Repairs

As predicted by of couple friends, here is a post about auto repairs.

I have owned several cars in my life, some great, some not so great. I am currently the owner of a 2003 Saturn Vue, and a 2005 Scion. Both cars are actually good cars. I can't complain about either of them, except for the fact that the Saturn seems to cost me more in repairs than any other car I have ever owned.

Since we have owned the Saturn, we have replaced the passenger wheel bearing, breaks, tires, serpentine belt, the check engine light has been on for about a year and now the driver side bearing needs replaced. That has cost a bunch of money! I realize that tires, belts and brakes are going to wear and need replaced. Happens on all cars. Wheel bearings, I have never replaced on any car I have ever owned. Until now.

I learned a little bit about our auto repair industry in the past two years with this car. Garages mark up the price of a part about 200%. Labor can run you anywhere between 60 and 80 bucks an hour. How can these places not be booming? I took my Saturn to a shop to have the bearing replaced. They told me the part was $299.99 and that it was an hour and a half for labor at $70 an hour for a total of $105.00. Then there were "shop" charges of $35 and taxes of course on the parts. Total $457.98. I paid that amount for the passenger side. The bearing was fused so tight they couldn't get it off. They called me and said they couldn't fix it. I'm guessing that it would take them longer that the hour and a half they were charging me to fix it and they didn't want to to do it. When I went to pick up the car, they charged me a $56 inspection fee. I was none to happy about that. This got me thinking. I got on the Internet and found the part for $99. I could get a lifetime warranty part for $150. I was shocked. The garage has to get the part at a better price than I can. What is up with the huge mark up? It's called gouging.

I work in retail. I understand that in order to make money, you have to sell the products at a markup. I wonder if I could get away with not only marking up my product, but also charging customers a rate for every question they ask? Or for my time? Probably not. However a repair facility can! Here is the kicker. Its not even actual time. It's "book" time. It may only take 10 minutes to do the job, but the "book" says that it takes 2 hours. You get charged for 2 hours! How is that legal? Not to mention the outrageous markup on the parts!

Where is the outcry from activist groups about this? Why no congressional hearings? I'm outraged, why isn't anyone else? How did this practice get started and why is it allowed to go on? Ill tell you why, the have us by the short hairs! Not many of us have the ability or the tools to complete repairs ourselves. We have to take it somewhere. They know it, so why not charge out the wazoo to do it. While they have your car, guess what? They have just found 100 other things wrong and have prepared an itemized list for you and started with the fear mongering that if you do not get these repairs done right away, your car will blow up!

So, I bought the bearing, $99, and asked around if anyone knew how to fix my issue. My old next door neighbor said he could do it. Off to his house I went in hopes of a much cheaper fix. After 2 hours of banging, pulling, huffing, puffing, calling the car names and even invoking prayer at one point, the bearing wouldn't budge. Now I am stuck with a part and still a bad bearing. I called around to a couple garages and was told that they would do it, but not use my part. I was back to being screwed. I called one last garage and was greeted with a friendly, "We love a good challenge, bring it in Monday 8am. We will charge you 2 hours at $80 an hour. I'm sure we can fix it. I don't mind you bringing your own part, we just appreciate the business." Do my ears deceive me? Is this a joke? I read several positive reviews about this garage, so I am hopeful that Monday morning I will have a fixed car and only be out $260.

The only way these garages will ever change is if we all become mechanics and do our own repairs. That's not going to happen. I encourage all of you to find a place that lets you supply your own part and just charges you labor. It will save you money and let you feel like you were not so taken advantage of.

Vacation

Vacation, that wonderful time when you can get away from the daily grind and try to relax. In the past, I was not a big fan of taking week long vacations. I usually took 4-5 days at a time and took a trip home. The last two vacations, I have taken the full 9 days off in a row. It has been rather nice to walk out of work on a Friday afternoon and not have to return until the Monday of the next week. This vacation I spent pretty much at home. We went to my parents for the weekend, but other than that we just stayed at the house. We finally got our spare rooms cleaned up, watched and entire season of 24, and were absolute bums! It was awesome!! I highly recommend it.


I must say, I have laughed more in the last week than I have in a long time. You would think that spending and entire week with your spouse, you would get on each others nerves. Not so for us. We actually enjoy being around each other! I know, I am as shocked as you are! I can't tell you that we did anything special, we just had fun with everything we did. We spent time with some friends one day, FUN! We spent an entire day cleaning and organizing the house, FUN! (I must admit, the fun that day was encouraged by a few adult beverages. Cleaning and organizing sucks!) Took a trip to Wal-Mart and did not spend a bunch of money, FUN! We found out people think my wife and I are swingers, HILARIOUS! I better explain that one. Our friend is a bartender at a bar we go to and she is engaged to a very nice man. The four of us get together and go out for drinks or dinner on occasion. Somehow that translates into us swinging. I have no idea how that works out. I bet we laughed for an hour after we heard that. There is no way I'm sharing my wife with anyone else! I worked too hard to get her in the first place and I am not going to let her in on the secret that she could have done way better. Second of all, I was quite flattered because I am no prize to look at, and to think that people thought I was capable of landing another woman just astounded me! I am a very lucky man to be married to the woman I am. I don't think that many women would have laughed at being called a swinger. It is my hope for all of my friends that they can be as happy in their relationship as I am in mine.

I thought I would miss work, I didn't. I thought I would be compelled to go to the store and check things out, I didn't. I realized about 3 days in that if there was a terrible emergency, they would call me or figure it out. I received no calls so I am guessing they figured it out. It is a comforting feeling to know that there are competent and capable people running things in your absence. I just hope I feel the same way once I get back.