Auto repair shop parts markup
On Wed, 18 Jun 2014 10:48:18 -0700 (PDT), rangerssuck
wrote:
On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 1:13:00 PM UTC-4, jon_banquer wrote:
On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 10:07:18 AM UTC-7, jon_banquer wrote:
On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 9:15:38 AM UTC-7, rangerssuck wrote:
The wife's car was making some rubbing noise from a rear wheel. I pulled of the wheel and found significant (structural) rust on the brake drum. I didn't have time to do this myself, so I took it to a local garage where they've done good work for me in the past.
I checked the price of drums & shoes on Autozone's web site (there's actually an Autozone store directly across the street from this garage), and figured an hour & a half for labor. It turns out that I was spot on with the labor, but he charged me almost exactly DOUBLE Autozone's price for the parts.
I gotta figure that he get's maybe a 15 or 20 percent discount on the parts, and I would have been OK with a 20 or 25% markup over list, but this seems kind of excessive. He's entitled to earn a living and all, but a hundred bucks to walk across the street?
It's been a long time since I was in the mechanic business, and I'm wondering whether this is the new normal?
Two suggestions:
Call NAPA and get a price on their best brake parts for your car. I buy almost nothing from Autozone because their parts are inferior to NAPA's parts.
Ask your mechanic where they purchased the break parts for your wife's car.
Here is a specific example:
NAPA Gold air and oil filters are made by WIX. I don't use anything else on my vehicles but WIX for air and oil filters. Autozone doesn't even sell anything that's comparable to WIX.
Idiots buy plumbing supplies from Home Depot.
Idiots buy car parts from Autozone, PEP Boys, etc.
Jon, you could have stopped with your first post, suggesting checking prices at napa, but then you just felt compelled to attempt to make it personal. Why?
Plonk the fool. Then I don't have to read his crap when you reply to
him.
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