By Kevin M

Perhaps more than any other expense I have to pay, I most dislike (OK, despise!) paying for car repairs. It’s not that I expect our cars to run maintenance and repair free, year after year, but I can’t stomach the idea that every time we bring one of the cars to the shop we get hit with charges of $500-$1000.

We just had a recent experience with this, and I stepped out of character and went the full price repair route to handle it. Maybe I need to do that from time to time just to remind myself why it is I’m always looking for a better way.

Now, be forewarned, I’m not a “car guy”. My interest in car repairs is strictly from a financial standpoint; cars are one of the biggest expenses the vast majority of us have, and I’m always looking for- and experimenting with- ways to save money here. But back to the story…

The dreaded Service Engine Soon warning light

The “Service engine soon” light was on in my car, conjuring up visions of some dreaded evil overtaking my engine; this one could be well over $1000, I dared to think. But while I did consider going the alternate repair route, instead I went for speed and brought the car into the shop for repair.

$791.80. That’s what I paid my haste, and as you’ll note, it fits nicely in the middle of that expected $500 to $1000 range mentioned at the outset. That means it merely comes under the category of a run-of-the-mill repair. Nothing special, right?

The knock sensor needed to be replaced and the EGR ports had to be cleaned. And there are still at least two dozen similar widgets on the car that could go anytime.

But as disgusting as this episode was, let’s take a look as the alternatives, how they could have fit into my situation, and some other things you might want to consider if you plan to keep your car around for more than five years but don’t want to get hosed on the repair costs.

FREE diagnostics!

One of the problems with car repairs that really spook us non-car types is that we usually don’t know specifically what’s wrong with a car that stalls, dies or flashes warning lights. Not only does this make do-it-yourself repairs seem daunting, but it also leaves us vulnerable to exaggerated work orders at repair shops.

But knowledge is power, and even if you don’t do the repairs yourself, you’re giving yourself a tremendous leg up if you can go into a repair shop knowing what the problems are in advance. And there is a way you can do this—before spending any money!

Before bringing the car to a repair shop—while I was still thinking of going “alt repair”—we brought the car in for a diagnostic check to find out what the problem was. Autozone offers these for free! They hook your car computer up to a mini-computer that tells you where the problem is. Now the system they use at Autozone isn’t as sophisticated as the ones at the fancy repair shops, but I can tell you this: the Autozone diagnostic revealed the same EGR and knock sensor issues that the mega computer at the repair shop did.

The difference? The repair shop diagnostic was $100, the Autozone scan was free.

Finding out what’s wrong with your car is half the problem if you want to repair it yourself, and you can do that at Autozone. They do this as an inducement for you to buy their parts of course, which leads me into the next topic…

Buy car parts direct and save—a ton!

The same Autozone that does the free diagnostics on your car, can also save you a bundle on car parts. Again an example from my recent repair experience…

After getting the diagnostic at Autozone, we priced the parts needed. A new EGR valve would be $124, a new knock sensor would be $99.

For comparison sake, the repair shop charged $268 for the knock sensor replacement. Clearly, not only are they charging us for labor, but they’re adding a mark-up—a very healthy one at that—to the parts they’re installing in the car. Had the repair shop purchased the part at Autozone, they’d have made a $169 profit, or 169%, just on the part itself. My guess it that they get it for less since they’re a national chain and can buy in bulk, but I digress.

If the EGR valve needed to be replaced (it didn’t), they would have charged “over $300” for the part alone. That’s about two and a half times the actual price of the part!

Do you see now why even routine repairs to your car can run upwards of $1000???

Moral of the story: either make the repairs yourself, saving on labor and the massive parts mark-up, or find a mechanic who will let you buy your own parts! Either way you’ll save hundreds of dollars on a typical repair job just by doing this.

(Note: I don’t intend for this post to be an advertisement for Autozone; that’s just the parts dealer we chose to use. You could get similar savings on parts at Pep Boys or any number of suppliers.)

Do you want to save even more on parts?

A few months back I did a post on a website/network called Car-Part.com, a national network of salvage parts dealers all over the U.S. and Canada.

If your car is more than a few years old, it can be more cost effective to replace worn out parts with used ones rather than new. The savings can be enormous. This is especially true if you need body parts for the car.

You can go on the site, enter the part you’re looking for, and it will bring up dealers in your area that you can either visit or order by mail—there are literally thousands of dealers in the network. Not only will this be cheaper than relying on a repair shop or body shop for parts, but it will give you more control over the specifics. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars using this network, and I can strongly recommend it to anyone.

Find a backyard mechanic

This is my favorite of the alternate car repair topics! If you’re a car guy, this doesn’t apply to you, but if you’re like me, this is the crucial link.

We all know people who know a lot more about cars than we do, and that can be a real advantage at repair time. At a minimum, having someone who can point you in the right direction is significant in itself. But having a link to someone who can also do the repairs is downright liberating! You’re free from the repair shop robber barons.

Carlos is a close friend of mine, who happens to know a lot about cars. When he doesn’t know something, he knows someone who does. For me, he’s the guy who ties all of this together. He’s a big part of the reason we’ve been able to keep two (paid for!) older vehicles.

Do you know anyone like this? Perhaps a repair shop employee whose looking to make some money working on the side and will charge a lot less than the hourly labor rate at the shop? And just as important, one who will let you supply the parts?

