Did we get screwed again?

I just replaced a sway bar link on my 99 voyager so it would pass state inspection. It was an easy job that took about half an hour.

There's no excuse for not doing your own sway bar links. No matter how bad a mechanic you are, at least you won't sabotage anything, and the labor is all free.

I had sway bar bushings put in in my 1990 Caravan. The bill came to $175. Labor isn't cheap these days. The car was much quieter for a few months but now the clunks are back.

I had new sway bar links put in my 99 ford. The car then had front end noise it didn't have before. I took it to the dealer who found the bolts were loose on both sides.

The lesson to be learned: Independent mechanics can save you money, but check the reputation of the garage first. The other moral to the story is that mechanics labor is not cheap anywhere.

N9NEO wrote:

List price at NAPA Master Ride $53.00 NAPA Chassis Parts $72.00 List price at CarQuest Mevotech $43.00 Moog $74.00

I'm not certain what the web price you found has to do with this particular shop and who they get their parts from.

Looks to be right in line to me.

Depends on whether you chose bargain priced links or ones with lifetime warranty. At 16 months, the cheapies would be out of warranty.

Quit going to 'droopy."

What vehicle?

Honest mechanics and honest shops are the answer. Unfortunately they seem to lose a bit of honesty if they see you as a good paying customer.

So true, here the Chrysler dealers rate is similar to the smaller garages, plus they even can save you money by getting it right the first time.

Consider that the mechanic doesn't buy from the cheapest place on the web he can find. Check NAPA prices and dealer prices to compare. There is a large markup on parts. Mostly because the mechanic has to eat the labor to replace the part if it fails under warranty.

These are easy to replace. If you aren't happy with the mechanics price why not quit paying him to do everything and do this stuff yourself?

Steve

Yea Steve, maybe I'll start working on cars again. My project car is taking up the garage right now. I'm thinking of building a barn and putting a lift in it, and It'll probably pay for itself in the long run. Bob

In fact he generally buys the low-end part (for maybe what you can buy the quality part for on-line) at the auto parts store down the street with his business discount, and charges you, his customer, full list (often more than that customer can buy it for at the same store). I'm not criticizing him for this - just merely pointing out a reality.

Check NAPA prices and dealer prices to compare.

Exactly.

Good points.

Up to about 6 or 7 years ago, I did 99.9% of all the work on my own cars. I'm at the age now where I have to take it to a local shop for the more major things (and occasionally take on some things that I now have no business doing). The shop I deal with allows me to buy my own parts and bring them to them, and they charge the same labor that they would if they were supplying the parts. What I am giving up is their guarantee of the parts and labor to install said guaranteed parts if they fail. What it does is allows me to buy the best brand and quality parts for between 1/2 and full cost of what they would be charging me for the no-name low-end part from the local parts store. So I'm basically self-insuring, which over the long run pays off with the much better parts for a little less or about the same as what I would be paying them for the same job with inferior parts (that would need replacing again, or would need replacing much sooner).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')