Have you ever taken your car or truck in to a Repair Shop and have them hook up either their Scanner or Oscilloscope and wondered why you should have to pay for that? You are maybe thinking they did nothing but just hook up a machine to it and tell me I have a problem. You may have known that already before taking your Car or Truck in there. So once again, when it comes to your Vehicle Diagnostic Charge, why should you have to pay for hooking up your Machine to it? Let me give you some insight behind their thinking of why auto repair shops have to charge you for this.
First of all, that Machine may have cost them over $10,000 to purchase and will have to get their money back some how. Why would some one spend that much money on a machine and hook up cars and trucks for free? Here is an idea. Why not charge at least a half hour of Diagnostic Time (.5) to start getting their money back while also helping the customer out? If the problem is found using this machine then you can charge them a full hour of Diagnostic time. (1.0) Then you can charge some labor to install the bad part and you can also make some money on parts mark up!
Secondly they think of their education and certifications which allow them to read and use this machine might be worth something to them while also helping the customer out. The tools involved for testing the parts that were found bad by this machine might account for something too. I can tell you from over 28 years of experience auto repair shops do not open up for business in order to give things and services away for Free. It would be nice if they did! But I think we all know auto repair mechanics are not nice people to begin with. Vehicle diagnostic charges have to be used in small increments to pay this big machine off.
On the other hand, if they can not find your problem with their machines and scanners I feel you should not be charged. I really do! If they are in business to find your car or truck problems then they should be able to do their jobs and find it. This topic on, "Why should I have to pay for a vehicle diagnostic charges" has been a heated debate for years. Here is what you can do to protect yourself from shady auto repair shops and mechanics who try to charge you a diagnostic charges.
Look for signs which are usually located in the front auto repair office explaining their minimum charge for vehicle diagnostics. Ask the Shop Manager or Auto Shop Owner what their hourly charges are there. For instance if they tell you they charge $50 per hour then you will be looking at around half of that which is $25 plus taxes and fees. You can also watch and make sure the auto mechanic uses the full half hour of diagnostic time working on your car or truck. Make sure that he or she doesn't spend 5 minutes on it then go to lunch or something to that nature. For more information on, "Auto Repair Savings" please visit my blog.
