Shop Estimate Opinions
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 364
Likes: 103
From: Atlanta
Well good luck with it. I try to temper my comments on these things because I realize not everybody has a place to do this work and appropriate tools and everything else. I do everything myself. I see some of these labor figures and I know what these jobs take to do and I realize that maybe this stuff is coming out of a book somewhere but I'm pretty sure some Corvette tax was added to your bill. A few of those items on that estimate were completely out of line as you may have noticed other people saw.
If a shop charges $100 or $150 an hour it isn't that big a deal as long as they don't screw around and farm the thing out. But when they give estimates like what you had there, some of that stuff had to have been at the $500 an hour mark. Those ball joints especially. I hope you get it worked out at a reasonable going rate. I don't mean cheap but not getting hosed either.
If a shop charges $100 or $150 an hour it isn't that big a deal as long as they don't screw around and farm the thing out. But when they give estimates like what you had there, some of that stuff had to have been at the $500 an hour mark. Those ball joints especially. I hope you get it worked out at a reasonable going rate. I don't mean cheap but not getting hosed either.
Thanks for your comments. I totally understand. In this case because of my current situation, I know that I am being suckered... I just wanted to make sure that I knew I was being suckered, and for how much. Like I said, I did not take it to that shop that gave me the posted quote. I took it to a local Hendrick Chevy dealership that is. strangely, cheaper by a couple hundred dollars.
I am eager to permanently move stateside so i can settle down in a space and collect the required tools to eventually do all of this myself. I know this issue doesn't have anything to do with the computer or cats. I just said that to reference that this is the first car that I have ever had that has the level of complexity/cost to repair, and that I can't do most of the repairs myself while on the road. And to think, this was supposed to be my "new" car that I wouldn't have to worry about on road trips! Ha!
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Joined: Jan 2019
Posts: 86
Likes: 25
Ouch this bill hurts! As said, you can definitely do the sway bar links yourself. Or if you cant, it would be better to go with the old ones until you are in a place where you can. I just did this job for $80 and about an hour of time. Lower ball joints shouldnt be too bad, and are probbaly better to wait until you have space instead of paying those rates. The rest looks kind of unavoidable if you need it done now.
