Thursday, November 8, 2012

Sticker shock

This morning I took a run down to Pep Boys to see about a tuneup for PaT and walked away just shaking my head. Granted it's been at least 10 years since I've had a vehicle that needed a tuneup, but when the service writer said $265.44 for a 4 cylinder car I nearly fell over. The after examining the estimate I found only $47.15 worth of parts were all that were involved the rest was $193.63 labor and $19.19 for shop supplies. The shop supplies charge has never set too well with me and labor at $94.00 per hour will cause me to shop the area a bit and see if prices are in line All I know is it's been a quick climb from the $39.95 tuneup of yesteryear.

The rest of my day is going to be devoted to some followup on things pending, like license plates and registration. I have a couple of merchandise orders that need to be checked on. All this will come together to aid in enjoying the good life.

8 comments:

  1. I try to do all I can here at home in the shop. My wife's Escape V6 when you want to change the plugs the front three are right there in front of you, the rear three you must remove, the intake, fuel injectors , exhaust manifold and the three coil packs. or pay someone $600 for a tune up. has almost 200.000 miles on it and i have taken it apart twice so far, and hopefully never will again.

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    1. I guess we have always known poor engineering is part of the expense. I did notice on the estimate there was a labor fee for removing the spark plugs and an additional access time charge for removing the same spark plugs. I suppose this is an example.

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  2. Gotta think that the more modern cars are engineered in ways that make it difficult for the average owner to do anything with them, except take them to a shop. They even have lights and readouts that will tell you when it's time to do that. You don't really tune them up the same way that we used to back in the day, either. First, plug it into a computer to see what it tells you to do. Then replace whatever it tells you need replaced. Labor intensive? Probably.

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  3. It's because of those gold plated wrenches the mechanics use nowadays. Somebody has to pay for them...

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    Replies
    1. The question is should I buy a complete set with one visit?

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  4. I'm dreading the 60k tune up on mine. It will surely be a doozy.

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