A discount mechanic, in combination with direct buying of new or used parts, can easily chop a repair bill from a $1000 to only $300 or $400.

Would that make keeping your car a few years longer, or buying a used car instead of a new one, worth it to you?

Here’s some bonus material…

Talk of car repairs always conjures up thoughts of used cars, after all you can hardly talk about one without taking on the other. But as luck would have it, this week Kiplinger’s published their list of the “10 Best Picks In Used Cars”. Six of the vehicles are priced in the mid-teens, the other four run up to the mid-20s. The list includes:

2007 Mazda 3s Touring Sedan

2007 Honda Accord EX-L V6 Sedan

2008 Chevy Malibu LT

2007 BMW 328i Sedan

2007 Hyundai Azera Limited

2006 Lexus LS430

2006 Ford Escape Hybrid

2008 Subaru Forester Sports 2.5 XT

2008 Honda Pilot Ex

2006 Honda Odyssey Touring

So there are the used cars du jour, and now you have a way to keep them running longer for less money!

What are some money saving secrets you use or know of, to save on car repairs? Have you used any of the suggestions above? What was your experience?

By Kevin M

Last week in New Car or Used Car – Which is the Better Deal? we talked about the many virtues and monetary advantages of buying a used car.

One of the common objections to buying a used car is the higher cost of repairs and maintenance. Well, we may have at least a partial solution to that problem.

Car-Part.com–“Used Auto Parts Market”—provides access to salvage dealers across the United States and Canada. Car-Part.com isn’t a salvage dealer itself, but a database of hundreds of dealers in nearly every state and province across North America. Per the site “about us” description, they’ve been operating since 1998, so they’ve had time to work out any system bugs.

Quick, simple and very user friendly

All you need to do is enter relevant information in the main page search box—year, make/model, the part needed, your state or province and zip code—and you’ll have access to salvage yards all over the area. You can choose the closest yard or the least expensive, but you’ll have that choice. If none of the providers are close by, you can have the parts shipped to you. I didn’t venture this far, but you could also buy a part from an out of state dealer if the price is right and you have time to wait for delivery.

Many prices are listed, so you know what you’re paying before you place an order, but some do require that you call for a price. Each provider lists its name, address and phone number with the part so you know who you’re dealing with at all times.

One of the real advantages to the system is that there are multiple dealers listed. They’re independent businesses, providing the advantage of competition. If you don’t like the location or price of one dealer, you can shop for another.

I didn’t try it, but they also have a “Live Chat button” where you can “instantly connect to the recycler and ask any more questions or arrange a purchase”; that’s a feature that could come in handy in a pinch.

My experience with Car Part.com

I learned about this site completely by accident. Just last week, I broke the tail light on our 1998 van. It’s an embarrassing story, but yes, I broke it with a run in with…our garbage can.

Our garbage pick up occurs every Wednesday morning. We put the dumpster out on Tuesday nights, and when we do, we put it on the lawn to the right of our driveway, just behind our car so we can see where the garbage men leave it after they’ve emptied it.

Well, on this day, they put it behind the van, and a van isn’t as easy to see around as a car. When I backed out I heard a thud, stopped the van, and saw that I had pushed the empty dumpster about 10 feet. Now curiously, even though I had moved it, the dumpster was still on the driveway, which would indicate that the garbage men most likely put it just a few feet behind the van as opposed to on the street or at the edge of the driveway where they usually leave it. Maybe it was a trainee, but I’m speculating. Anyway, as bad luck would have it, the handle of the dumpster—the one part of it that could actually do any real damage—hit square on the tail light and snapped it open.

Now in a previous life, I would have grumbled, hollered at my kids and my dog, but ultimately I’d have paid the going rate to get it fixed, what ever it was. But that’s not my life now. Experience has taught me, what ever the expense, to stop, take a deep breath and spend some time seeing if there’s a less expensive way to handle it.

I don’t know much about a lot of things, and cars are one of them, so I’ve come to rely on the opinions of people I trust to provide direction. Fortunately, I have a couple of friends who do know a good deal about cars, and they both heard from me that day. In fact they hear from me anytime I have a car problem. Both recommended looking into a salvage yard; one recommended Car-part.com.

Everyone should have a panel of experts.

Saving a small fortune

I don’t know how other people handle it, but when ever anything goes wrong with one of our cars, I get a sharp shooting pain deep in my gut, knowing that it will cost, and probably cost big. The car world just seems wired that way.

But not this time.

The last time I had to replace a tail light, the cost to replace it was close to $200—and that was over 15 years ago. Surely it must have doubled since then, maybe tripled. Thankfully, I never had to find out.

$25 through a dealer on Car-part.com. That was what it cost. Two screws and a sticky socket were all it took. I probably saved several hundred dollars just for asking a question!

Car repairs can bleed you dry, especially if your car is more than five years old. But Car-part.com offers a way to trim those repair bills. If you know someone who is skilled in car repair, and you can get parts cheap, you won’t need to go to the mechanic and pay the $500-$1000 charges that seem typical every time you bring your car to the shop.

How do you handle car repairs? Have you ever done anything like this? Car repairs are one of the biggest variable expenses we deal with and they seem to hit us at the worth possible times. Can you offer other ways to save money on car repairs?