I just saved a bunch of money. . .
No, I didn’t switch to Geico. I changed the brake pads on my van instead of paying a shop to do it.
The front brakes have been squeaking like crazy for a few weeks now, and I’ve been too busy to do anything about it. Kathy called Les Schwab to see what they charge for a brake job, and they quoted her $200 something dollars. That’s just completely nuts. I called around to auto parts places, and found the brake pads for as cheap as $13. Kathy picked up the next best pads yesterday for $20. Now, since they were going to charge me ten times this much to do it, I thought I was going to have my work cut out for me. I went out to the van today expecting to be working on it for hours. I mean, why else would it cost $200, unless it was really difficult, right?
30 minutes later, I came back in the house, greasy and dusty, with the old brake pads in my hands and the new brake pads on the van. So if an all-thumbs complete amateur, with only the stock spare tire jack and a basic socket set, and without benefit of hydraulic lifts and pneumatic tools, can do this in 30 minutes, how can they get away with charging $200?
6 comments November 19th, 2005