Opnion: Did I find a sweet place, or am I going to be duped?

Not2Lucky
Sat, 09 Apr 2011 12:48:37 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

Last month a street sign lunged out at my car and I hit it. It clipped the passenger front corner of my '99 BMW 528. Got the front bumper, right fender. Being the “frugal” person that I did, I went about to 4 shops to get quotes. Found 3 on the internet and one that was recommended my a mechanic that I talked to (whom I do not know well). The first 3 all gave quotes in the 2600-2800 range. I talked to them all about used/recycled parts, not having to be perfect, you can bang out the dent if it will save money (I use this on the highway for 30-40K per year, not to go to car shows), and that I am paying this my self. All three claim that there is no big savings from used parts, or from pulling dents out. Also, all of the quotes are in the same format (seems they all use the same program that gives you a 2 page quote and 3 pages of leagalise.)

I then went to the last place, a small garage, potholed driveway, office is a old man and wife, they have what looks like a 2 bay shop, and another building (paint room?) I chat with the two of them ( my son is going to the school their son went to, how the area changed etc). The are VERY nice. Then the quote comes in at 1500… (different format, 2 pages, only leagalise is the line that states, this is an estimate, it could change and if it does we will tell you)…

They are pulling out the dent in the fender, will bondo anything that remains, aftermarket fender and fog light.

Their rates are only a few buck per hour different then the other shops, but there hourly assumption on time is much different. (they have 14 hours for the job, the other places have 25-27). The markup and overhead is a big difference (they want $200 for supplies, the other places are double that, the other places want 30% more for the fog lamp, charge me 0.4 hours to “aim fog lamp”…wtf)

I can not get any references for the mom-and-pop place. They are not listed here or any where on-line. The other places all have referances.

I can’t figure out if the other places are making a killing on me, or if the mom and pop place are going to do 1) a poor job because they are not getting the right parts and skilled people or 2) will bump up the price in mid-work…

any advise here (I sort of need to get this done on Monday)

17 posts - 15 participants