I am inevitably the person who answers the phone when this question is asked. The caller launches into an explanation usually starting with some information they got by stopping by the neighborhood auto parts store for a free code read. “I have a code p0300 and I would like to know what it will cost for a “tune-up” to fix the problem on my 2000 Saturn SC2″.
The impossible part of this question is that I have not even seen the car, have no idea that the information was gathered correctly, what the situation was that led to the event (called freeze frame data), have no idea of the level of maintenance of this particular car and cannot determine anything about the consumers’ idea of vehicle care over the phone in under 6 minutes. Worse yet, the looming obligation of entering into a verbal contract to replace what the car might need for repairs is far beyond reasonable from a professional business standpoint. Consumers don’t call their physicians for a diagnosis of an ailment and possible treatment over the phone…and as a long time physician friend of mine commented years ago “I don’t know how you do this, many different makes, many models within them and you have to know so much. I have two models, same make, and each has plumbing differences, the rest is basically the same.”
My nutshell answer for the Saturn caller, is usually to inform them that their car should cost them between 3 and 6 cents per mile for maintenance and repair. While that really is not the answer they expected to hear for such a specific question such as the misfire example above, they are much more prepared for my next answer of “I really don’t know for sure what it will cost to fix your car, until I look at it myself. I don’t like to guess what is wrong with your car, so lets get it in and we’ll see what we can do about it.”
Services like On-Star, illustrating their prowess in seeing a missing gas cap from space, and free code readouts by the neighborhood parts store have mistakenly led people to believe that you can plug into the car, and it tells you exactly what the problem is, what component to replace and that the tool reading the information does all of the work.
A professional garage should never quote prices to phone-in callers like this example. A guess is still a guess and it is not the garages’ fault that cars got more complicated, more expensive, and more confusing for their owners. I’ll cover the menu pricing topic another time. For now, please consider your questions.
