michael2e

Funny story ... Like most of you guys I change it myself. I'm guessing hardly anyone on this forum takes the car in to have this done. Well I let a girlfriend use the S2 for a few weeks recently to help her out. The S2 lives in Florida while I'm on long term assignment in Oregon so hardly gets driven. Better to have the car out on the road every once in awhile I figure. So I asked my friend to just have the oil changed for me when she was done with it.

She takes the car to Tires Plus. Don't ask me why. They tell her that since its a "specialty car" they need to custom order a filter since they don't stock it. $37.50! I had also asked her to put 20W/50 in but apparently Tires Plus didn't have that ( for sports cars in Florida?) so they had to custom order that too. $12.99 a quart. By the time it was all said and done my friend paid $136.00 to change the oil! Not even synthetic oil mind you. When I finally found out about it I was floored. Since I - perhaps like many of you haven't had someone else change the oil for me in a long time I had no idea they could charge so much. I'm sure Jiffy Lube or one of those are cheaper I suppose but just for the heck of it I called the local Porsche dealer to find out what they charged. Are you ready for this ... $405.00!! Me: "I just want the oil changed" ... Braman Porsche " No, we don't do that .. we do an inspection also"! OMG! How do people who can't turn a wrench do it? Especially those that don't know anything about cars? Well God bless her she's beautiful :-)

bonus12

She got ripped off and, by association, you did too. You got ripped off. Maybe you're okay with it but if that place took advantage of let's say my mom, I would "remedy" the situation with those guys. Bunch of crooks and cowards over at Tires Plus!

Humboldtgrin

EVERY auto shop is a rip off! That's what shops do, rip everyone possible off! And dealerships are ten times worse!!! There whole design is to rob people. I've worked at a few dealerships and independent shops to know, that's why I performs all the maintenance on my cars.

odonnell

Sorry for but listen to this... my buddy got quoted $1100 by a shop to replace his outer tie rods (03 Ram 1500) and an upper control arm. I had a good laugh, he paid $150 shipped for the parts and we installed them in a driveway this past weekend with little fuss.

Humboldtgrin

Even worse rip off artists are auto collision repair shops. The owners might as well run for a politician position in the USA or UK, sence they have the same thing in common.

EliteThink

i take it in, and stand there the entire time watching them.

bonus12

I should have done that when I brought my 951 in for an alignment. I'm currently wondering if they even did anything under there. Car behaves the same and I have found no evidence of adjustment, such as markings on nuts, threads etc...
....just cant help but wonder....

Humboldtgrin

They probably didn't. When I take my 951 in to get aligned (I have the tool for the rear alignment) I go in the pit with the tech and show them what needs to be done. It took 2 hours last time. I paid for one hour and $10 more for the four wheel over the two wheel alignment. I told the owner I don't pay for incompitance, I used to work at that tire shop as well as I was the alignment tech and was fired by the service writer because I was sick one day with a huge migraine headache (true story). The current tech said that he wanted me to pay more because it's too complicated for him. Use you imagination on how I belittled him, because I did!!!

Jay Wellwood

I can relate an similar experience. Got a quote from the Stealership to replace my sway bar bushings on my Audi S6 - $900!

$80 for genuine Audi parts from a wholesaler and 30 leisurely minutes later everything is better.

944crazy

Story time: When I first got my 951 I was still pretty naive, and so I took it to the local Porsche specialist for an alignment. I dropped it off early in the morning, and they weren't done until late in the afternoon. Said they couldn't get it to the specs I wanted, and that it needed to have the spring plate slots enlarged. Still had the ***** to charge me over 500 dollars for it. I took it home and noticed that the wheels didn't quite look even. Made some measurement and used trig to get an approximation of the camber angles all round and found that not only had the shop ripped me off, they also hadn't aligned it to anywhere near the specs they claimed they had, let alone the ones I wanted.

Next day I took her to an alignment shop and sure enough the specs where way out. Went back to the Porsche specialist with a print out and got my money back. Then I informed myself on exactly how to align a 944, (Van's video's helped a lot). Turns out it's a piece of cake, all you need is the little tool to set the toe at the back. The alignment shop didn't have that tool though, so I bought it myself and when it arrived I took her back to the alignment shop and helped the guy align my car. We set it up on the laser rack and had it aligned to exactly how I wanted it in less than an hour, and it cost me all of 65 dollars. Needless to say that alignment shop now has my business and the Porsche specialist can go **** himself.

wildcat077

I was getting my Winter car oil treated ( rustproofing ) last weekend and the place is connected with an auto repair shop ... well , some poor lady got hosed big time as she only had a broken front swaybar link on her vehicle , for which the mechanic charged her $75.00 dollars each, ( it was better to replace both while she was there ) as per the mechanic, one and a half hours labor and a wheel alignment ???
I'm pretty sure it came out close to $500.00 dollars with taxes ...

Go figure !!!

Cheers
Phil

odonnell

944crazy: I know your pain. Here's my embarrassing tale from when I was a new 944 owner. I bought this car in NH and was driving it back home 2000 miles to TX. There was a heat wave in NY in the summer of 2013 and I was caught in NYC rush hour traffic. Overheated, car puked coolant everywhere and I pushed it to a local shop to get back on the road. 1 week and $800 later (really it's more because I missed a week of work) they said they had to replace the fans, fan switch, thermostat, and maybe one or two other things I'm forgetting. I pulled it apart in TX and all they had done was a coolant re-fill. Date stamp on the thermostat was 1999 and the rest of the parts were obviously 5+ years old, fans were 1985 parts that after looking through my documentation, found were added to the car before I bought it. FML. Naturally, couldn't do anything about it without being ***** deep in other fees/charges so I just took it as a lesson learned. No car I've owned has been in a shop since, except for alignments and inspections.

mrgreenjeans

now that makes me want to move to New York and set up an HONEST Porsche repair facility ~

Humboldtgrin

In California we can call the Bureau of Automotive Repair and the Better Business Bureau to complain/report about a shop ripping customers off. Don't know about the other states. I also like to call the headquarters of the corporation I'm dealing with if it applies. In the end they will make it right and the shop will pay. The Big O Tire company tried to pull one over on my friend by replacing his brand new tires with brand new one instead of the old wore out ones. He call the Big O headquarters and told them what happened. Needless to say they made it right with him and then some and that shop lost the Big O franchise name and is now under the franchise name Tire Pro's. Just remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

bonus12

Update to my prior post in this thread: FWIW, I got the necessary rear alignment tool and called up Firestone. As they agreed, they took my car yesterday to finish the job (they had only done the front alignment the first time). Then I had them look at the front again. Turns out they found that the front was not treated properly in the previous service, so I ended up getting a good alignment on both front and back, but it took me a second try. If I didn't go back in, or if I didn't become aware the rear wasn't aligned, I may have let this slide. Obviously I'm glad I was proactive.

Guy said he used a steering wheel lock, the kind that you use at the steering wheel itself, so this allows a lot more play to occur during the alignment. I have the steering rack lock screw. Remember to ask them to use it and remember to watch them do the whole job!

As we all fear, it was a college kid / teenager doing the job. This can be a good thing, but not if he wants to ditch the job in a month or two!