Six Important Things to Understand Before Bringing Your Car to a Shop for Service
The simple truth is that most people have no idea how an auto repair shop or service department for a dealership works and as a result have unrealistic expectations for what an automotive repair shop can and cannot do.
Scenario One:
You call a shop inquiring about your check engine light being on or an error message flashing on your instrument cluster. You ask the person on the phone how much it will cost to fix it or how much time it will take.
THINK - the person on the phone has not even looked at your car yet, nor do they know yet what might be wrong with it, or if it is one thing or is it multiple things. They are technicians, not magicians who can see into the future. Asking a question like that shows that you have put no thought into your car repair and if the shop is dishonest, congratulations you have just outed yourself as an easy target.
Scenario Two:
Can you send a technician out to where I am?
Do you honestly think that a shop will have technicians just sitting around doing nothing just waiting for your cry for help?
It is important to understand how automotive technicians get paid. Most technicians get paid minimum wage or nothing unless they are flagging repair time on a vehicle. They cannot afford to just stand around and wait for your problem on your schedule.
Because of the way technicians are paid shops MUST slightly overbook to keep their technicians busy fixing cars and flagging repair time. Every time a customer cancels an appointment is the functional equivalent of your boss docking your pay from 40 hours to 36. How many times would you put up with that before you started looking for a busier shop to work at? The competition for good automotive technicians is fierce as there are not nearly enough of them to go around. There is virtually no such thing as a shop that is fully staffed.
It is for this reason that often you cannot get your car into a shop right away.
What happens when you make an appointment for a car repair?
Most of the time one hour is set aside for your appointment. During this time the technician tries to find the root of your problem (and if he is really nice) as many other issues he can find in his inspection, and you will be paying a diagnostic fee for the mechanics time.
At that time the shop will tell you what they can fix, how much it will approximately cost and when parts will arrive. At that time an appointment is made for your repair.
At the end of that diagnostic hour the next car is coming in. Mechanics will not be standing around waiting to see if you will approve the repairs on your car or not. Standing around means they are not flagging time and their kids don’t get Christmas.
Why doesn’t the shop have the parts I need in stock?
The supply chain problems from COVID are still very much an issue for the automotive industry and it is not the dealerships fault. Also, since many states have “inventory taxes” the more parts your local shops and local parts houses stock, the more they pay. This is why you should call your state representative and ban inventory taxes. You will get your parts faster and cheaper.
Why do cars have so many computers and cheap plastic parts?
Because of EPA regulations that force car companies to make cars essentially a light tin can with a turbo charger. Don’t call GM or Ford, call your Congressman and tell them to knock it off.
What is the stupidest thing you can do besides not changing your oil and keeping up with the maintenance?
Believe it or not it is deciding to not rust proof you car. Why? There are so many wiring harnesses and computer modules that ground to various parts on the body of the car that if you let it corrode, you are inviting electrical problems. If you spend $50,000 on a vehicle and refuse to spend $300 rust proofing it, you are being foolish.
A word about extended warranties.
If you buy an extended warranty, get one associated with one of the big car companies such as Ford, GM, Chrysler, or Toyota; and by associated we mean that the warranty company is a part of say Chrysler’s “auto integrate” system so that repairs with your extended warranty can be handled with a few simple key strokes.
Cheap stand alone extended warranty companies should be avoided. Most shops refuse to accept them. Why?
For starters, the person who answers the phone for a service department likely takes 40 calls every day. Do you think they have the time to call your extended warranty company’s 800 number so they can be on hold for 40 minutes getting your claim started?
Extended warranty companies deliberately slow walk the billing process to fatigue shops into giving up on getting paid for the claim. They will move the goal post for how they want the estimate or bill presented to them several times, they will take weeks or months to send a check, or they will give the repair shop a purchase order number and keep telling them the check is in the mail. The simple truth is that most stand alone extended warranty companies behave exactly this way.