Cost to "replace" brakes?
 

I'm always grumpy after I get car repair done, because of strong
suspicions of having been ripped off. (I'm a pretty clueless car
owner.) Any idea whether replacing my 2001 Dodge Neon's front tires and
all brakes (but not rotors) for $500 was way off, somewhat off, or spot
on?

TIA.

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> I'm always grumpy after I get car repair done, because of strong
> suspicions of having been ripped off. (I'm a pretty clueless car
> owner.) Any idea whether replacing my 2001 Dodge Neon's front tires and
> all brakes (but not rotors) for $500 was way off, somewhat off, or spot
> on?
>
> TIA.
>

It really depends a lot on the cost of the tires. What sort of breakdown do
you have as far as the charges are concerned?

--Geoff

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> I'm always grumpy after I get car repair done, because of strong
> suspicions of having been ripped off. (I'm a pretty clueless car
> owner.) Any idea whether replacing my 2001 Dodge Neon's front tires and
> all brakes (but not rotors) for $500 was way off, somewhat off, or spot
> on?
>
> TIA.
>

It really depends a lot on the cost of the tires. What sort of breakdown do
you have as far as the charges are concerned?

--Geoff

Yeah - a break down would have helped :) The mechanic has just scrawled
a list, with no individual costs. He avoided questions about brands,
and warrantees ...

Yeah - a break down would have helped :) The mechanic has just scrawled
a list, with no individual costs. He avoided questions about brands,
and warrantees ...

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Yeah - a break down would have helped :) The mechanic has just scrawled
> a list, with no individual costs. He avoided questions about brands,
> and warrantees ...
>

Was this on an estimate or a bill? If it's on a bill that's the time to
refuse to pay without a breakdown of costs. If it's on an estimate then if
they don't want to break down the cost it's time to find a different
mechanic. Either way, it sounds like time to find a different mechanic.
The price sounds kinda high but knowing the tire prices would help.

Hope that helps some,

Tom Heintz "Mopar Maniac"

On 11 Jan 2005 15:08:52 -0800, wrote:
>I'm always grumpy after I get car repair done, because of strong
>suspicions of having been ripped off. (I'm a pretty clueless car
>owner.) Any idea whether replacing my 2001 Dodge Neon's front tires and
>all brakes (but not rotors) for $500 was way off, somewhat off, or spot
>on?
>
>TIA.

On my 300M, a set of ceramic brake pads all around - $100 and a set of
(4) kumho 16" tires - $200. They were already mounted and balanced on
steel rims ordered as a wheel package from Tire Rack, so I figure
mounting & balancing to be about $20 for each tire. Did you get your
rotors turned as well? If so that's probably another $15 for each
one. I do all the work myself so I'm sure things don't get
crossthreaded and are torqued properly, parts get lubed that require
it, caliper retracting clips get installed, etc., little things that
techs working under flat rate may skip doing.

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 wrote:

> Yeah - a break down would have helped :) The mechanic has just scrawled
> a list, with no individual costs. He avoided questions about brands, and
> warrantees ...

You, uh, didn't ask these questions before you handed over the keys?

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, HAMBURGER wrote:

> On my 300M, a set of ceramic brake pads all around - $100 and a set of
> (4) kumho 16" tires - $200.

Well, OK, but here again, "ceramic brake pads" tells us nothing. JC
Whitney and other such garbage outlets sell "ceramic brake pads". And I
won't even spec Kumho tires on the bicycle I never ride, let alone on a
car. So this is why we need to know what brand of which brake parts and
which tires were installed on the OP's car to know whether the price he
paid was fair or not.

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:00:34 -0500, "Daniel J. Stern"
> wrote:

>On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, HAMBURGER wrote:
>
>> On my 300M, a set of ceramic brake pads all around - $100 and a set of
>> (4) kumho 16" tires - $200.
>
>Well, OK, but here again, "ceramic brake pads" tells us nothing. JC
>Whitney and other such garbage outlets sell "ceramic brake pads". And I
>won't even spec Kumho tires on the bicycle I never ride, let alone on a
>car. So this is why we need to know what brand of which brake parts and
>which tires were installed on the OP's car to know whether the price he
>paid was fair or not.

The Kumho's got pretty good reviews on Tire Rack. And c'mon, dude's
not driving a porche, it's a minivan for crying out loud, so I was
simply giving him some ballpark figures to work with on typical off
the shelf parts so get a grip.