How do you get your car repaired, without getting ripped off?

Three ways of doing this, bring an other mechanic with you or a lawyer or become very knowledgeable about your specific problem (internet's good for that) and ignore anything else they say.

Are you talking about actual facts here or myth, rumor and stereotypes.

Most cars require at least some kind of service every 3-5,000 miles. Go ahead, look it up in your owners manual. If you only get yours serviced every 100k then I can see where you might have problems.

There are reasons people THINK they get ripped off at the repair shop. Actually getting ripped off is rare. Those reasons include (but are not limited to):

1. Not understanding the nature of the problem

2. Not understanding the nature of the repair

3. Having no firm basis on which to judge the cost of the repair

4. Not wanting to be in the shop or spend any money on repairs in the first place. Going to the reapair shop ranks behind going to the dentist. This creates natural resistance.

5. The problem/repair/cost is poorly explained by the service writer, making the customer unnecessarily wary.

Don't want to be ripped off? Find a shop you like and go there for everything. Regular customers get treated best.

Referrals,Reputation & evidence of competence. Ask around, if a shop does poor work, they will have a bad rep on the street. Forget about lawyers...what do they know about car repairs!?!. Get other estimates so you have an idea of a ballpark figure first. Have them explain in detail to you what has to be done and whether they use high quality parts. Cheap parts don't last as long.

I have been in business for myself for 25 years and a forman in another shop for 10 and it has always been in my best interest for the customer to not have to come revisit me again soon. Word of mouth is the best advertising in the world. A satisfied customer will send their friends and family to me when they have problems. Check with friends and neighbors and see who they use. also see how long they have been in business. See that the owner is an active participant in the shop and oversees his mechanics. Not someone that comes in once a week to get his money. I have found that most of the dishonesty is from employees that work on a commision not the owner of the business. You just have to find an honest shop with mechanics you can trust. Also it has always been my policy that the customer is more than welcome to sit and watch me do his work. Anyone that don't want you to watch either don't know what they're doing or they want to rip you off. We auto mechanics get a bad rap for the few that want a one time customer they can rip off. But they're alot of honest shops out there that just want to make a decent living. Keep looking and you'll find one. Good luck

The problem is everyone thinks all repair shops are rip offs. I have never in my life or any employee of mine ripped anyone off. We never sell parts that are not needed. It's real sad when you people think that no matter what the price is, it's a rip off. And then it's a rip off if the shop buys the part for 20 dollars and sells it for 59.99 because you can get the part for 30 dollars. So if the shop marks the price up a penny, and you can get it cheaper, they are a rip off. Employee payroll is free, franchise fee is free, employee benefits are free, tools and equipment are free, insurance is free, lifts are free, diagnostic tools are free etc....

Actually it is in thier best interest, cause you will tell your friends how good of a job they did and so on and so forth. But not going to a shop for 100,000 is pretty rare these days. And you wont get ripped off if you just do your homework and get multiple opinions.

taking your car to a mechanic is like you going to a doctor except doctors get more respect even when they make mistakes. point is, most shops want to do a good job, and will do a good job. i don't know of any shop that would see it in their best interest to rip somebody off. i got really sick of people coming back to the shop i worked in accusing the techs of messing something up to make more money, when in fact the problem was coincedence or something totally unrelated.

you can't in my experience, and the new car dealers are the worse. the best thing to do is educate yourself about your car at least the basics, don't ever tell the mechanic you don't have a clue what is wrong if you do you are going to pay dearly.

get multiple quotes for repairs. and ask the repair time by book times.get prices for parts yourself then add labour and youll c if the cost is close to the total u got from the shop.

Total the car and get a new one. This could be fun. Run it into walls, poles, people. The more damage you do the better.