How gullible do mechanics think people are..

I was in a rush this morning to get to work, but I needed an oil change and my serpentine belt changed badly. Went to my trusted mechanic and he quoted me $200 and change for the job. Eeeeeeek. Now I know they go by the books and have to charge some sort of rate for the laybour but $200+ for oil change and serpentine belt. I think thats a little high.

Anyway, walked in to Canadian Tire, spent $20 on a new serpentine belt that took me no more than 15 min to change on my own at work :D and $30 for the oil change.

Thats $50 vs $200+ :screwy:

It's stupid supply and demand. People these days do not have the know-how to do things like change belts, and because people either don't know how or just don't want to, places like that can charge those prices and people will pay them without even thinking.

I was in a rush this morning to get to work, but I needed an oil change and my serpentine belt changed badly. Went to my trusted mechanic and he quoted me $200 and change for the job. Eeeeeeek. Now I know they go by the books and have to charge some sort of rate for the laybour but $200+ for oil change and serpentine belt. I think thats a little high.

Anyway, walked in to Canadian Tire, spent $20 on a new serpentine belt that took me no more than 15 min to change on my own at work :D and $30 for the oil change.

Thats $50 vs $200+ :screwy:
You need the question your " trusted mechanic" how he arrived at that price, what is the book labor time to replace the belt, see what he says. Remember he will mark up the belt and may have used a better quality belt than a $20 serpentine belt, then 60/hr labor lets say, ask him as I said.

This makes me think of what happened to a friend of mine recently. She was having some big problems with her car overheating. She took it to 2 garages and they both told her that her headgasket is done and it would cost $2000 to repair it. Well her bf and a buddy of mine start checking around the enigine (me and a friend were suspicious the mechanic was screwing her the symptoms just seemed wrong for a blown hg)... So anyway after looking around under the car for a bit they found that the return hose from the heater core was leaking they tightened up the clamp and it has been fine since.

Just an example of a mechanic trying to screw a person out of a lot of money!