honestautoestimates.com

Consumer advocate?

scott — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:45:07 +0000

Many companies have began to use the catch phrase “Consumer advocate” to appeal to Americans since of fair play to cash in. They do this by setting up websites to provide information and then do not have actual people to assist consumers. Information by itself is not the total solution to the issue that consumers face of being overcharged for repairs to there cars. Consumers need help to navigate the information provided and support to back up that information that is real, not just virtual concepts. Consumer advocacy began as a movment to protect consumers from being taken, not just monitaraly but subliminally as well. The term a wolf in sheep clothing comes to mind when we hear of some websites that are capturing people attention only to direct them towards the parent for profit companies commercial outlet for auto parts or repair facilities that they own or do business with to supply parts too. HAE does allow auto repair shop to interact with consumers to provide repairs, but HAE has “Hands on” oversight of this process to ensure the positive out come for both the consumer and the repair shop. Through this medium HAE has helped and gained the respect of thousands of consumers all over the U.S. It can be a great partnership between consumer and advocate as long as the consumer is the reason for the relationship and not the bottom line of the parent company selling parts or repairs. We would ask that you investigate any website calling them selves a “Consumer advocate” to find the source of that company and their motives for providing help. It’s kind of like knowing why someone is holding the door open for you, are they trying to help or just trap you inside?

Your tires should be a “Match made in Heaven!”

scott — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:26:56 +0000

I was talking to someone the other day and they mentioned they had 2 new tires put on their car. I asked them if they really wanted to go into the ditch that bad? They answered, “What?”, I explained to them that if you mix tire tread patterns it can cause vehicle stability issues. You see, most of today’s vehicles are equipped with some kind of Vehicle Stability Control system and ABS (Anti-Lock Brakes). These systems calculate many factors and then make decisions about transmission gear changes, engine speed, braking and steering to keep you from driving beyond the vehicles limits. The problem with having tires that do not match (Tire design, manufacturer, rubber compounds, age etc.) is that all these safety systems assume that the traction or road contact is the same at each point of the vehicle. If one or more contact points are different, the systems will react incorrectly and possibly destabilize the vehicle potentially causing an accident. The moral of the story is saving a few bucks may cost you your life under certain conditions, BUY 4 TIRES!

Deadly contact!

scott — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:41:49 +0000

I would guess that most people have no idea of what a DOT number is on your tires. This is perhaps the most important number associated with a vehicle tire, even more important than the price, it’s the age. Watch the following report from ABC news before you kill your family or friends trying to save money and time:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

NEW NEVER GETS OLD?

scott — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:16:04 +0000

In the U.S. we seem to be in love with the word “NEW”. We want new cars, new girl friends or boyfriends, new shoes, new relationships, new furniture, etc. Why? that’s what I want to know. New is always going to get old eventually, are we just going to trade up ever time there is a “NEW” available? Why not fix that car, relationship, girl/boy friend first and then see how things are.

Cars are HAE’s specialty, not girl/boy friends or shoes. When it comes to the automobile, people are often to quick to through in the towel. Sure if you have an extremely high mileage vehicle that is costing you repair money of more than a car payment monthly, you need to consider looking for something else. But, ig you do the math and consider that a car is a depreciating asset, you might find that a new car payment (Typically around $478 per month for 6 years) is a lot more expensive than the repairs for that same period on your existing vehicle.

The auto manufactures would like you to buy a new car ever few years, that keeps the wheels of industry rolling, but can keep your budget rolled up! In reality, you can keep your car repaired and servicing your needs for many years beyond the last payment as long as you do the required maintenance. There are published reports that show savings in most cases of over $15,000 during a 6 year period of payments versus repairs. That’s $15,000, WOW! Imagine the credit cards that you could pay off and get rid of the high interest loans.

The next time you think “NEW” car, stop and ask yourself, “How much have I spent on actual repairs over the last 2 years?” Excluded maintenance, since that has to be done even on the new cars. Then figure out the expected car payment and see which one is less, I would bet the repair is going to win out on that.

