They quoted me 1,000.00 for a battery and engine fan. I went and bought a new battery for 140.00 and new fan for 85.00 and had my son do the work. Do your homework people.
Hi Holly, I apologize if we did not do a good job of explaining your estimates to you. The estimate for battery and fan was $772. Our estimate for the battery installed is $284.08 including tax and disposal fee. Our cost for the battery is $145. This battery comes with a three-year warranty. The retail price of the battery is $217.59. We have to mark up our parts because our overhead is much greater than what a consumer has when installing his/her own battery. We have insurance, licensing, rent, employee wages, benefits, 401(k), etc. so we cannot sell parts for wholesale pricing. We estimated 1/2 and hour for our master-certified technician to install the battery, including cleaning the battery terminals and resetting factory settings in the vehicle. The estimate for the engine fan installed with tax was $488.23. Our cost for the part is $114 and the retail cost is $254. The labor was estimated to be 1.3 hours. We aim to be very transparent in our pricing and we know that we are not the cheapest shop in town. We are, however, the only one with a three-year, 36,000 mile guarantee, and we believe that we provide a good value for the money. At your visit you paid $175 for diagnosis of a slow crank and check engine light situation. Our technician jumped the vehicle, and duplicated the issue. He tested the battery and recommended a replacement. He pulled codes and identified a code for "cooling fan circuit open". He jumped the vehicle again and tested it with the A/C on and found that both cooling fans were not coming on. He was able to manually get them to come on but they would not come on independently in his testing so he recommended replacing the two fans. He also then did a thorough inspection of the vehicle since it was a new vehicle to us. We wouldn't want to recommend something without knowing if that was the most pressing issue with the vehicle. He identified a severe oil leak that appeared to be happening for a long time as well as a coolant leak. He found a broken wiper nozzle, that the air filter was dirty and should be replaced, that the power steering fluid was dirty and should be serviced, and that there was no lube sticker or timing belt sticker present. He topped off the washer fluid, checked tire wear and set the ties to factory spec. He took pictures of everything he observed including the oil and coolant leaks and once he had an overall idea of the vehicle status, he recommended we replace the battery and fan and then you could decide if you wanted to have us look further into the leaks. You were sent a report with the photos and estimates and our service advisor went over the vehicle with you and explained the common issues we see with that vehicle. I'm really sorry we didn't give you the information you needed to feel good about your visit here. In order to stay in business in these times, provide a three-year guarantee and employee master technicians, we have to mark up our parts and charge for diagnosis. If I can help in any way or you would like further information please give us a call and ask to speak with me (Lisa) or my husband Marcus. We are the owners and we are sorry that we let you down.
- Capitol Automotive