A bunch of good insight, and I don't want to get started, but what you paid were your costs. I would hope that you understand that a business doesn't do work for cost. You all understand that, of course, .... But the problem with DIYers is they have no concept of the true costs of auto repair.

This could go on forever, but just to scratch the surface and hopefully spark a degree of understanding I wish everyone to figure the health care costs associated with auto repair.

My shop pays 30% more for the health insurance of our employees and their families than the mortgage costs of our $1,000,000 facility (physical plant only). When you do that work at home and its cheaper remember WHY! I only picked one area, and one that most repair facilities have to skip in order to keep prices in check. Next time you go looking for that cheap guy, ask yourself how many auto repair costs he short changed for your benefit.

I guess I'm going now, but I got to tell you the story about the the little shop by the bus station. It was a dump, an old gas station, run by a moderately competent Volvo tech. He paid no workers comp, was renting and had no issurance, he paid his help as subcontractors to avoid FICA. He had a great following of people who thought they were saving money cause he beat the system in all these ways. What they didn't know was that he had to pay cash for all his suppliers and before he madea dollar on parts the customer had paid 30-50% more for parts than if they had dealt with a real businessman.

And finally, when you call and ask a dealer to install a part for no diagnostic time, they are not about to cut you any slack as you are obviously not a customer for what they hae to sell.

__________________
Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician