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Post by johno on May 13, 2008 8:39:17 GMT -5
Not too long ago, I traded off my old beat-up trucks for a nice enough car. No guarantees; what you see is what you get. The brakes started making a little noise, and since it's a little more modern than what I'm used to, with ABS and all, and since I'm a poor excuse of a mechanic, I thought we should have a professional look at it... So the guy calls us back, and he says he needs to get new rotors for the front and turn the rotors on the back - oh, and no one in town has the parts, so he'll have to special order them. It will be over $700.00, shall we go ahead? Uh, NO!  So we decided to take a look for ourselves... Just needed new pads on the front. We fixed it ourselves for $25.00, including brake fluid. And, of course, the first three places I called all carried all the parts I might need, at about 1/4 the cost we were quoted... JERKS!!! I hate thieving, lying mechanics! Don't get me started on the last one we used... or the one before that, come to think of it. We figured it up last night, judging from experience - there must be around 6 million dollars per year, in this town alone, of mechanical rip-offs. What's with these guys? GRRR! |
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Post by plantsnobin on May 13, 2008 9:56:55 GMT -5
We are kind of at the mercy of these guys, huh? We had a 1990 Geo Prizm (ok, you can stop laughing now!) bought it new and really never had any trouble with it except for putting in a new starter. In 2005 I was thinking I wanted something else, and it kind of stalled on me at a light. Took it to a mechanic and he said that it wasn't going to last much longer and wouldn't be worth working on. So, sold it for $200 to almost son in laws-neice. Told her it wouldn't last long, that was ok with her. I understand she sold it a while back for $300, and I still see it driving around town all the time. Probably just a little bad gas that made it stall in the first place. Oh well, the new truck will be paid for in another couple of years. And, it would have been harder to haul poo in the old Geo. Not impossible, of course.
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Post by lavandulagirl on May 13, 2008 9:59:32 GMT -5
His boat payment must've been due... there is an upside, at least for you, Johno. You figured it out BEFORE you paid for the rotor replacement you didn't need.
Frankly, I'm stunned at what he wanted to charge you. From conversations, I'd think we lived in similar economic areas, but when I had the rotors on my last car replaced in February, at inspection time, I think the bill was 240 bucks, and they changed the belts and fixed a light too. Now, I am a girl, and not above flirting, as we know, but jeez!
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Post by johno on May 13, 2008 13:41:37 GMT -5
I was stunned, too! From the research we did afterwards, $240.00 for all that work is right about in line. This guy is a serious crook. From what I can tell now, it appears he preys on little old ladies and cripples like me. What a nice guy, huh? We just picked him at random from the phone book... and we did ask if he could work us in, because Heather is making a long trip today. He must have smelled desperation.
You'd be surprised how long some of these old vehicles can last. One of the trucks I traded off was a 1975 gmc with 300,000 miles on it, and it still runs and even out-pulled the other one, a 1989 gmc. An engineer friend of mine has an ancient VW Beetle, and he put an MSD (multiple spark discharge) ignition kit in it, and he said it would run forever like that. So far it has. I wish he still lived here...
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Post by jtcm05 on May 16, 2008 12:55:40 GMT -5
I do agree that most mechanics will definitely try to rip off most customers by replacing stuff that just isn't necessary, but just changing the pads without either changing or re-surfacing the rotors is just not the right way to do a brake job. Rotors are very cheap to buy these days. It used to be that bringing them to a shop and having them re-surfaced was always the cheaper option, but thats not true anymore. One rotor will run you about 20-30 bucks these days. Depending on the vehicle of course. I usually do the work myself and it costs me around a $100 an axle to do the job the right way. Rear brakes need far fewer replacements than fronts.
Just replacing pads on beat up rotors will likely decrease your vehicle's braking ability and will also bring about your next brake job almost twice as fast now. Not to mention it may create other problems(i.e.-Caliper). Good luck
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Post by hoosierheightsfarm on May 17, 2008 20:42:17 GMT -5
Karen, have you tried Kenny Heinz? He hunts on our place and always does right by me.
BTW: how much for the car out front? Does it get good MPG?
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Post by plantsnobin on May 18, 2008 7:14:36 GMT -5
Patrick-yep, I know Kenny. The guy who looked at our car worked for Kenny. Kenny and his wife are one of the families that are losing their home to the 'bypass'. Worse for them than most, because they are losing home and business. The car is already sold. If you are looking to get something, I really can say that we had good luck with the Geo. The only thing we ever had to do to it was put in a new starter when it was about 3 years and 1 month old. You know, just out of warranty. But that was the only time we ever had to take it to Kenny.
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