You can’t idiot proof everything!

scott — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:30:15 +0000

The following is an email article circulating around the internet, read this and then read the comment I make at the end, thanks.

Driving in the rain
> >>
> >> I wonder how many people know about this ~
> >> A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her
> >> car.
> >> A resident of Kilgore , Texas she was traveling between Gladewater &
> >> Kilgore. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly
> >> began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not
> >> seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence!
> >>
> >> When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened he told
> >> her
> >> something that every driver should know – NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH
> >> YOUR
> >> CRUISE CONTROL ON . She thought she was being cautious by setting the
> >> cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain.
> >>
> >> But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on
> >> when
> >> your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the
> >> pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you
> >> take off like an airplane. She told the patrolman that was exactly what
> >> had occurred.
> >>
> >> The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver’s seat
> >> sun-visor – NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR
> >> ICY,
> >> along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise
> >> control and drive a safe speed – but we don’t tell them to use the
> >> cruise
> >> control only when the pavement is dry.
> >>
> >> The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the
> >> patrolman), was a man who had had a similar accident, totaled his car
> >> and
> >> sustained severe injuries.
> >>
> >> NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow
> >> you
> >> to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on.
> >>
> >>
> >> If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn’t know about
> >> this, then it was all worth it. You might have saved a life.

This vehicle probably did not have a vehicle stability control system as most cars manufacture after 2007 are equipped with. Virtually all vehicles priced above $18,000 built after 2006 have some form of stability control and all detect wheel spin and turn off the cruise control. Now, that being said, the idea of allowing the vehicle to control the speed based on just the vehicles current speed and not road conditions is where the real issue comes into play. Common sense should have stepped up and prevented this accident and unfortunately you can’t manufacture that into an automobile.

Actual Case of a Rip Off in Fayetteville NC

scott — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:38:53 +0000

We recently,September 23, 2009, spoke with an HAE Consumer Member who took their 2004 VW Passat to a repair shop in Fayettteville North Carolina. The car’s thermostat had failed causing the vehicle to overheat. now that’s were everything goes off the charts for rip off. You see, the shop quoted a price of over $450 to complete this repair. They said the labor time for this was 4.5 hours, we looked up the labor time on Alldata, mitchell’s and Chilton and the highest time was 2.5. Now, in explanation of the labor times, this shop to remain nameless, gave the following;

cooling system diagnosis 1.0

verify complaint .1

check coolant condition .1

check coolant level .1

pressure test radiator .1

TSB search (Look up codes in computer) .1

Visual inspection .1

pressure test radiator .1 (That’s right, twice)

inspect belts .1

check cooling fans .1

inspect for proper coolant .1

replace thermostat 2.5

That’s 4.5 hours of labor, for what? Ok, let’s set this aside for a minute. We also looked at the parts pricing model to determine why this overcharge occurred. The following are the prices as listed on the estimate:

Thermostat $50.57, this is twice the manufacturer suggested retail price at the VW dealership.

Coolant $30.90, where is the gold in this fluid? Every parts store in the U.S. has this item for under $15.

The conclusion we came to was the same as you are probably thinking, “They saw him coming!” These shops get away with this because of the previous lack of knowledge of auto repair the public once had to endure. HAE was founded to prevent this type of hideous, out right abuse of the consumer. For further details about the exact shop name and location you can email customerservice@honestautoestimates.com and request the information.

HAE’s health care plan to give back $22 billion to Americans.

scott — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:58:38 +0000

HAE is going to assist Americans in paying for their health care by furnishing them with $22 billion for use to buy coverage. HAE’s average consumer members are the people who spiraling health care cost affect most. You see, last year the U.S. Government estimates that Americans were over charged by over $22 billion for auto repairs. If they join HAE for FREE, they can save that money for their health care expenses.

