time, or my employee to do it. That means workman's comp, unemployment insurance, payroll, and accounting costs. They have to make that money back by making a profit. They also have to make money on their labor, because they're not doing this for fun. They have bills that have to be paid at home as well. A friend of ours who is also mechanic once told us a story about how a man came to him needing a carburetor adjustment. He took 5 minutes, turned a screw, and charged them an $20. When the man asked why he charged him so much, when all he did was turn a screw, our friend replied that it's not the Turning of the screw, but knowing which screw to turn.

At Autozone Vets, firemen etc get a 10% discount and you can barrow tool, you pay for them and when you bring them back you get your money back.

Lil'Bit makes good points. I think the key is finding a shop you trust and then stick with them because they don't stick it to you.

Not any help here on why the cost is do high for these jobs. I had a post awhile back on changing differential seals on both side for a pickup. The shops quoted me $500 a side and just about fell over. I ended up getting them both done for $600 I just needed to find the right person and garage and some honesty.


It is crazy the price for mechanic work these days.

I think 100 dollars an hour shop time covers those costs and is a reasonable fee. For the life of me I think charging 700 over cost of parts for what would be at most a two hour job borders on theft. If a hundred an hour shop time is insufficient it should not be the posted price. I seriously doubt book time for that job is 3 1/2 hours when I did it in two outside with only hand tools and warming up inside a couple times. That was at least 20 minutes. Then 89 for a front end alignment. which brings total labor cost 441. Then add in the near 100% markup over RETAIL cost of the parts.

My semi, a 200,000 dollar piece of equipment, (used) that requires fuel insurance tags other taxes, and maintenance ,on top the cost of truck and trailer, gets 110 an hour. I just cant see how 100 is not profitable for a shop and if it isn't why that's the advertised price.

Lil Bit is correct, and with Franchise establishments, prices are regulated by corporate and they must be followed so the same shops in the same area aren't cutting each other. Stores, restaurants, etc all the same principal.

Find a good shade tree guy and always tip him. He will also know great connections for types of mechanic work he does not do.

I have a dealership guy doing work on a grand Cherokee to lift and trick it out some. Doing in his home shop. New fenders, new rocker panels welded in, all painted except lower doors and rockers which will be rhino line coated exterior., por 15 underside and lift kit installed. 1000.00, labor. I supply rockers and fenders, 1450.00 total.
Had two heater cores go out on vehicles we did here in the last two years, another shade tree guy 35 miles west of here dropped the dashes and installed the cores less than 500.00 per vehicle all in.

Find the out of town shade tree guys,they are great.

Osky

Got to do your due diligence on finding a GOOD and HONEST mechanic. I tried one since moved here to only have to redo half of it myself.

Just to clarify lil bit, I'm surprised the guy who adjusted the carburetor didn't charge 50 bucks. I think a half hour minimum is not unreasonable. 350 an hour is hard for me to wrap my head around.