National Car Repair Average
December 31, 2005 8:21 AM   Subscribe

Is there a website that provides a National average for various car repairs. As an example what can I expect to pay to replace an alternator? What can I expect to pay to replace a fuel pump, ect? Thank you in advance!
posted by Mckoan1 to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)
 
It really depends on the car. Some are more difficult to work on, and parts prices vary widely between models. If I saw such a Website, I would be very reluctant to trust its numbers.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:35 AM on December 31, 2005


Edmunds.com has detailed cost estimates for scheduled maintenance. But this doesn't include unscheduled maintenance like replacing broken parts.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:37 AM on December 31, 2005


I was about to say the same thing as kirth - I can change the timing belt on my CRX in 1.2 hours, but on a Golf it takes me all day!
posted by notsnot at 8:37 AM on December 31, 2005


I once broke a timing belt in the middle of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, helping my brother move. Lucky for us, the belt broke right in front of a mechanic's house on Sunday. He and his neighbor wandered out to see if they could help. Six hours later, we were back on the road. Gotta love that midwest hospitality, even if they voted for Bush and have a basement full of guns.
posted by camworld at 10:07 AM on December 31, 2005


I'm not sure I see the point of a national average anyway. You're not getting your car fixed in Average USA, you're getting it fixed in New York (or wherever), and what you can expect to pay to replace an alternator depends on where you are, not the average of a bunch of prices in places you've never been.

Also, are you aware your "user URL" link goes to an investment banking firm? I'm not sure what you expected from http://thompson/, but it goes to thompson.com. If you own the firm, congratulations!
posted by languagehat at 11:11 AM on December 31, 2005


You can call any mechanic and ask what their hourly rate is and what they bill any particular job at. It's rare to find one who doesn't use the published estimates, though you will find a number that charge a shop fee on top of that (most, really) as well as charges for fluids that need to be replaced even if it's impossible to do the job without such a replacement.

Click and Clack talk about book rate here. I realize it's not as good as a national average but such an avg would have to be by make, model and model year to be really meaningful...
posted by phearlez at 12:47 PM on December 31, 2005


Many shops use estimate guide books (like the Chilton labor guide) that give the number of hours for each job (with modifiers for options that make the job harder or easier, like AC or auto vs. manual trans). Some libraries may have them. You can then find out the hourly rate of each shop and multiply it times the hours.
posted by 445supermag at 2:21 PM on December 31, 2005


The problem as others have said is that cars vary widely in their design and so performing roughly the same repair on make A model B year C could take ten times as long as the same repair on make X model Y year Z. So the only way this is workable is to essentially enumerate every combination of vehicle make/model/year and repair type. You end up with these giant phone-book sized volumes that you normally have to pay a substantial amount of money to access. But the library suggestion was a good one.

Realistically though, just call a few places on the phone and ask for an estimate. They won't be able to tell you the exact amount because of variables during the process of the repair but they should be able to give you a ballpark.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:03 PM on December 31, 2005


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