The President said the governments plan would take 4 years to get into full swing. Here is the beat part, HAE’s $22 billion investment into the health care problem is available now and it’s FREE. This means Americans can start purchasing health coverage now when they join HAE as a Consumer Member and stop over spending on auto repairs. HAE has calculated that the average person is overcharged an annual average of around $1260. That’s about $105 per month. The U.S. Government estimate the average persons individual health cover cost them about $257 per month. All this math mean that if someone joins HAE for FREE they could use that extra $105 per month towards their heath insurance cost. This means HAE’s $22 billion health plan reduces the finacial impact of your health insurance by over 40% or at least the affect it has on your budget. The point is that by joining HAE, Americans can send a clear message to American business including insurance companies, “We are not going to sit back and be taken advantage of any more!” This is a significant way to make health insurance cost less of a burden on your already strained budget. HAE’s is offering this membership for FREE because of the mission HAE was started to accomplish, protecting Consumers against being overcharged for auto repairs.

Benjamin Franklyn said “A penny saved is a penny earned!”

$22 billion being diverted into American’s pockets, should certainly make a difference in the health care of those Americans that take advantage of the offer made by HAE to protect them and keep their money for a better use to pay for their health coverage. Send me an email about how you would use the money saved by not being overcharged for auto repair at haehealthplan@honestautoestimates.com, HAE will post some of these here on this very popular blog and send them on to congress and let them know what you think.

Where do labor guides get their repair times?

scott — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:50:30 +0000

The most popular labor guides such as Alldata, Chilton and Mitchell’s purchase repair information from the manufacturers. The factory sets a time for every repair to the vehicle. They come up with most of these labor times by formulation not by actually dismantling the vehicle. This means that some labor times can vary from actual time, but the overall labor time is fairly accurate. The idea is that the more experienced the technician is, the faster the repair time. This is called the technicians efficiency rate and most shops like to see at least 130%, which means the technicians billable time net about 30% profitability. If the technician is given a job that is rated at 10 hours and does the job in 7, then he is available for more work that will overlap that 10 hours. This leads to profit because the technician will also work faster on the 7 hour job. Auto repair shops sell parts and time not repairs, which is why consumers have to be careful when analyzing estimates for repairs. An estimate for repair to your car has very few components, labor time, parts and sales tax. Other fees such as shop supplies, hazardous waste or any other fee is added by the shop to cover a specific cost the shop may incur while performing repairs to your car. These fees however are sometimes abused and are simply added profit.

Hey is it just me or did I really see………………

scott — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Maybe I am old fashion, but I think that auto repair should be auto repaired. So many times we take our cars to a repair shop only to hear, “We have to start with this and hope”, hope? Why not fix! With the level of computer intergration, most vehicles self diagnose. If a shops says this to you, look out wallet! They are telling you they are not sure whats wrong but if you don’t mind footing the bill, we can throw enough parts at the problem until it goes away. I know some problems are difficult to find, but dilligence can be a money saver. The key to getting a direct answer to “What’s wrong with it” is really a 3 pronged appraoch; 1) Technical knowledge 2) Tools 3) Technician. If you have these things going for you, there is a good chance you will only pay for the repair and not that shops training session on your car.

The real world of auto repair

scott — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:19:42 +0000

In the real world of auto repair shops, the bottom line rules. As the economy has tightened up, many shop have found themselves struggling to make it. Some have turned to overcharging the customers they do get in just to make ends meet.
HAE does not recognize the reasoning of “anything goes, I have to stay in business.” The truth is that it is possible to stay open and NOT overcharge consumers. The key to it all is getting the word out that no matter how bad it gets you will not resort to “Ripping off” consumers. Association such as HAE, BBB and AAA can be valuable resourses for both consumers and repair shops. They can connect “Honest” shops with consumers who don’t mind paying “An honest days pay for an honest days work”. HAE offers shops the ability to connect with it’s consumer members only if they meet the standards set to protect the members. These shops must meet criteria including being subjected to “Mystery Shopper” estimates. HAE makes sure that shops treat every consumer with respect and honesty or HAE will make an example out of that shop.
HAE is considered by many to be the authority concerning auto repair rip offs. We spot them a mile away and expose them everyday to our consumer members so they are not taken. Shop who think “Profit above all” or “Do what ever it takes” will pay the price, but those shops that join HAE and GUARANTEE they will not overcharge will reap the rewards!