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| - C & R Tire was close to us, had great reviews, and had a great coupon. My wife's Saturn needed an oil change so I found a coupon for first time customers and sent her here. During the oil change it became apparent that a new battery was needed. So the wife calls while I'm at work asking if they can replace it at a cost of $256.12. Now, we have a Saturn Vue Hybrid, so the first question I asked was if it was the hybrid battery due to the seemingly high cost. She assured me it was not and that the bill was divided as follows: $87 for the battery and $130 for the labor with the rest of the cost composed of taxes and fees. Again, that is $130 for the labor to install a battery! A regular 12v car battery! A service that Autozone and O'Reilly's typically do for free.
They told her that because it is a hybrid there was a lot more labor involved due to the extra wiring placed on top of the battery. He also said the battery was a bottom shelf model that was of poor quality. Luckily the battery had enough juice in it to start the car once more and get out of the shop in order to get a second opinion. When I arrived home to check under the hood it did appear that the battery was under a good amount of plastic and wiring. Upon further inspection the plastic part pops right off. It's simply there for aesthetic purposes as is the case with most newer engine compartments. There were some wires and other electrical connections on the battery.
Fortunately, one of my clients from my job operates a garage the specializes in GM vehicles. I asked him for his opinion and he said the cost we were quoted regarding the labor seemed pretty high. He explained to me that almost every auto garage and dealership out there use a particular computer program to asses how many service hours any given repair takes after inputting make, model, part that needs replacing, etc. This explains how, after diagnosing the problem, a service center is able to give you a quote on the repair with labor included before they even start the work. Well, he said that the computer program said that replacing the battery is a 1/2 hour service. So a dealer/service center should charge .5 their hourly labor rate in addition to the cost of the battery. In his case he would charge $43.50 to install the battery as his labor rate is $77/hr.
Now, C & R Tire might not use this model to asses the cost of their work, but if they did that would mean that they charge $260/hr service. That is almost twice as much as the dealerships charge! Obviously, I took the Vue to his shop to have a new battery installed. They installed it with an AC Delco battery that is authorized by GM and has a great warranty. Guess what the old battery was? An AC Delco that survived nearly 5 Arizona summers before it finally crapped out. Not the piece of crap the C & R said was in there. The tech at the new place also explained to me that I could have easily done the battery replacement at home as all the wiring on top of the battery was attached to a plate that was held in place by three bolts. Not quite the labor intensive job that C & R made it out to be.
It appears that at the end of the day the C & R Tire on Cave Creek Rd was simply pulling an old garage trick by trying to profit off a customer's ignorance. I respect every business's right to make money for the work that they do but this was nothing more than taking advantage of the trust that many customers put into places like this because they lack the resources, knowledge, or ability to do the work themselves. Shame on you, C & R Tire!
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