LdiJ
Senior Member
This is slightly off topic as it has to do with vehicle repair, but I learned something new yesterday that I thought might be of interest.
My daughter's car had a bad electrical problem. We took it to one place and they replaced the master fuse and the battery (which were both legitimately fried) but they were still uncertain of the main reason for the problem. They were pretty sure the alternator was bad, but felt as though something else was wrong. The recommended that we take it to the dealer.
The dealer determined that it was just the alternator. Quoted us nearly 800.00 for the alternator, labor and the tow. That was bad enough, but they also told us it wouldn't be ready for 5-10 days because they had to order the part...that it wasn't available anywhere in the city. The cost of the parts was 459.00.
Well, I contacted an auto parts store in the city (part of a national chain whose name I won't mention) and found that they had in stock, the parts needed for 134.99.
I called the dealer and pitched a fit. The end result was that they admitted that I was perfectly free to choose to supply them the parts myself. That they couldn't refuse to do the repair if I wouldn't use their parts. So I bought the parts, delivered them to them, and had the car back that day.
It never occurred to me that something like that could be done....maybe all the rest of you already know that..but I thought that I would pass it along anyway. It might save someone else having to wait days for their car to be repaired...let alone the monetary savings.
My daughter's car had a bad electrical problem. We took it to one place and they replaced the master fuse and the battery (which were both legitimately fried) but they were still uncertain of the main reason for the problem. They were pretty sure the alternator was bad, but felt as though something else was wrong. The recommended that we take it to the dealer.
The dealer determined that it was just the alternator. Quoted us nearly 800.00 for the alternator, labor and the tow. That was bad enough, but they also told us it wouldn't be ready for 5-10 days because they had to order the part...that it wasn't available anywhere in the city. The cost of the parts was 459.00.
Well, I contacted an auto parts store in the city (part of a national chain whose name I won't mention) and found that they had in stock, the parts needed for 134.99.
I called the dealer and pitched a fit. The end result was that they admitted that I was perfectly free to choose to supply them the parts myself. That they couldn't refuse to do the repair if I wouldn't use their parts. So I bought the parts, delivered them to them, and had the car back that day.
It never occurred to me that something like that could be done....maybe all the rest of you already know that..but I thought that I would pass it along anyway. It might save someone else having to wait days for their car to be repaired...let alone the monetary savings.