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.