Re: Need Help, Mechanic Troubles Part 2 (Long)

["Cobram ." <cobram@juno.com>]

"Alexander van Gerbig" <Audi_80@email.msn.com> writes:

>and remove them.  After this alignment I got slapped with a $439 bill
>because of the extra time to free and remove frozen tie rods, align
>properly, and test drive.

You got reamed alot worse by this second mechanic than the first,
ASSUMING all they did was free up the components and align.  The place I
get my cars aligned occasionally runs into problems (ESPECIALLY on the 84
5KS), but they have always either tried all they know to free up
components, if successful they have always charged me the normal
alignment fee, even once when they spent an extra hour on the car.  OR, I
get the car back with an explanation about how it was impossible to do a
proper alignment because of frozen components, the current alignment
specs, after which they tell me to return after I have corrected the
suspension problems for a free realignment.  On one occasion, the
alignment guy took a come-along to the 5KS to straighten out an out of
place strut assembly (wife had a close encounter with a snow covered
curbstone), noted it on the receipt, and still charged me the normal $40
alignment charge.  For those interested, the place is in the Boston area,
Direct Tire.  

BTW-on a related note, what is the story on NJ dealerships?  They seem to
be pushing the envelope on charges, especially for older cars.  My
friends shop here in the Boston area has had a car towed from NJ, a BMW
318i which was out the door for $1200, the dealer in NJ had already
charged the owner $950 before doing any real work on the car, then gave
the guy an estimate for another $4900+ to finish the car.  The car has
45K miles on it, and the only thing wrong with it was that it had been
sitting in a heated garage for 11 years.  A Mercyless Benz also came in
(brake work), a NJ Benz dealer invoice in the glove box showed a charge
of $1100 to changed the belts on a 126 body SEL, charged full labor on
each individual belt as if you didn't have to remove all the belts anyway
to get to the first one....they probably popped them off with a
screwdriver in 10 minutes.  

BCNU,


Cobram@Juno.Com
http://welcome.to/AudiV8Quattro

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