A: It is not our intention to interrogate or embarrass you in any way with the questions we ask.   Our objective here is to gather as much information as we can so we can diagnose your  concern quickly and effectively.  Quick and effective diagnosis not only reduces the amount  of time you are without your vehicle, but also reduces the cost of diagnosis.  What might seem  like trivial or insignificant details to you may be the key bit of information needed to diagnose  your vehicle.  A simple example of this would be in the differences between a "crank - no  start," a "no crank - no start," and a "slow crank - no start."  To you, the result may be the  same--the car does not start, but to the technician these are three different situations, each  having their own particular procedure for diagnosis.  Knowing up front what kind of "no  start" condition you have reduces the time and expense of diagnosis.  Sometimes people feel  the more they  tell about the problem, the more it will cost to repair.  The opposite is really  the truth, just as when you go to the doctor, you tell them everything you can to assist in a  proper diagnosis.  This will save you money by allowing the technician to head more directly  to the source of  the problem.

Q: Why can't you just skip the testing and do the repair? "My brother-in-law used to be a  mechanic and he thinks the problem's in the distributor."

A: First of all, no disrespect to the "brother-in-law's" mechanical ability, but many of today's  vehicles don't have distributors, they have Distributorless Ignition Systems (or D.I.S.), so the  problem would have to be caused by something else.  Even if your vehicle had one, would you  not like to know what the exact cause was?  If this were the case, then the accuracy of the  diagnosis is at best, questionable.  In the same way, you wouldn't expect a doctor to perform  surgery based on another doctor's diagnosis.  The surgeon would want to examine you first.   We don't replace parts and make repairs without first confirming the diagnosis  for ourselves.   This could lead to unnecessary repairs and with us spending more time and you spending more  money to do the fix.   Would you not prefer $200 in testing and $200 in repairs to over $800  in repairs of which most were not necessary?

Q: You used to test my vehicle for free and you didn't need those fancy tools and equipment.   Why do you charge me for doing that now?

A: Free testing without the need for expensive equipment used to be common practice in the  past.  Today, due to the complexity of the automotive systems, we need to have equipment  to help us diagnose.  In past years, (before computers and fuel injection) diagnosis was pretty  straight forward.  A technician could tell if a component was bad by visual inspection.  Many  of today's components are encased in plastic housings.  There is no way to tell if it's good by  looking at it.   To accurately diagnose today's vehicles, a shop needs to invest in expensive  equipment like scanners, scopes, gas analyzers, and electrical meters.  Not only do we need  the equipment, we need technical information (manuals) and training as well.  The cost of  diagnosis has changed dramatically over the years and the way these costs are passed on to  the customer have changed as well.  A well managed and competent shop will itemize the  costs of diagnostics so the customer will know exactly where their repair dollars went. A shop  today cannot stay in business without the capital to invest in training and equipment  to  provide top quality service, and continue to grow in the future.

Q: Why do you sometimes charge for procedure and not an hourly rate?

A: Hourly rates for auto repairs were developed in the early days of the automobile, when cars  were pretty simple.  The failed part was usually obvious, and no testing was needed to unbolt  the broken part and bolt on a new one.  Today, such situations are the exception.  Also, an  hour of time today can involve anything from an apprentice technician with a few hand tools  or two or more experienced and highly trained technicians using several pieces of equipment  costing tens of thousands of dollars.   Obviously the cost of these situations would be vastly  different, even though each took the same length of time.

 I trust this gives you, the consumer, a bit of insight into the "why's and how's" of auto repair in the 90's and the new millennium.

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