What's the most Outrageous repair bill a dealer or repair shop has ever given you?

[DieHarder]

Recently took my car into a Lincoln dealer to help me narrow down the list of possibilities for a loss of power with no codes. They finally took a look at it after nearly a week and tell me one of their better technicians determined COPs 6/7 were bad. The tech moved them to 2/3 and the problem moved so 99.999% sure they were the source of the problem as everything else (plugs/air filter/MAF) I checked/replaced was good. That cost me a little over $200 for the diagnostic. To me, having a definitive cause for the bogging down was worth the cost and my COPs were only two years old.

Just because I'm curious I decided to ask what it would cost to have the dealer replace those two COPs thinking if it was only a few bucks I'd have them do it... Without hesitation the service writer replied it would cost $845. At first I thought she was joking and began to explain replacing two COPs probably cost $25 ea and took all of 10 mins to install if you were a moron but caught myself and simply said thank you I'll be right down to pick it up. She said she would have the paperwork ready so I went down and got it. Now my wrench & engine idiot lights were both lit and found out they forgot to hook up the MAF. FI engines obviously have a problem with that. I drove her easy and I only live a couple of miles away so got her home and ordered the parts which came in today so I replaced those two COPs which cost me $8.50 ea and about 10 mins to do both. I could have replaced all of them for about $65 but wanted to be sure what the original issue was since I was leaning towards injectors or wiring instead of COPs.

Anyway, morale of the story is apparently dealers have No morals. I've been working on cars for over 45 years and usually had reasonable interactions with car dealers/auto repair places but this one really did catch me by surprise. The other famous one being shops that specialize in brake jobs... even the dealers are beyond reason anymore. Last quote I got at a dealer was $800 to replace brake pads only (really?). Did the entire job myself for $400 incl new OEM rotors on a huge SUV.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

They aren't called stealerships for nothing!

 

[07 Boss]

Well all shops are supposed to follow the book rate when quoting work. It would be the same hours if you went somewhere else the only difference would be in the hourly rate. And yes dealerships tend to have higher hourly shop rates than most of your smaller independent shops.

 

[AHaze]

'03 Lightning still under warranty was down on power (trap speed down a little over 5 mph IIRC). Service department hooked it to their scanner, found no codes, did zero further investigation, claimed they couldn't do anything for me and presented me with a bill for the diagnostic fee. I went over the dealer's head with it but Ford wouldn't do anything either. I suspect the cats were starting to plug up but never found out as I ended up dumping the truck on a trade in shortly after this wonderful experience. That was the last new vehicle I ever bought.
Several years later, Mrs. AHaze has a 2011 Hyundai that goes in to have a recall performed. When I pick it up, there's a $2000+ estimate to fix everything they found during their free 99 point inspection. Some of it was legit but a big chunk of it was to replace the brake pads, rotors and hoses which were all less than a month old. I really wanted to cause a scene but held it together and quietly suggested to the service advisor that he inflict some serious pain on the tech for making him look like an a-hole.

 

[skwerl]

I have never in my life had any work quoted by a dealership. Not worth my time because I know it will be outrageous. I have only visited dealership service departments for recalls, sometimes I visit the parts counter for parts. I knew that since before I was old enough to get my drivers license.

 

[Juice]

Diagnostic charge 1hr minimum. We know it takes but a minute to scan, and a few more minutes to take a look under the hood.
Drivability work is also 'special', some dealers have a dedicated tech thats ALL he does, diagnose. Line techs do the work.
With labor rates now around $200/hr, that quote is not all that high.
I do all my own work, only pay for state inspections.

 

[GriffX]

1000€ Volvo V4, oil change and front rotors, in 2001. Volvo was the most expensive car for repairs I had, even Mercedes is cheaper. Nowadays since they used AI to increase part prices it has gone mad. TRW front caliper 60€, bought via Mercedes 450€. But, I have seen an O-ring for our power steering is above 30$ from Ford now - ONE O-ring.

 

[86GT351]

Recently took my car into a Lincoln dealer to help me narrow down the list of possibilities for a loss of power with no codes. They finally took a look at it after nearly a week and tell me one of their better technicians determined COPs 6/7 were bad. The tech moved them to 2/3 and the problem moved so 99.999% sure they were the source of the problem as everything else (plugs/air filter/MAF) I checked/replaced was good. That cost me a little over $200 for the diagnostic. To me, having a definitive cause for the bogging down was worth the cost and my COPs were only two years old.

Just because I'm curious I decided to ask what it would cost to have the dealer replace those two COPs thinking if it was only a few bucks I'd have them do it... Without hesitation the service writer replied it would cost $845. At first I thought she was joking and began to explain replacing two COPs probably cost $25 ea and took all of 10 mins to install if you were a moron but caught myself and simply said thank you I'll be right down to pick it up. She said she would have the paperwork ready so I went down and got it. Now my wrench & engine idiots lights were both lit and found out they forgot to hook up the MAF. FI engines obviously have a problem with that. I drove her easy and I only live a couple of miles away so got her home and ordered the parts which came in today so I replaced those two COPs which cost me $8.50 ea and about 10 mins to do both. I could have replaced all of them for about $65 but wanted to be sure what the original issue was since I was leaning towards injectors or wiring instead of COPs.

