I have a 2003 Saturn Vue AWD 3.0L with 130K miles. I took it in to have new tires mounted and an alignment done since it was pulling slightly to the left. The shop mounted the new tires for me but said they didn't do the alignment since the bushings on the front lower control arms where shot, they quoted $750 parts and labor for new ones. I declined and purchased my own set of AC Delco lower control arms along with a new set of shocks and struts since they were still original and due for a replacement. When I called back to schedule the alignment and told them I replaced the control arms and put in new struts so it was ready for an alignment, they told me they would have to charge me $200 to inspect my work before they did the alignment. Is this standard practice or just sour grapes from the garage for not having them install the parts?
They should be able to detect any problems while doing the alignment, a separate $200 "inspection" should not be needed. I'd just take it to another shop to have the alignment done.
Probably some of both. Shops don’t like working on other peoples jobs. I get that. But a $200 “inspection fee” sounds punitive. That’s equivalent to 2-3 hours of shop time.
I used to work at a Volkswagen shop in a small town in Louisiana. We had the only alignment scanning machine to check for wheel alignment, if you wanted to find another VW shop that had one you had to travel several hours. I do remember some shady practice by some of the guys up charging the costs of alignments and telling people they needed alignments when they really didn’t.
Worst one was a guy bought a new Jetta with only like 600 miles on it, wheels were out of alignment pretty bad and couldn’t drive straight at all. The dealership he bought it from told him if he needed an alignment he had to bring it to us. Guy drove like 2 hours to bring his brand new car to our shop. My manager didn’t want to deal with it so he told him he’d have to get a check from either the dealership he bought it or Volkswagen of America because his warranty wasn’t with our dealership. He cursed me up and down, left, came back the next day and said he’d pay out of pocket. Don’t remember what the bill was but it was wayyyy too much. That’s the day I started looking for a new job and I think I quit about 2 weeks later
Thanks to both of you for the quick replies. Unfortunately I live out in a rural village with only two garages, and only one of those does alignments. Looks like I'll take a day trip out to a more reputable shop.
A pain but probably the best thing since it sure looks like they cannot be trusted. I've done my own front end work for ages and never has a shop wanted to charge an "inspection" fee for doing an alignment afterwards. If anything is loose or out of whack they'd quickly find that out when doing the alignment - just as they did with your original parts.
I wouldn't have charged for just checking the work. When you have a lift, it takes just a couple of minutes to make sure things are decent.
When things like this come into the shop, I always make sure my staff make it clear to the customer that we will align the car at regular cost (no cost for an "inspection") but we can not warranty/guarantee anything regarding the parts the customer installed themselves.
If something is found out of whack, which does happen, the advisor informs the customer and asks if they want to fix the issue or have us do it. In this case, should the customer want to fix an issue with his parts that is discovered, we would just give the vehicle back. Usually there is a diagnostic charge, but for inspecting control arms and shocks/struts it would be waived as you're talking literally just minutes.
It sounds like sour grapes to me.
What kinda of shop did you get the tires?
I bought the new Hankook tires from tirerack.com and had the local shop mount and balance them, which they do for $20/wheel. This shop has always been reasonable in the past, which makes me wonder why they are pulling this $200 inspection fee before doing the alignment. Lower control arms are pretty basic, bolt-on parts. All you need to do is get a handful of bolts installed at the correct torque specs. I don't quite understand why they want to charge $200 to check probably a dozen bolts or so, which is why I'm here double checking.
Yeah, it really makes no sense. I guess it rubbed someone there the wrong way that you didn't want them to do the front end work.
You may want to do a rough alignment check before taking a longish trip to another shop to prevent your new tires from starting to wear funny. I know there are videos on youtube showing ways to do it. Though if it's tracking straight it can't be too far out.
$750 for front lower control arms is a MASSIVE ripoff, I'm glad you did it yourself. I think the $200 inspection fee is just them trying to get money out of you, go somewhere else, they clearly just want to overcharge you for everything. But do keep an eye on the tires for any uneven wear for a while, other than that you're fine. But please find another shop, $750 for basically bolt on parts is completely ridiculous.
