I’m always in favor of someone getting a second opinion; or even a third.
However; I will respectfully disagree with the premise that all dealers are a bunch of thieves and that a higher price at a dealer means they’re gouging. That is simply not true. If one actually worked at a dealership I think one would see very quickly that most of the guys are honest and doing a pretty much thankless job.
A crook mechanic usually gets weeded out because no one wants them around.
Incompetent mechanics often get weeded out also; it just may take a bit longer.
As to independents, the assumption may be that they’re all honest, do the right thing, etc, etc.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve worked (very briefly) for 2 independents.
One “laid me off” because I would not stiff everyone walking through the door. An elderly woman had a car with a leaking radiator hose IMO. No she did not according to the shop owner. She needs all hoses, radiator, water pump, thermostat, and a fan clutch.
At another indy I worked there one week before loading my tools and telling the owner he was a lying sack of xxxx.
I could relate examples until the cows come home of indy shop work brought to the dealer AFTER the fact and turn that into a medium sized tome.
Por favor disculpe la diatriba as they say in the south of France…
ok4450 makes a fair point - all independent shops are not great/honest and all dealers are not gouging customers. wise to get reliable recommendations from customers & i double-check on Yelp to see what opinions are out there when i select someone.
my dealer told me straight up that they were not a good place to get my transmission work done. their price was $7000+ for a new transmission whereas a transmission specialist could do the work for far less. that was 90k miles ago and it’s all been good.
one of my previous independent shops invariably charged us around $1200 no matter what we brought the car in for. the last time we went to them we took our car in for running rough, we paid our $1250, they did something involving the clutch i think and the car still ran rough. then they changed the spark plugs and it ran fine. i decided i could find another mechanic, one who would try the less expensive fix first.
The dealer is not always actively scamming someone. But, dealer prices tend to be high for a few reasons. 1) They do tend to charge high labor rates. 2) They use factory direct parts, which are typically built by an outside supplier and stamped with the car maker’s label and part number, then marked up to sell to you. Many times, you can get the same exact part with the suppliers label much cheaper. 3) For parts not labeled by the car maker, like tires and batteries, they sell whatever they can make a deal for, them apply the customary dealer mark up to sell to you. 4) Service techs at dealerships tend to point out even the most minor of conditions that are expensive to correct, but are harmless. We had a story here recently about an owner quoted hundreds of dollars to fix an oil pan leak the dealer service tech noticed, but was really seepage on an older car that was not actively leaking.
It’s a shame but there are far too many incompetant mechanics, crooked mechanics, unethical mechanics and likewise shop owners. They make life difficult for the hard working honest mechanics and shop owners/managers. And while the dealership shops are necessarilly more expensive they are as likely to be honest as the independents but significantly more expensive. Here and elsewhere from what I hear the franchise/corporate tire stores, muffler shops, transmission shops and oil change shops tend to be somewhat pricey and overbearing in insiting that the recommended repairs are life and death critical though. And I have been the second opinion for a great many car owners and found that the recommended rapairs were very often overstated and often outright lies made obvious. The independent crooks don’t last long here but in their short stays several have deserved facing criminal charges.
I’ll jump in again to join the crowd who recommend that car owners find an honest mechanic that they see eye to eye with and develope a good working relationship with them.
Of course dealer prices are more expensive, and it can be easily explained
High overhead versus an independent shop, therefore the labor rates are higher
Factory parts are almost always costlier than aftermarket parts
If the dealer sold their factory parts for aftermarket prices, that would be bad business
There are other factors also, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind
Many people want the peace of mind, knowing that genuine Mazda parts were installed on their Mazda, by a Mazda-trained factory technician. That doesn’t mean that person is an idiot. That just means they see things differently, versus the guy who wants store brand parts installed at Pep Boys, because they don’t have much money to spend
Another example . . . a guy wearing Lee jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers from the discount sporting good store
Versus a guy wearing $150 designer jeans, a $40 designer t-shirt, and $200 stylish shoes
That second guy isn’t an idiot. he just wants to look cool, and he doesn’t mind paying the bucks to do so.
