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I am a widow, therefore, I do not have a husband to fix my car, any longer. Which means......I will be gauged by the Barracudas....in the business.
I have a Toyota Corolla S, 2010, the worst car Toyota has made, with 65,000 miles. My six Toyota so far.......why? As a woman, they have never left me behind....... However, the car blocks all my views, and now needs BACK STRUTS ONLY, and four tires. So far, all I have put in it so far, was front brakes, and a battery, in seven years.
But, let's talk about the struts. I understand there are two only in the back, and two in the front. I shall concentrate on the back struts first, because they want $900 plus tax. And the tires, I can wait a little longer, for a sale. Common sense tells me that $900 plus for TWO struts is a lot of money. I have gone to three other places and they ask $1.000, $1,100, $1,200, plus tax. I live in one of the most- expensive -states in the nation.....hard-to-move, due to family issues.
That I need struts and tires, was the opinion of the mechanic, when I went to have my car INSPECTED, which is State- Mandated. He also fixes automobiles. Now, should I get a new car, or have this one fixed? I can go either way.....
My only complain thus far, is the blocking of the views.... and now this expense, otherwise, my daughter still drives my 2001, that I gave to her with 70,000 miles, on 2010.
Your opinion is greatly appreciated, and I thank you for the privilege of your time.....
Struts for that car are less than $60 a piece (look it up yourself at parts.com). And these are genuine Toyota parts (otherwise known as "OEM"), which should be more expensive than aftermarket non-oem parts.
Changing struts is not hard, at all. It takes these two little brackets that you attach to the springs to keep them compressed, then literally two bolts to remove. One at the top (usually found in your trunk area), and one at the bottom behind the brake disc.
Who are you getting your quotes from? This isn't a specialty repair, I can promise you that. Any shop can do it, from the Toyota dealer to Bubba down at the neighborhood gas station. There's no technical skill set here on this one, at all. About the only thing that can be screwed up is forgetting one of the two bolts, which is highly doubtful!
Maybe just buy the part from parts.com yourself and take them to the local mechanic down at the gas station repair shop and ask if he/she would install them for you? Probably take him/her maybe 2 hours tops to do, which if you figure an hourly rate of say $100/hr (which is likely high for a small shop), and $120 for the parts, you're at half the cost of your lowest quote, and have genuine Toyota parts for the car, instead of hotrod McGee Jackhammer shocks. ...
If you do go the online route, just get the VIN number off of your car (likely the number under the windshield / driver's side - or possibly on the driver's door jamb near the latch mechanism), and send it to them with the request for help on buying the right rear struts for that particular VIN number. They'll take care of it from there and let you know exactly what to buy.
I've bought parts from them for many many years across many different cars (I'm a car junkie). Always been perfect, always genuine OEM no matter what vehicle type I have at that time.
Do you have a male relative, neighbor, friend? Give your vehicle information to him and have him call these shops back and see if they give him a lower number than they gave you.
From AutoBlog:
"The Toyota Corolla is the textbook compact sedan, the standard by which others are judged. Corolla is the longest continuous nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer, and more than 30 million Corollas have been sold to date in more than 140 countries.The Corolla is inexpensive to buy and operate yet it doesn't feel like a cheap car.Completely redesigned for the 2009 model year, the Corolla carries over with more safety equipment standard for 2010."
Pretty good writeup for what you call the worst car Toyota has made. KYB aftermarket struts are $90 or so, $180 if the shop buys them for you, three hours labor @$100/hr = $660 fair price.
Ok, so you find Quick Strut for your car from Monroe or Strut Plus from KYB, which is official Toyota strut supplier anyway. You will look at more $$ up front but install is literally 20 minutes per side and you get COMPLETE replacement that will last you years to come. Unless your car has shock absorber, not strut, in the rear, then sure, good ones run 60-70 bucks each.
Then you buy them online. Amazon or such. Not ebay.
then you find a mobile mech on craigslist or go to a local parts store and they always have a few guys handy. Guy will come to your place and swap them out for like a hundred bucks or so. Really not much to it if you go with Quick Strut or Strut Plus. Then you have to do alignment, of course, that's $70 or so. Done.
Tires you buy off Tire Rack online. Sumitomo is a decent tire for bottom low prices. I just bought set of four for my Highlander. 65 000 miles tread life.
Take them to Discount Tire and have them installed. 40 bucks a side.
Done. Enjoy your Rolla. good cars.
If you hate the car, and can afford something you like better, then why not? Just don't mention the struts at trade-in.
I'd hope that struts could be done for $900 for all four. Something seems wrong. I don't think I'd go for quick struts, I think I'd rather reuse the older springs, as it's unlikely that they have sagged and it's unlikely that quickstruts will have the same spring rate. That will cost more than just using quickstruts but if it was my car I'd go that route I think. [That said, I did QS recently but I have not only a softly sprung Camry but it had saggy springs--I didn't have to rent a compressor to mess with springs. 15 minutes per corner? Crazy fast.]
If you don't like the car and want something different, replace it before you make any repairs because you won't get your money back when you trade.
If you want to keep the car awhile, get it fixed.
The repair cost of the struts doesn't seem out of line given that you say you live in "one of the most- expensive -states in the nation". It's likely that the labor rate is in the $150-200 range, and the price of the struts - which will be full retail price when going through a shop - will be inflated as well. The fact that you've checked three other places and this is the lowest quote tells me that you aren't being gouged, at least for your area. If you want to travel here to Rooster Poop Iowa you can probably get it done for 2/3 of the quoted price, and maybe less.
And the first sentence in your post makes all the posts telling you what any easy DIY repair this is completely irrelevant. Unless, of course, they'd like to pick up the parts at Autozone and travel to your house to perform the repair for you free of charge.
As far as the tires go, if they're original they've about reached their age limit regardless of tread depth so you may want to consider replacement unless most of your driving is in town with occasional short trips out of town. If they've been replaced at some point there's no benefit to replacing them again until they reach the minimum allowable tread depth.
Again, if you want to trade, do it now. If you want to keep the car a couple of years, fix the struts. Replace the tires when they really need to be replaced, whether that time is now or down the road at some point.
There's no right or wrong answer, and only you can make the call.
900 is too much yes.
Google mechanics around your area,pick the highest rated with the most reviews.
Independent shops who want to grow are more likely to have better reviews than a dealer or Firestone. BTW those guys ,
well just read some threads on here.
Have a male call for you or go with you if possible like mentioned above.
Buy the parts on amazon and ask that mechanic that you chose if that is ok you providing your own parts.
Amazon Prime credit cards get 5 percent back with prime,3 percent without.
Ultilize every penny.
But to each their own.
look for a mobile mechanic in your area, and give them a call and see what they would charge to replace the struts. sometimes mobile mechanics are much less expensive than dealers and repair shops.
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