lol so my father goes in to get his front brakes on his E250 done cuz the jack i use on the stang would probably be crushed by the weight

every time he tell him just get "blah blah" done he gets reamed..HARD

so he comes back 440 dollars later
50 bucks for "throttle plate maintenance" ..lol i told him.. i got a can of that stuff for like 4 bucks in the garage

another 50 bucks later for "fuel injector maintenance" ..which again told him to give me the 50 and il go pour a bottle of techronin his tank..or he could do it himself for 5 bucks

AND the kicker.. i was going to change his antifreeze and the mechanic said omg NO!! we have a special antifreeze machine!! theyl be air in the line and youl blow gaskets. to which i tried to explain to him the dealer wants 120 bucks and il do it for 15 lol..only thing youl blow is money

lol
scared him silly
i hate dealer service

 

Yep, you gotto watch those Service write-up guys. That's how they get paid. To up-sell. Nothing new here, just stick to your guns for the service you Need, and don't be up-sold on other items.

 

My elderly neighbor took his 1990 GM pickup to a local shop and asked them to check out his brakes, as it was 10 years old- said if it 'needed pads or whatever, go ahead and do what might need done'...he went back the next day to get it and got hit with a bill for 1400(might have been 1700?) dollars...on a truck that had only 9000 ultra careful miles on it, they replaced just about every moving part- both whl cyls, both calipers, drums, rotors, master cyl, think there was even sway bar bushings or something in there...The only thing I think *might* have been justified was the brake hoses just due to age, but they didnt bother with them- probably too cheap an item to be worth their while...Anyway, I knew that vehicle and KNOW he got screwed royally. I was busy at work and he didnt want to impose, so went to the local big name store...
My ex- sister in law took their toyota to the same shop for an alignment and got a estimate for over 3000(!) bucks...she had them do 'the minimum' for 1200 dollars which involved replacing the struts- and she thought she got a deal. gotta watch out for unscrupulous shops- they dont usually last long, but they can do a lot of damage to folks that dont insist on a written estimate and/or dont understand cars- theres shops out there that will take advantage when they see it.

 

May as well stock up a half dozen sets of brakes for an Econoline, they go through them like candy. I used to own 5 of them for my business, you can pretty much count on brakes and at least one windshield each year.

 

My dad's 89 F-250-7.5 was fairly new, went in for a service, next thing we know they changed rear main seal, and axle seals, which we thought ok-fair enough, they are being careful because the seals were sweating. He's driving it after that, all of a sudden low oil pressure, lifters start rattling-then it would smarten up. This happened a couple of times, took it back and it sat in the parking lot for 3 days, they said nothing was wrong. Kept happening, so they changed lifters, put in a ford racing oil filter, same thing. Changed lifters, and cam-same problem, so we took it to another dealer and they found that the oil pump was cracked near one of the bolt holes-engine would warm up enough for the crack to open enough to allow excessive leakage, then close up and stop. Anyways, that was the problem.

 

I took my mom's toyota camry in for a oil change at the dealer. While I was in the waiting room, the tech comes in and tells me that the brakes are worn, metal on metal. I knew my mom does hard braking so I thought it might be. I told him I would bring it back later. I took my mom's car to another shop to have it change. The shop guy check the brakes, and told me that the pads were at 50% and were good for another 20,000 miles. Stupid techs are always looking to rip you off.

 

Its really hard to find good shops anymore

I have to say I'm rather lucky. I know a few local ones that are always treat their customers fair. Its no wonder honest shops last longer... they get repeat customers!