Cars have come a long way, especially compared with models made 20 years ago.
New rides are more reliable and far safer thanks to collision-avoidance capabilities, airbags, antilock brakes, traction control, smart suspensions and more. Despite these advancements, unfortunately our vehicles can’t fix themselves yet.
When you need repairs, choose an auto repair shop carefully. Nonprofit Twin Cities Consumers’ Checkbook finds many shops disappoint their customers. They do lousy work, impose long delays, sell unnecessary repairs and give inaccurate estimates. But not all shops are lemons: Plenty almost always perform top-quality work quickly and for a fair price.
Checkbook’s evaluations of 319 shops in the Twin Cities area used thousands of ratings from local consumers, a review of complaint records at the Better Business Bureau, more than 1,000 price checks and other sources. Until Sept. 5, Checkbook is offering free access to its ratings of local auto repair shops to Star Tribune readers via Checkbook.org/StarTribune/Auto-Repair.
Make sure a shop charges fair prices before you bring in your car because, like with most repair work, it is difficult to shop for price before you know exactly what needs fixing, and prices among local shops vary widely. For example, to replace the starter assembly for a 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, we found prices ranging from $452 to $950 among area shops. Hourly labor rates range from $90 to $260.
If you know what repairs you need, you can compare prices on your own by calling a handful of shops. If you don’t, call one or more shops and describe the symptoms. Shops might be able to tell you on the phone what’s likely wrong and quote a price. When shops can’t determine the problem based on your description, you’ll have to take it in for a diagnosis and estimate. Then, with estimate in hand — and assuming the diagnosis is correct — check with other shops to see if the price is fair.
You don’t have to pay more for good service: Checkbook found no relationship between the prices shops charge and the quality of their work. In fact, low-priced shops were more likely to receive high marks from their surveyed customers than high-priced shops.
Many consumers believe dealers offer better repair service since they have access to proprietary knowledge, sophisticated diagnostic software and high-tech tools not available at independent garages. Consumers’ Checkbook found the opposite: On average, shops that nondealers operated were far more likely to satisfy their customers than dealerships, and they offered lower prices. The nondealers earned “superior” ratings overall by an average of 85% of their surveyed customers compared with only 71% for dealers. Prices at nondealers averaged about 20% lower.
