PSA: A customer in my shop yesterday said he'd rather pay for a new engine than a $200 diagnostic fee, which really stuck with me.

He was looking at a check engine light on his truck and got mad when I told him the fee. He said, 'I'll just drive it till it blows up and buy a new one, that's cheaper than you guys.' It hit different because it shows how little people value our time and knowledge. They see the part cost but not the years it takes to know where to look. Anyone else run into this mindset and have a good way to explain it without sounding like you're just after their money?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake_dixon3mo agoMost Upvoted

Drive it till it blows up and buy a new one." That line actually made me laugh. Does he think a new engine just shows up in a box ready to go? Someone has to diagnose why the old one failed, pull it out, put the new one in, and hook everything up. That's a five thousand dollar job, easy. Two hundred bucks to maybe avoid all that seems like a pretty good deal.

river3511mo ago

Used to be on the other side of this argument myself. Back when I was younger and didn't know much about cars, I'd get upset at the idea of paying someone just to look at something. Then my old pickup started making a noise I couldn't place. I took it to three different places and got three different guesses. The last shop charged me 75 bucks just to listen and tell me it was a loose heat shield. Tightened it in five minutes and that was it. That experience changed how I see it. You're not paying for the five minutes of work, you're paying for the five years of hearing that sound and knowing exactly what it is.

jesse_west3mo ago

Read an article once that called it the "invisible work" problem. People pay for the wrench turning, not the knowing which bolt to turn first.