This morning, I took in my little old car for a warrent. As per usual, I left it to the last possible moment, so when it failed for busted tyres and busted brake hoses.

So, I set about getting things fixed.

Thank goodness that despite my complete lack of knowledge about cars, I have a 24/7 advisor in the form of my dad, so I could quickly call him to get a rough idea of how much it SHOULD cost to fix a break hose.

He said roughly $150, give or take.

The first Mechanic quoted be $200, but couldn’t lock that down, they were also located quite a way from work, so I moseyed on.
The second shot up to $270.
The third turned out to be a towbar place NOT a mechanic (my fault, I rocked up on the basis it looked like a mechanic)
The fourth was a chain store: Pitt Stop.
They took my car, promised me to do a free break check, then call me with a quote. They also said they’d complete the job and take it back to the warrent place to finish that up.
They rang 10 minutes later with a fixed quote for $160.

When you are a dumb girl in regards to cars, you quickly learn that some mechanics take one look at you and pluck a number out of the air on the basis, they know, you don’t know how much it costs.

I remember once being quoted $60 for a $5 lightbulb. Thank goodness, I had, once again checked with dad before heading around.

In my opinion, it’s borderline criminal to overcharge so massively, however not much can be done about that… But despite the pain and time off work, it was a good lesson in ensuring you know a little about cars when you have one.