Ask HN: Auto Repair Costs
Ask: HN If I want to search for prices on different services for auto repair on a specific model. But I don't know a lot about different types of repairs. How would you find a list of different types of auto repairs? Newer cars have more complications than older so I'm trying to learn more about newer models.
11 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 35.8 ms ] threadAnother source says "Most auto repair shops use one of three guides for charges: Chilton's, AllData and Mitchell."
site:cartalk.com cx-5 > repair cost
I got some results that relate to the repair question. Thanks. I'll be looking more here to learn what I can.
The short answer is searching for the fix on youtube, which will give you an idea how long it should take (and possibly convince you to take on the repair yourself).
IMO, it's a badly formulated question because the type of repair affordable by a service depends on at least (a) the service's diagnostic ability, (b) a mechanic qualification and (c) the service's repair policy (would they be willing to dig deep into the issue to find a failed cheap component easy to replace or they'll just say "engine issues? lets replace the engine as a whole"). All this things combined brings in a situation where all the same breaking takes $$$$ to fix in a one service using process A ("type of auto repair" in your terminology), and it takes $$ to fix in another service using process B.
What should you do then? I'd say you should elaborate first what's the purpose of your interest. What are you going to do with the info? May it's possible to solve in some way with enumerating a possible breakdown points. But generally, if you remember, that repair is a service, not a product, you'll understand why it's hard to compare autoservice A to autoservice B, as well as their prices. Too many hidden vars inside.
So, now today there are so many sensors. What if one breaks down how will it affect the car? will it be "bricked" will it be drive-able?
There's variables relating to the quality of the repair and diagnostic service I realize now. That's a valid point to consider.
Overall my purpose was to figure buying an car maybe 3k-6k price but older with low miles. 2000-2010? Or buying newer 2015ish for 15k which would be more expensive in the long run? How long do the cars run without getting problems.
I have a car 1997, I do fixes on it more often now but it's in the range of 400-800 each fix.
On my next purchase. I want to anticipate the price range of each fix I will have. It depends on how well you want to maintain your auto I realize that and that also varies person to person. Some people will just not fix a broken part if it still is running. Others will run to a shop and pay whatever to get it fixed.
In the whole picture it's hard to exactly know I agree. However, it should do able to find out a range of price that I can expect to pay for a breakdown. Water pumps break, tires go bad, rotors wear down and you don't replace on time. Common problems that happen. Will I get hit 1000-1500 dollars? 1500-2000 dollars? 3000? Newer cars can run without maintenance other than oil change and simple things to maintain, tires, wipers, fluids.
One way, compare part costs on each auto is one way to look at it. Comparing labor needed to fix something is another way.
I was looking for common fixes that happen on a car and of course it varies for each auto. That is my question. A list of auto repair issues. Then I can look up the costs on each. I can look online a breakdown and get a estimate. Problem I do not know on newer cars what kind of breakdowns are common and when they occur.
Suppose an 2015 Mazda cx-5 for example is fully loaded with sensors. What if one broke. What is the part to fix it. Is it common for breakage to happen? How much if something went bad and I have to fix it? Can I live without the sensor? How do I do research? I need to know what to repair. The name of the repair issue.
Give you an better idea of what I am trying to do?
So, you are basically trying to forecast how much it may cost to own a car, i.e. compute math expectation of owning expenses... I think you may be slightly off the track when you start from a list of possible repairs for a generic car.
Better start with a list of possible cars that suit you needs. From a maintenance point of view there's a general rule that the more expensive a car was originally, the more you'll need to repair it now (even if it cost you little to buy), because of parts&labour cost. Fixing the same issue on an old and on a new car costs the same. So overall, in general "premium" segment cars cost way more to maintain than "economy" cars. Second important hint: you are interested in car models that are easy to maintain/repair in your local area. For example, if you want 2015 Mazda cx-5, but there are no decent mechanics in your region who know exactly this model, or there are some but they have shady reviews, you are going to have quite bad experience with that car even if these cars in general are extremely reliable.
After you've made a list of suitable cars, for each car find a community of people who use them. There are billions of online forums, facebook groups, whatsapp chats and etc&etc of car enthusiasts who already use the same car model you are interested in. Observe their chats, ask them directly about most likely issues one would encounter with the model you like. On that stage you'll be able to compile a real list of possible issues along with some probability estimates (i.e. how likely it's to encounter a particular issue).
Having such list of issues and the likelihood of each issue occurrence for each car model, now you'll be able to estimate the costs of repairs - tied directly to the car model you need, not some abstract car.
The final number will be a math expectation = <cost_of_repair>*<probability_of_the_issue>. If you going to have an issue A that costs $2000 to fix, each year with a probability 25%, then on average you need to allocate $500 annually to handle the issue. Compute and sum over all issues and you are done for the model.
So, once you do it for every car model in your list, you'll have some (rough) estimates of maintenance costs for them to make a better decision.
PS: regarding "It's actually way worse than I thought" - my offroader is a 2008 remake of some other older car and basically it's very decent exemplar of 199x technologies slightly sprayed by a little bit of modern 200x electronics. I love it because of it's reliableness and being relatively easy to fix (every summer I do 6000+km trip to a very remote and wild place that extremely demanding to a car and puts a lot of stress on it because of very bad "roads", deep water-filled obstacles & so on, - the car haven't failed me yet) and I'm scared of a hell of a moment when I'll be forced to abandon that car. Because there were a lot of decent reliable new offroaders 15 years ago that were able to handle tought conditions well and there are basically just none today. I'm not a madman to drive an electronic filled "mall crawler" to a place where a nearest living human may be in 50+km away over a brown bear infested forest... I just have nothing to choose from if I'm to change the car...
Like Arech mentioned with the newer cars you can expect to pay more in repair costs. Just because it's newer. I already know that. What I am trying to do is find a ballpark figure for what kind of range I will be looking at. Also, what kind of issues/repairs are common in newer cars? Which was my question in the first place. I was looking for a list of repairs to cross reference the costs with.
I'm not looking for a exact formulated price from HN. I'm looking for a list of repairs that are common with newer cars IE 2015 or such.
Arech's reply to look at forums is a great idea. That's a good start. Another source is owners of the cars. There are ways to get those questions answered.
Now another issue is how much wear and tear is on the car? how many miles will of course affect the repairs that happen. So maybe 100k, 150k, 50k whatever will have different expectations. Maybe there should be no big repairs until 100k miles or more which should be a thing. Unless computer parts?? sensitive to vibration and break. Looks like a easy way to make money for the industry. People are really tech-challenged today.
Arech pointed out that getting quality service may be an problem in my region. That might be a problem with the CX-5 which is fully loaded with sensors. I think it's valid to be concerned about buying a 2015 year vehicle that is full of electronics.
Getting the cheaper car is the easy way to go sure. But it's not so easy to convince oneself to do so. Newer cars are much nicer, don't break down as often engine wise, are more efficient.
Maybe I don't want to take on a loan to get a car like everybody else. Maybe I want to stay debt free. That's why I plan ahead for costs and when they happen. I have money ready to pay them.
I hope that explains clearly what I am trying to do. It's not only a question of cost here.
Brevity is key. 438 words do not clearly express what is better formulated as, "My budget is 5k and I'm looking to optimize for low TCO. What should I buy?"