Why the heck do car repair shops still try to rip off the consumer? I though this kind of behavior was a thing of the past. Guess not.
I took my car to Firestone on Saturday because over the last few weeks I noticed my car was pulling to the left so I figured it just needed an alignment. So on Saturday I dropped my car off to get an alignment, oil change and tire rotation. I got a call Saturday afternoon telling me my car needed a new rack and pinion, tie rods and two front struts since mine were leaking. WTF. I thought all it needed was an alignment and now Firestone is telling me it needs $1,400 worth of repairs. After picking my jaw up off of the ground I told them to just do the oil change and tire rotation and I would come to pick up the car.
I am not currently employed and even if I was $1,400 on a car repair is a lot of money. I wanted a second opinion because Firestone was pretty much telling me I needed the whole front end of my car replaced and I hadn’t even got into an accident. There was nothing that should or would have caused that much damage to my car to warrant such a huge repair bill.
After taking my car (2007 HHR) to the Chevy Dealer today I was told there was a loose nut on the tie rod or something like that, that was causing the car to be out of alignment. The dealer also confirmed that my front struts were leaking so Firestone was not totally trying to stick it to me. But out of $1,400 new struts are about $300 bucks so they did try to take me for $1,100. The good news is I have an extended warranty so the front struts and alignment are covered so all I have to pay is a $50 deductable which beats $300 for the struts and another $100 for the alignment. I am saving about $350and thank goodness for that because right now my car is not what I need to be spending any money on.
So beware next time you take your car in for service that the repair shop is not trying to rip you off. For every person like myself that doesn’t get the recommended work done there are probably two people who do and they might not even really need the work done. And are being scammed out of there hard earned money.
