What's the craziest repair costs you've seen,been quoted or paid?

"LJ909" (lj909) 04/29/2019 at 14:16 • Filed to: repair bills

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Actual estimate someone got for 2 dents on their Honda Fit

The pick you see above is from a site I saw called !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Apparently the guy got into a minor fender bender in his Fit and this damaged happened:

Suffice to say they want to charge him $5400 for it. That’s more than highway robbery. We all know repair shops, dealerships etc can charge outrageous prices, with the bulk of the costs usually being labor. What prices have you guys seen or been quoted? None for me personally (although I think the 600 bucks I paid for my old Sonic’s ecm was crazy), I once talked to someone that had an ‘03 Mercedes C230 who’s ECM went out and was quoted $4 grand to replace it.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 15:40

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My work truck was damaged due to vandalism. The side of the bed had two palm-sized dents, around the gas gap. Cost? $2,150.87 — and that was the cheapest quote I had.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 15:47

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Uhh that’s not minor damage at all! I can’t imagine that rear quarter panel area is a bolt on affair. It’s definitely a major undertaking to repair that properly. I’m actually surprised the quote is that low..

Highest repair bill I’ve paid was about $1200 for my clutch in the Miata and all of the hydraulics to go along with it. Kind of pricey for that job but I’ve since gained the ability to just do it myself in the future instead and save some coin.

Subaru had headgasket replacement before I bought the car, to the tune of about $4k (including replacing other stuff that had to come off). 

LJ909 > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/29/2019 at 15:55

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It would have come out cheaper getting rid of the truck.

LJ909 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/29/2019 at 15:58

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$1200 is a lot for a Miata and I bet its mostly labor. Would have come out cheaper on your on like you said or getting the part yourself and just paying for the labor.

Head gasket replacement is always pricey on Subies, even through some indie shops.

fintail > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 16:03

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Rear sunshade in my old W210 E55 was something close to $1500, and that was like 13 years ago. Thanks heavens for warranty. I know some old MBs have hilarious engine rebuild costs too, thankfully I’ve never dealt with that.

The complex dents on that Fit don’t surprise me . I’ve seen much smaller dings or scrapes cost a grand. There’s a lot of overhead labor in decent quality paint and bodywork. I’d have imagined the owner of a financial site would have been sympathetic.

atfsgeoff > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 16:04

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Was quoted $2000 by Meineke to replace the catalytic converter and muffler on my E30, about 10 years ago. It cost me $500 to replace with an all-stainless Magnaflow system including catalyst, ordered from Amazon. Bolted right onto the exhaust manifold flange and used the factory hangers too.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 16:24

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 5k! Cute! 

I did a 2ok job a couple weeks ago. I've done 30k before. Had a 95k warranty repair. US. No body work involved.

LJ909 > fintail 04/29/2019 at 16:25

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Old luxury cars are the worst with repairs because many of them are so unnecessarily complex that its not worth it given the age of the car.

LJ909 > atfsgeoff 04/29/2019 at 16:26

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$2000 & Meineke shouldnt even be mentioned in the same sentence. 

LJ909 > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 04/29/2019 at 16:27

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What the hell?! What was it an engine replacement ?

RPM esq. > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 16:33

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Let’s play a game. Here is a photo of an Audi after a minor fender-bender. You can’t see it but the hood was slightly bent, although it would still close. The car was drivable except for a coolant leak due to a detached radiator hose, but nothing a gallon of distilled water wouldn’t allow to limp a few miles. Guess what the estimate was to fix it?

Here’s what it looked like with the front cladding removed, so you can see the damage to the radiator etc.

LJ909 > RPM esq. 04/29/2019 at 16:44

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With the front fascia gone like that I’m going to guess over 10k. Maybe a little less.

RPM esq. > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 16:45

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Cute.

It ended up costing less than this estimate because a lot of the body labor overlapped, but look at those goddamn parts costs.

fintail > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 16:48

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Parts and repairs cost the same on a new one as on a 15 year old one, but the old one is worth 5% of its original price.

LJ909 > RPM esq. 04/29/2019 at 16:54

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Jesus. What do you drive?

RPM esq. > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 17:25

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Well, that was an Audi SQ5—nice car but hardly an exotic!—which was subsequently totaled by its next owner and exported to Bulgaria.

Now I drive a C63 AMG that I try very hard not to run into anything.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 18:32

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Highest repair bill I paid was $1500 to replace the AC condenser on the Saab 9-3 I had... and that was with a good used part. It would have been $2200 with a new part.

The biggest attempted ripoff I encountered was getting my mom’s car serviced for a new heater core. The mechanic quoted me 8 hours of labour, a re-core of the heater core and a new heater core.

The mechanic’s book that specifies how much labour a given job is listed it as a 4.5 hour job... though he tried to claim it was an 8 hour job by adding the together the hours for 1991+ Ford Escort with the hours of the 1981-1990 Escort.