Most shops want to replace rotors because they don’t want the customer coming back with complaints of noise or vibration. A do it yourselfer can look at his rotors and decide for himself if he wants to replace the rotors. I just took a block of wood with sandpaper around it and let the rotors spin against that to clean up the surfaces.
If you wait for your brakes to make noise, you will always need rotors.
If you find a competent, honest, independent mechanic, with fair prices who has been in business more than a couple of years, you will have to make an appointment for anything that isn’t dropped on his lot by your tow truck because he will be very busy with customers who bypass a lot of other shops to come to him. The good ones also don’t bad mouth other shops, they don’t have to.
I really doubt you need new brake pads and rotors and tires front and back all of a sudden. So for sure get a second opinion. It would be pretty easy to just take the car in to a good shop for a tire rotation and brake inspection but I believe you should ask to have the tires and brakes checked.
Now I like dealers but I took my Pontiac in to the GM dealer for a recall item. Naturally I get the multi point inspection along with the free popcorn. They rated my rear brake pads at yellow and said they needed to be replaced. Naturally they could get it right in. I said I’ll wait, ordered the Delco pads, and finally put them on. They really did not need to be replaced yet at all. They were maybe 50% so I don’t know how the kid determined that they were 20%. Wasn’t even close to the wear indicators. These were the original pads with 100K on them. So I would say they are most likely trying to upsell you a little.
I have no idea whether or not the OP’s car needs this work or how bad it is. There are a lot of factors that revolve around brake and tire longevity.
Twenty six thousand miles is certainly enough that tires and all of the brakes could be suffering.
OP, I will advise you that what you’ve been told or have read about brakes are “supposed to last…” is incorrect. There are simply too many variables involved.
Problems can also exist with no noticeable symptoms and while most service advisors at the desk have little mechanical aptitude, this one is correct about substances on the roadway creating problems with brakes. Road salt or other chemicals, driving through somewhat deep standing water, and so on can lead to premature brake wear and other issues.
Don’t worry about what a shop thinks. No reputable shop should take offense at getting another opinion. It may lead to a bit of a ding on the ego of the mechanic but he’ll get over it…
The average person has to deal with auto shops repeatedly over 50 or 60 years of his/her life, multiple times every year, and with over 200 million cars in the U.S. (estimates vary widely, but almost all are well over 200million) and at least a few hundred thousand repair facilities (estimates vary), there’s plenty of opportunity for problems. And for crooks and incompetents. The one thing we all have in common is that we’re almost all subject to being victimized by the crooks and incompetents occasionally. The odds of the average driver never bumping into one are almost zero. Thus, the industry has a very sketchy reputation amongst average car owners.
Dealers are IMHO no more crooked, but they are more expensive due to higher overhead and the requirements they’re under to use parts from their manufacturer’s distribution system, which generally are two to 2-1/2 times the cost of the same parts on the aftermarket.
One thing that also tarnishes the reputation of the industry is “come-ons”, where a shop offers a $29 brake servicing and everyone walks away with a $2,500 list of “must-dos”. For the shop, it generates revenue. To the average car owner, it fosters distrust. Factor in the amount of these “must-do estimates” that are generated by the less scrupulous, and it’s no wonder nobody trusts mechanics. “Lifetime muffler” and other such guarantees that end up costing the owner more for every “free” muffler installation than the cost of an entire new system elsewhere also contribute to the industry’s shaky reputation.
There are a great many good, decent, honest, knowledgeable mechanics out there. But there’s just way too much opportunity for the others to ruin things for everybody. I wish I could offer a solution.
The first step is to review the brake pad, brake rotor and tire tread depth measurements on your inspection sheet and perhaps get a second inspection. Without sharing these measurements it is impossible to determine how soon and what repairs/replacement your vehicle needs.
