Sway bar end links
4:35 picked up vehicle from repair shop (it was done at 2:30)
This picture is of one of my new sway bar end links. They cost me $46.84 a piece. I found them online for $35.36 — so the mechanic added a 32% markup, which I’m ok with because of the convenience factor.
I had a mechanic once recommend buying a used part because it’d be cheaper — he quoted be about $420 for a new distributor. I went next door to the auto parts store beside his shop and got a quote for $250 or so…the same auto parts store he orders parts from. When confronted with this information, he froze and wasn’t sure how to respond to my discovery of his 68% markup. It sucks when people use freely available information to confront your business model.
Auto repair is such a mystery to most and a lot of mechanics take advantage of this. Someone should make a little cell phone-enabled website that lets you look up auto parts wholesale prices while you’re at the mechanics to catch them in their own game. Someone probably already has.
