[s-cars] Head gasket: 2850$ (longuish)

[Djdawson2 at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/18/2005 7:56:43 PM Mountain Standard Time, 
brucem105 at comcast.net writes:

> The guy might be honest (MIGHT), and he may be a perfectionist, but he's 
> not 
> a smart businessperson and he has no business doubling repair costs and 
> driving your car for over 100 miles without checking with you first. NOTHING 
> 
> takes 100 miles to diagnose, least of all without your permission.


After major repairs, I think it is well within reason to road test the car.  
After repairs such as a head gasket, many things could go wrong, and road 
testing is the only way to reduce your repeat failures.  Slow oil leaks, etc... 
are only visible after some real world use, not a bunch of idling time.  Is 100 
miles reasonable?  To me, I wouldn't argue it.

> 
> If it were me, I'd get my car out of there for free, or as close to it as 
> possible based on the Canadian consumer protection agency, with the repair 
> work done. THEN I'd call him and try to work out something you feel is 
> reasonable and fair if the work was done properly.
> 

No offense, but that sounds like a reply from a person that doesn't work on 
cars.  Many of the mechanics out there operate on a shoestring.  By and large, 
they aren't getting rich.  Without question, he did spend money out of his own 
pocket to do the repair.  I would get a list of parts from the mechanic, and 
look them up yourself from a reasonably priced source... see if it's out of 
line.  Add in fluids, filters, etc...  Find out if the head was machined in any 
way (valve job, or surface decking)... and check on the cost of those services 
from a reputable machine shop.  Finally, see if you can find out the "book" 
hours from an Audi dealer for a headgasket replacement.  Take those hours, and 
multiply by a reasonable shop rate... or one you've OK'd in the past from him. 
 I think then you would have some ability to reasonably assess what has 
happened, and come to some agreement.

To some extent, how you handle this depends on if you want to use this 
mechanic again.  If he is good, and you do trust him, you don't want to destroy the 
relationship.  If you screw him now, he won't forget.
HTH,
Dave in CO