Anyway, morale of the story is apparently dealers have No morals. I've been working on cars for over 45 years and usually had reasonable interactions with car dealers/auto repair places but this one really did catch me by surprise. The other famous one being shops that specialize in brake jobs... even the dealers are beyond reason anymore. Last quote I got at a dealer was $800 to replace brake pads only (really?). Did the entire job myself for $400 incl new OEM rotors on a huge SUV.

What brand COPs did you get? Any shop or Dealership will always go by book time. If it calls for an hour and only takes 10 minutes, you still pay for the hour. MSRP alone on the coils is 96.18 each.

 

[stkjock]

Audi dealer, convertible top, quoted me $10K in parts alone for repair, without actually diagnosing what the issue was, would not even consider replacing a single sensor that I suspected was the cause, they wanted to start replacing nearly every mechanical part in the top system....

 

[MrBhp]

Audi vert tops have a wire that can get dislodged with the tray that moves in the trunk. Once that happens the wire will get pinched by the top mechanism. Causing several top operation issues.

 

[DieHarder]

What brand COPs did you get? Any shop or Dealership will always go by book time. If it calls for an hour and only takes 10 minutes, you still pay for the hour. MSRP alone on the coils is 96.18 each.

OEM Motorcraft 3L3Z-12029-BA (DG-511) in original packaging. You can find them all day on feebay for ~$65 - $70 for all 8 (~$8.15 - $8.75 ea). Not sure what the book value is to replace a single COP but with only one (1) bolt and one connector I can't imagine that equates to $845 to replace two of them. When I asked why so much the service writer said because the tech would have to recheck everything (I assumed to ensure that was the problem).

So, long story short I ordered and received 8 COPs; replaced the two bad ones in about 5 minutes. Determined the coil end that connects to the tip of the plug had retracted so far on each of them that they weren't making a good connection so the COPs I took out may still be usable but for $8 ea I'll just replace them.

 

[86GT351]

Labor should be One Hour for diagnsis (Standard in the industry) .3 for labor per All Data. List price for the part (Not internet pricing) and tax and disposal fees.

 

[Pentalab]

$758.00 cdn...... to repair the driver' side power window. It was permanently stuck in the 'down' position...and with no garage, and rain on the way, I had a gun to my head. (Years ago, the one touch 'up' stopped working..... and they reloaded software and all sorts of stuff......and couldn't fix it).

So now my one touch ....'up' still does not work..... only the one touch...'down'.

This is on my 2011 Fusion.

 

[MrBhp]

$758.00 cdn...... to repair the driver' side power window. It was permanently stuck in the 'down' position...and with no garage, and rain on the way, I had a gun to my head. (Years ago, the one touch 'up' stopped working..... and they reloaded software and all sorts of stuff......and couldn't fix it).

So now my one touch ....'up' still does not work..... only the one touch...'down'.

This is on my 2011 Fusion.

I'm guessing you've gone thru the "re-learn" process?

 

[DieHarder]

Labor should be One Hour for diagnosis (Standard in the industry) .3 for labor per All Data. List price for the part (Not internet pricing) and tax and disposal fees.

Using your data let's say list was $96.18 ea for the COPs and the one hour diagnosis. The shop quoted me $180 for the diag plus fees which turned into $211 and an additional $845 to replace the COPs. That's $192.36 for (2) COPs. So, at 18 mins (.3h) for labor for two COPs that works out to (845 - 192.36) /(18*2) = $18.12/min or about ~$1087/hr not counting the price of the diagnosis. Man, if that's what they're getting these days I wanna work there.

Giving the service writer the benefit of the doubt perhaps she meant all 8 but I specifically asked about the two so either she mistakenly assumed that all 8 needed replacing; they just wanted to shock me so I'd go away or, she really meant what she said. I'll go with the latter since the tone in her voice didn't change one iota and she didn't laugh after quoting the price. It's true I'm getting old but last checkup my hearing wasn't on the list for health concerns.

 

[Recon]

Not exactly a repair bill, but about 9-10 years ago, the shop I work at, had a car from carmart. It was a MG 01 Cobra vert with 105k miles. It had a bad engine in it; it ran but had a lower end noise. It wasn’t long for this world. I thought I may as well see what it’d cost to buy the car, so I could fix it, and sell it. To pay off my Roush at the time. I mean it wasn’t in terrible shape but it definitely needed some love. I’m not a convertible person; so there wasn’t any motivation to keep it. They told me $14,995 as it sat with the messed up engine. I thought that was friggin outrageous. Anyway, it never happened.

 

[Pentalab]

I'm guessing you've gone thru the "re-learn" process?

Yes, they had me do all of that...to no avail. I noticed on my son's 2017 Fusion, it doesn't even have the....'one touch up' function......only one touch down. My guess is..... ford probably had issues with the one touch up function...... and ceased offering it.

 

[Forty61]

I’m too cheap to even drive to the dealership for most things.. my work truck though, as a company vehicle, straight in there! My old Chevy needed a radiator replacement and some other odds and ends at around 250k miles.. quote came back at over $5000! Needless to say I got a new truck a few weeks later.

 

[ghunt81]

Not quite a repair bill but my wife took her explorer to a local shop for an inspection and oil change last year and they charged her $125 for it.