Getting Auto Repairs Done Right

SEATTLE - Are you happy with your auto repair shop? If so, consider yourself lucky. A survey for the summer issue of Puget Sound Consumers Checkbook finds that one out of four customers feels that the work done on their vehicle was inferior.

“What bugs them the most is, you take your care in there, you pay good money for it and you get it back and it still doesn’t work right,” says Robert Krughoff, Checkbook’s president. “They had to go back a second time, and sometimes a third or forth time to get it working right, and sometimes never.”

That’s why you want to find a good shop. “There’s nothing you can do afterwards that will make up for choosing a bad shop,” Krughoff stresses.

You can increase your chances of getting any repair job done properly if you make it a point to communicate clearly. “So write down a description of the symptoms,” Krughoff explains, “what does it sound like, what does it smell like, when does it happen. Give that written description to the service write-up person who can give it to the mechanic. That makes it much easier for the mechanic to figure out what’s wrong and do the work properly.”

It is also important that you get a written estimate of what the shop will do and when they will contact you for approval to do extra work. “If the car is still not right when you get it back,” Krughoff says, “tell the shop in writing immediately.”

Checkbook made more than 1,700 price checks and found that you don’t have to pay a high price to get high-quality work. The survey shows just how much prices vary from shop to shop for the same job.

One example: the price to replace the starter motor on a 1997 Nissan Maxima SE ranged from $270 to $529.

“There’s no good explanation for that price differential,” Krughoff says, “because Checkbook has found that some of those firms that had the very best prices also got top ratings for doing the work properly on the first try.”

The Checkbook survey also found that prices at non-dealer repair shops averaged about 10 percent less than those at shops run by the dealer.

Checkbook rated more than 400 local repair shops. The results are in the Summer/Fall issue, which is a subscription publication. (www.checkbook.org.)

For More Information:

Herb's Tip on auto repair rights

Repair Shop Checklist

Taking the Scare Out of Auto Repair