RepairPal Blog
One of the biggest complaints from auto repair consumers is the cost of repairs and why they are charged for diagnostics. These days, most shops will charge for diagnosing what is wrong with your car. Sometimes it is credited to the repair if the car is repaired in the shop and sometimes it’s an additional charge on top of the repair.
Consumer Reports just came out with their latest Annual Auto Survey on car repairs. Each year, Consumer Reports asks car owners how satisfied they were with auto repairs performed by dealerships and independent shops for the previous year. For this year's report, Consumer Reports received responses on 168,000 vehicles. Here are some of the findings.
There are a lot of people behind the scenes at RepairPal who do wonderful and amazing things—Roy Preston is one of them. Roy is our parts expert and he spends a lot of time and effort making sure that the cost of parts in our RepairPrice Estimator are up-to-date and accurate. He has also been building and showing muscle cars for 25 years.
As a society, we have come to trust the opinions of organizations like AAA, Consumer Reports, and Kelley Blue Book. In the automotive repair industry, having national certifications is a strong symbol of approval.
Things are changing fast in the automotive world as vehicles and the parts and fluids that keep them running properly are constantly being updated to make them more efficient. I thought I would take a moment to share the latest in coolant as I am frequently asked about it.
If you are going to love and drive the car that you’ve paid for, be sure your timing chain does not look like the example in the video. This timing chain is from a 1986 Mercedes Benz 300 diesel that my shop restored eleven years ago. The new owner had brought her in, having just purchased the vehicle. What a small world!
We have filters to protect us and our expensive devices from harmful debris. Think for a moment about the furnace filter in your house. If you don’t change it or clean it every so often, it gets clogged and can’t do its job well.
Are you ready for a car that drives itself? Successful prototypes are already on the road in and around San Jose, CA. Artificial intelligence systems that control the car based on input from 360° sensors, cameras, and GPS make it all possible.
During the regular use of your vehicle, the fluids that protect critical components wear out, causing unneeded corrosion and wear. Harmful deposits like carbon, scale, sludge, and rust sneak in and steal the vitality and life from your vehicle. But, if maintained regularly, your vehicle can exceed 200,000 miles or more without incurring expensive repair bills.
I am sure you have all seen it, that yellow Check Engine Light (CEL). And now it’s on again, for perhaps no apparent reason. There are many different faults that can cause the CEL to turn on; each will set a different “fault code” in the engine control computer.