Did My Mechanic Rip Me Off?

I just spent $700 for the replacement of my shocks and struts on my 1999 Tacoma (mileage 137,000). This is what the old ones looked like:





Do you think they should have been replaced? Should I change shops?

Thanks,

Al

 

uh...YEAH!, they we're pretty bad. But $700! you got ripped off.

 

yea you could have gotten bilstein 5100's all around for like $300...
but those def needed replacing haha

 

those look pretty bad, but dang man, $700 for shocks?! i payed just over $300 a few months ago for bilstein 5100s on all four corners.

hopefully the ones you got were dipped in gold or something?!

 

It was $236 for the struts, $174 for the shocks, and $250 for the labor.

 

of course, but imo bilstein's are nice shocks. let's say he got some average shocks, they should be about $250, that's a LOT of labor to install some shocks

 

i suppose that isn't *too* bad. what brand did you end up with?

 

Man that sucks I spent 750 for a 3" lift with 5100's & 5150's in the back. Next time do it yourself if you can you can use that money for better shocks.

 

i disagree respectfully of course. Paying 700 for something as simple as changing shocks, yes you got riped off. The rear takes max 30 minutes for both sides. The front is a little bit more work but for 400 dollars worth of labor IMHO. If you have another car you could have taken the assemblies to pep boys or something and have them dissassemble and assemble for 100 if that.

So with that said: 300 for all 4 shocks, 100 for pep boys or whoever and 3 hours of your time...700 sounds very high. Autozone loans a spring compressor and if your not running lift from the springs then you can take away the 100 charge.

OH WEll its done and over maybe take a look around the foru@m before doing anything next time and ask this kind of question beforehand!

 

The problem with some of the advice here is that most everyone that looks at the cost that they would pay for them. Not included is any other costs that someone that would run a biz or hire an employee would go through.

I don't know what you do for work but if you posted up what your customer paid and what your boss paid for the same, you may come to the conclusion that "damn that was epensive!" It is the way that things go. That price you paid includes the owners expenses and overhead, etc.

By doing it yourself, your insurance does not incrementally change, etc.

By being part of this community you have a great resouce - everyone - that is if you want to do it yourself. Otherwise, retail establishments are retail establishments.

You get what you give here... I have been blessed with some lights, gussets, discounts and some help. I have done more free labor for many of our brothers here. If you want to play in our game, you start by putting your location in your signature and contribute when people need help (I am not saying you don't - I don't know). I think with the right combination of the two you may have ended up with a free or very cheap set of TRD stockies and help to install them.

One last example:

Can of energy drink:

$.03 for can
.0001 for water
.01 for corn syryp/sugar


Or...

$2.00 getting it to you with $.127 as the resulting NET profit to the corner store.

When the one that thinks top analysis sees the bottom - they say "you got ripped off" and then they go and get the $2 energy drink for $2.75.

Hope this helps.

 

That's about the going rate, give or take a couple $$.
And yeah, that old suspension looks horrible. Definitely needed replacing after 137k mi.

 

Thanks for the info. My main concern was whether the mechanic was suggesting a repair that wasn't necessary. But I take it that the replacement was reasonable. So at least I can trust him.

If I were doing it again, I'd replace the rear shocks myself, but let him do the struts.

I ended up with KYB Gas-a-just shocks.

 

Labor is what gets you, if you can do it yourself you can save that money and use it for other mods.

 

Very well put

 

$250 for labor is on par for what it costs if you figure $100/hr minimum plus extra costs. If you look at it this way you didn't get ripped off. If you comparing it to doing the work yourself of course you got ripped off $250.

Time is money so you have to figure out what is the value of your time. I am getting past the point of wanting to do extra mechanical work on cars. I do alot of maintenance work for a living and when I get home I usually don't feel like working on my truck.

 

I had to think a lot about what you just said...

 

I don't know what the struts and shocks run alone but you have to remember that any shop is going to up the price a little on the parts. 250 for labor is not bad. Rear shocks are super easy to install but the front struts can be a little bit of a pain in the ass. You need a coil compressor and not everyone has one. You can get them cheap from harborfeight but do you really trust there tools with that much force of the coil? I dont.

 

I didn't mean to blow a gasket... but if you did, let me know, you can swing by my place or I come to yours and we'll tear your head off and replace the gasket!!!

 

yeah, that repair was most definitely necessary. you probably didn't get a chance to play with them after they were removed being as it was at a shop, but it's really, really easy to tell if they're done when they're off the vehicle. but at 137k miles on the original shocks, i would say they've definitely seen better days!