Quote:
They way I see it at 882$ + tx ... it's a steal. And you can't trust somebody who is trying to steal from you... even though he is clearly advertising he is trying to!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying break your balls for wanting to save money, and being willing to roll up your sleeves to do the work yourself, I think that's great.
But being expensive doesn't make them a thieves.
Let's say you took your truck to get a quote for the same job to the service department at Walmart. Let's say they quoted you half of what the Ford dealer quoted you. Would you trust Walmart
more, simply because they gave you a lower price?
From your quote, it sounds like they'd charge you $387 for labour --
including an alignment. The last time I had a 4-wheel alignment done at a tire shop, I think it came in around $200. Do you own an alignment machine? I don't, and I don't know where I could get one for $200 -- never mind that I wouldn't know what to do with it, even if I did.
Let's say installing those parts alone would have cost you around $187?
As for the price of the parts, everyone knows that dealerships usually have a relatively high mark-up on non-maintenance replacement parts. If I need a new plastic valve cap for my tire, my first stop isn't a BMW dealer (it would be Walmart!). Rockauto.com doesn't have to pay a staff of technicians or maintain a shop full of expensive equipment. They can afford to sell parts for less. I doubt they even have their own warehouse.
So let me ask you this: If you were the manager of a dealership service department, how much would
you charge, so that nobody would think you were a "thief"? What price do you think would be fair?
Before you answer that question, keep in mind your answer has to be based on the fact that you:
- hire and pay skilled staff, including techicians and trained parts people
- buy and maintain a wide variety of specialized shop equipment
- pay for commercial liability insurance
- pay business taxes, heating, utilities, phone, etc.
- pay for tax and bookeeping services
- maintain an expensive and wide parts inventory
- pay for the free coffee and old National Geographics in the waiting area
- ... and at the end of the year, show the owners of the dealership you actually made some sort of a profit on the operation
When you say the dealer is charging too much, compared to you doing the job yourself in your driveway or garage, you are really comparing apples and oranges.
Sorry to go off on a rant like this, but it just gets under my skin when people expect something for nothing -- especially when it comes to service-work.
When you go to a restaurant for a steak dinner, do you get angry when your bill comes to $40, knowing that you could have made it yourself at home for less than $10? Are they stealing from you, as well?
Hell, if the
price of something is the
only factor, then we'd all be sewing our own clothes, cutting our own hair, and doing dental work on ourselves with a Dremel tool. Think of all the money we'd save!
(That all being said, I'm going to the Mazda dealer tomorrow, and the only thing I intend to pay for is having a new fuel filter installed at the time. So if they rip me a new one, I may be singing a different tune, shortly.

)