Auto parts are much like furniture, cuts of meat, generic drugs and any
number of other comparisons. I can buy brake pads for 10 bucks.... whether I
would actually use them or not is up for conjecture. More and more
independant shops are opting for OEM parts because of comebacks.

For the original poster.... Most shops will perform a cursory
inspection..... both looking for the opportunity to make a sale and averting
a catastrophic failure for the consumer. Repairing a concern while it is
still i it's incipient stages is usually much cheaper than leaving it until
it is too late and too inconvenient.

I often recommend diff or trans services based on mileage only to find that
these services have been performed in a reasonable time span before my
recommendation. If I don't know the service history of the vehicle, how can
I do otherwise???

Is there a chance of oversell? Yep.... But that's not restricted to
dealers... this is a societal problem and there's no simple fix. Most of the
people ****ed about oversell could be accused of oversell in their own jobs.
Profit is a heady subject.... Each and every one of us feels we deserve high
income - we just don't wnat to contribute to someone elses high income.
Preventive maintenance could be viewed as oversell.

FWIW..... if I had a dollar for every time I told someone their brakes were
getting thin only to have them get mad at ME......... Can you be sure that I
have never shut my mouth thinking that a known jerk-off deserves to buy new
rotors????