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Smart Shopper Smart Shopper-Archives Help! Repairs cost more than the car is worth!! 
102 messages, Last post on Jul 05, 2007 at 7:33 AM
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My sister, Cathy, has a 1997 Ford Contour inherited from our parents, who don't drive anymore. Last week the engine light showed yellow and she took it to a car place who charged her $90 and ran diagnostics and came up with about $2,000 worth of repairs needed. Since that is about the book value of the car now, she is in a quandary about what to do. The car place prioritized the work that needed to be done and said the O2 sensor was the most critical. That, and some other sensor replacement, with labor, comes to about $500. Priority 1 and 2 stuff together come to about $1200. I know zero about cars. What is the O2 sensor and is it really that critical? The yellow light has since gone out. The dealer says if this stuff is done the car is good for another 100,000 miles. Could that be true? There are 98,000 miles on the car now - lowish for a car that old. The car was bought new in 1997 and has been meticulously maintained by my parents and now by Cathy. So that is a consideration too, when it comes to considering trading it in and getting another used car of unknown providence. (Buying a new car right now is not financially possible). I wish we knew somebody locally who knew about cars. I think Cathy gets ripped off a lot as a woman walking into car places where they assume, correctly, that she knows nothing about cars. Any thoughts? The labor costs are what makes it so expensive. And it seems they don't "consolidate the labor charges" - so even if they do 5 things and because they do it all at the same time they get done quicker they don't charge less. It is "this much labor charge for this job" period. Is that common car repair practice? Thanks, doug
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Replying to: douglerner (May 20, 2007 11:57 pm) I talked to the mechanics about this problem and read several internet sites with comments from other people who had the same problem. I decided to put black tape over the light and ignore it. We gave the car to our daughter a couple years later. A year later, they found that they had to get the light fixed before the car could pass the auto inspection in our area. However, if they spent at least $600 and the light was still on, it would pass inspection. They paid $600 for some work, the light stayed on, and the car was allowed to pass inspection. The car runs great. |
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Replying to: douglerner (May 20, 2007 11:57 pm) The oxygen sensor is pretty important as it affects mileage and performance. That said, it could be "bad" and not really have a noticeable negative impact. Or it could. Perhaps someone who knows this motor will chime in here. The light went off after the dealer cleared the trouble code(s). It likely will return in shortly. Is the car running okay? Dealers are always going to be high. Labor costs are frequently "book based" - if the book says it takes 3 hours to complete a particular job, that's what you'll be charged for.
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Replying to: cccompson (May 21, 2007 2:37 pm) I agree. If the oxygen sensor is bad, the mileage and performance will suffer. Of course, the contrapositive is also true. If the mileage and performance are good, the oxygen sensor is fine. Therefore, I suggest that doug just keep driving the car as it is. If the mileage and performance are good, it means the oxygen sensor is fine and the CEL is simply a false alarm. |
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Replying to: cccompson (May 21, 2007 2:37 pm) its a silly setup if you ask me. though i guess it could be abused the other way too...if you paid strictly on actual labor, and the service guys dragged their feet so as to make more on you.... lose lose either way i s'pose! -thene 
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Sometimes, the best mechanics run into unexpected problems that cause them to spend more time fixing a problem than the books call for. They still get paid two hours when the job took three. And in order to beat the book times, they invest thousands of dollars into the special tools that allow them to beat the clock. The average dealership technician probably has 50,000 or more invested in tools.
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Replying to: thenebean (May 22, 2007 8:21 am) In my industry it is called time card fraud and people go to jail for it. 
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Replying to: isellhondas (Jun 06, 2007 1:00 pm) Oh yeah one of our techs has this ultimate multimeter type thing that is like a tablet PC thing. It can do EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. I think it cost him 5,000 dollars. He can get real time info on almost every system of a vehicle.
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Replying to: exb0 (Jun 06, 2007 4:44 pm) Then there are miserable jobs where the best guy out there can't finish using book times.
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