It was the lamest, most idiotic, most bullshitty explanation I ever got from a service adviser and told him that if he was right, then the Ford Mustang would be one of the most expensive cars to service due to having to add up all the hours from all the previous generations going back to 1965.

And I would either need a new heater core or a recore done on the existing one... not both.

Basically they were trying to charge me in excess of $1200 for a $600 job.

That was the last time I went to that shop. 

LJ909 > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 04/29/2019 at 19:09

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Shit like this is how unknowing people get taken for a ride. And sadly it’s either the young, elderly or women. 

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > LJ909 04/29/2019 at 22:32

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Yeah. 507 edition C63. Car had maybe 2-3k miles on it at the time. I made a post about it on here, but it was probably spring  2014.

Longtime Lurker > LJ909 04/30/2019 at 03:47

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Personally I’ve never had any big quotes. But when I hit some road construction in my BMW somethings were missed in the inspection I had done. It ended up repairing it out of pocket as it was initially less then my deductible in 2 major repairs peace mealed out over a few months. Had I been quoted a true cost to repair ($2000) in the first place I would have filed an insurance claim.

Professionally we quoted out a V6 Dodge Journey at $8000 - new engine, every single suspension component, and labor. Fleet customer and they fixed it.

pip bip - choose Corrour > LJ909 04/30/2019 at 05:49

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R63 motor replacement $58K

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > LJ909 04/30/2019 at 10:14

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Yeah it was mostly the hydraulic stuff that made it pricey. It was the master and slave cylinders and all of the lines. That shit was like $3 00 in parts and $200 in labor. Then the clutch was just straight $700 in labor. I had gotten the kit on my own for the clutch parts. Still, I could have went elsewhere for cheaper. And even cheaper of course to do it myself. But I only had one car then and couldn't take the car out of commission for a week and leave it on jack stands somewhere illegally lol. I at least have a second car now so I can leave one set up for a few days somewhere without being stranded. 

LJ909 > pip bip - choose Corrour 04/30/2019 at 14:23

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That’s sick.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > LJ909 04/30/2019 at 17:25

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I wish I saw this post yesterday lol. Here is the total for the last engine out service before I bought my car:

The one I did a year early was less, and I hope to do it myself the next time.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > LJ909 04/30/2019 at 17:29

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1. I was quoted $1280 to replace inner and outer tie rod ends on my van. It was about $100 in parts......

They claimed it was because they no longer stocked the “SPECIAL” tool required to do the inners. I asked them when they got rid of their fucking cresent wrenches...

2. $9k to fix our 6.0 about 2 months after buying it. 

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > LJ909 04/30/2019 at 17:29

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Sadly, it’s most vehicle owners in general.

LJ909 > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 04/30/2019 at 17:33

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Thats insane. I would throw away the whole care at that point. What are you driving?

LJ909 > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 04/30/2019 at 17:35

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They claimed it was because they no longer stocked the “SPECIAL” tool required to do the inners. I asked them when they got rid of their fucking cresent wrenches...

Just this alone shows why these mechanics need oversight.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > LJ909 04/30/2019 at 17:39

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That is for the 348 so it’s a different attitude for maintenance lol

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > LJ909 05/01/2019 at 07:05

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Brings me back to this: https://oppositelock.kinja.com/reasons-i-do-all-my-own-work-1830940396

StudyStudyStudy > LJ909 05/01/2019 at 16:04

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If they are doing the full spectrum, that is not really that far off. Full rear quarter replacement, removing the quarter will take ages, welding in the new one even more so, and finishing with seam sealer. Panel blending both the door, body, and the rear bumper, potential rear bumper bracket replacement, glass removal and installation, it is on the high side but sadly not terribly high. Granted given the car I imagine cutting a panel and panel bonding it in would be satisfactory, and that shouldn’t be anywhere nearly as bad.

Worst I heard was when I was sitting at a firestone, person walked in to find out what was wrong. The person said it was an alternator that had to be replaced and it was $900. I think it was a VW and I looked it up while sitting there. Part was $150 at the parts store, and the video online that I watched was about 4 minutes long on how to remove it and replace it. They tried to tell me something similar that my radiator leak was an upper radiator hose problem and it would be $125. I walked out walked to the parts store across the street picked up the hose for $14. Waited for the car to cool down and replaced the hose with a single flat head screw driver in about 3 minutes, didn’t solve the matter by the way, but  t hey wonder why they have a bad rap...

Urambo Tauro > LJ909 05/01/2019 at 21:17

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Spotted this post on JRitS a while back. >$38,000USD to fix a Sierra that was struck by lightning. Almost $16k in parts alone: https://old.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/comments/9hqa96/2015_gmc_sierra_1500_struck_by_lightning_at_the/

LJ909 > Urambo Tauro 05/02/2019 at 02:48

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Might as well get rid of the whole truck.