This place is what causes fear in car owners. You take it in for a concern and give you a $5300 estimate. Fast forward to 2 weeks later and I have bought the parts and repaired it myself for about $500-$600 with no experience. They should be ashamed of themselves for trying to rip off honest hard working people just trying to survive. All the parts on the estimate were about triple what they cost - even when checked on the websites where they were supposedly ordering from. They use an automatic calculator for labor costs. For example, if they are replacing the control arm and it takes 1.5 hours and also replacing the ball joint, they would charge you additional 1.5 hours probably even though the work would be combined. I also really appreciate how much they play on your fears too - telling me I'm completely unsafe because I have zero brakes (upon inspection, my sway bars are completely fine and I did have plenty of brake pads life yet). Anyway, I did the brakes, control arms, rear coil springs, and ball joints myself and glad to be back to driving it. $105 for just looking at the brakes was enough of my paychecks to go to these crooks. 🤷🏼♀️
Thank you for your feedback, Amanda. We apologize to hear about your dissatisfaction. We understand how frustrating and concerning it can be when faced with unexpected repair costs. Regarding the pricing and labor estimates, it is always the case where there is a markup on the cost of labor and parts purchased from wholesale suppliers. This is a common practice among all businesses. We do our best to make sure that we are competitive with the pricing of other repair shops in our area. The brake inspection charge was $105 due to our technician taking time to take a look at the braking system. However, if the repair was completed the $105 would have gone towards the repair. In regards to the brakes, although your vehicle had 30% brake life in the front, the pads were not fully making contact with the rotor due to slight uneven wear. The rear pads were worn evenly, which is good, however there was hardly any pad life left. The front sway bar links are worn as well as the lower control arm bushings. This was checked when the vehicle was off the ground and there is no pressure on the sway bar links. At that time, our technician was able to move the sway bars freely with his hand; there should be no movement at all when doing this. In addition, the tires were noted on the quote due to them having no tread on the inner sides of the 3 tires and the fourth tire being your spare tire. Spare tires are only meant to travel less than 50 miles and under speeds of 55 mph. They are a temporary fix and should not be driven on long term. With the status of both the brakes and the tires, our advisor was correct in saying that it is unsafe for you to be driving the vehicle. Every vehicle that comes in our shop receives a complimentary courtesy inspection. This allows us to be honest and transparent with notes from the technician, accompanied by photos of those same items, for any diagnostics and safety concerns on the vehicle. You are not obligated to purchase anything, but we want our customers to be educated and understand the components of their vehicles.
- Decorah Road Location