Portland Ranked #24 in Auto Shop Fairness Report

[Nate Dogg]

The results are in and how they did it.

For the report, AutoMD.com mystery shoppers conducted a fairness check of over 600 shops in the top-50 DMAs* (including a range of dealers, independent shops, and franchises like Pep Boys) by requesting quotes on a typical auto repair job: a front brake replacement job for a Ford Focus. To measure pricing integrity, the mystery shoppers called back two weeks later with an industry standard price estimate. The best and worst list was then calculated based on each city‘s rankings for three critical factors, weighted equally:

1. Repair Affordability: The average cost-per-job for that city based on prices quoted by repair shops
2. Price Disparity Range: The percentage variance between the lowest price quoted and the highest price quoted in each market
3. Shop Integrity Factor: The percentage of shops that shifted their original quoted price by more than 5% when presented with an industry standard price estimate.

http://www.automd.com/About-AutoMD/Press/2-24-2010

I had one shop down my street quoted me $110 to fix the window regulator and then a nice russian guy quoted me $85 (different shop) for the same job.

 

[Eastoff]

I'm okay with in the middle of the pack. I find it funny that Detroit is spots below us.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

What this does not tell us is if the shop does the job well- or at all. It also does not tell us if they 'find' other things to be repairs or if they stand behind their work.

All it says is that is might pay to shop around. That's a revelation.