Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I get that a whole lot of things in a car require special tools, extensive training and a mechanical inclination. And so I accept high labor rates for just about anything that involves the mechanic looking at my car. But $100 to replace the engine and cabin air filters?
It's $25 in parts and takes 5 minutes to do!!! And there is no additional effort done between an inspection and replacement.
WOuldnt be a bad deal if they where putting in a K and N filter and decent cabin filters. Still charge you an hours labour to put in two filters that take only a few minutes.
It's $25 in parts and takes 5 minutes to do!!! And there is no additional effort done between an inspection and replacement.
Doesn't matter. They can charge that and frequently get it as well.
There is a large segment of the population that wouldn't know what they are looking at if they popped the hood on their car. Those are the people that go for these $100 air filter specials. Usually it's the luxury makes that overcharge for these services. I know Infiniti wanted over $200 to replace the cabin air filter. It was a $20 part and 5 mins of disassembly of the glovebox to do. But i garantee you most of the market that purchases these cars does not know how to do this nor do they want to try. So the dealer gets that $200 for what seems like an easy tast to you and I.
I have a coworker at work who has a mechanic change his headlight bulbs when the blow. The kicker is he drops the car off at the mechanic, and gets a rental car for the day to go to work. I keep telling him i'll change the bulbs, but he'd rather "let a professional do it".
Beacon Plumbing here in Seattle charged my office $262 for 16 minute job ( I timed the guy, as I know how to DIY this) to replace a $16 part in office toilet. I simply didn't want to make my corp aware that, in addition to 6 people jobs I am doing, I can also fix toilets.
$100 for air filter sounds reasonable then. TWO filters actually.
But truly, folks, what to rant about? As far as there will be an ignorant, there will be one that will profit off that ignorance. Do better, do NOT be that ignorant.
Beacon Plumbing here in Seattle charged my office $262 for 16 minute job ( I timed the guy, as I know how to DIY this) to replace a $16 part in office toilet. I simply didn't want to make my corp aware that, in addition to 6 people jobs I am doing, I can also fix toilets.
$100 for air filter sounds reasonable then. TWO filters actually.
But truly, folks, what to rant about? As far as there will be an ignorant, there will be one that will profit off that ignorance. Do better, do NOT be that ignorant.
when you take it most dealers or shops, they will also be looking for other "problems" which of course must be fixed right then, learn to do it yourself and take the $75 you did not spend at the dealer and treat yourself.
When I received the quote of $700 to do 40,000 mile service on my 2006 Jetta I was quick to go purchase all the items myself and do my own service.
The service itself was still expensive using factory components, the airfilter and cabin filter weren't cheap items, and the spark plugs were $5/plug. But getting things done wasn't bad, in order to get to the plugs you had to remove the engine cover. One hose clamp was a pain and I replaced it with a screw-driver operated hose clamp (works much easier for future removal). After the cover is off, you can tell that the cover doubles as the airfilter housing, so you remove 5 screws and the filter drops out...replace. Directly in front of you is the spark plug harness, remove that, pull the plugs, add anti-seize, and reinstall (torque to spec) then reverse the removal and you're GTG.
Cabin airfilter was hidden under a cover under the dash, but the cover is foam and just "pops" into place. Pull the cover off, slide the filter to the left, and it drops out. Easy replacement, and the brands from FRAM brand of filter is considerably cheaper than the one from Germany.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
