how to haggle a car repair price

Car repairs cost money, and this is how to haggle the price down while still getting the work done right.

In the United States, there are four options when you want your car repaired. Two of them you can haggle with and usually see good results, while for the others... not-so much.

Option 1 is a new car dealership, option 2 is a used car dealership, option 3 is a regional auto repair shop, option 4 is a local auto repair shop.

With option 3 and 4, you ordinarily can't haggle the price here. These shops are stretched thin, barely make any money, will always cut corners, use crappy replacement parts, and invent problems with your car where none exists. You don't want to go to these places.

The only way to get the price down with options 3 or 4 is to be an AAA member, and then see if the garage is listed in AAA. If they are, then you can present your AAA membership and should get a discount... assuming the shop doesn't add in extra cost to defeat the discount, which they might.

A specific situation where option 4 might work out (even if not an AAA-Approved garage) is if you own a Chevy or Ford gas-powered (meaning not diesel) non-luxury pickup truck that's over 10 years old. Local repair shops are usually very familiar with these, and proper new replacement parts are easier and cheaper to source when compared to foreign. In other words, if you own a Ford F150 or Chevrolet Silverado from 2012 or earlier, the local guys usually know how to fix those for a decent price. Both are common, both have parts readily available, both are usually easy to service.

With option 2, the answer here is, "it depends".

Carmax, in my experience, actually does have decent auto repair and maintenance service for cars bought from them. I very appreciate that most Carmax repair shops are brutally honest where they'll a) just outright admit they cost more than other shops do, and b) not upsell you because they have no reason to. Sometimes they'll even tell you what shop you should use to get a better repair price. They do have a little wiggle room where haggling a repair price is concerned, but not all that much. And no coupons.

For other used-car-only dealerships, the general rule of thumb is they don't do good repair work unless they specialize in a specific brand. For example, there are some smaller used dealerships that are very specific, such as Toyota-only, Volkswagen-only, Subaru-only, and so on. They don't necessarily cost less (and usually don't), but the familiarity with all the particular quirks of a specific brand usually means the work will be done right.

Then there is option 1, the new car dealership...

The new car dealership is where you have the most room to negotiate a price depending on brand and cost of the service.

The brands that give you the most room to negotiate are those whom are the highest volume sellers. You know who these are just by looking at any current best-selling vehicles list. Specifically pay attention to the brands mentioned more than once. If one of those brands (as in just brand, not model) of car or truck you drive is in that list at least twice, that's a very high-volume seller with more dealerships and more opportunity to haggle repair costs as a result.

Okay, now you know what the high-volume brands are. Now we get to the haggling.

The haggling process for car repairs

Rule #1: You can't haggle cheap services. A general rule of thumb is that if the service price quoted is under $300, you're not going to be able to talk that down. You can't negotiate price on an oil change, tire rotation, etc. since those services are already cheap to begin with.

Rule #2: Only attempt haggling if you can pay for everything without financing. Mentioning anything about financing repairs after the quote will derail your haggle attempt instantly. Only go for the haggle if you have the money.

Rule #2: Your wiggle room is between 10% and 20% and no more than that. If you get a quoted price of $500 and try to haggle $100 off (which is 20%), it's not happening. You may get $50 off (10%) from a $500 quote, but if you go for the 20%, no.

Rule #3: The more expensive the repair, the more wiggle room you have. This is for repairs that bust over 4 digits, as in $1,000+. The most wiggle room is given if you follow rule #4 below.

Rule #4: Combining repairs makes it easier for the dealership to discount the service. Mechanics get paid by the hour. Any time you can get multiple repairs done in one go, that means your car is technically scheduled for one repair appointment instead of multiple times even when there are multiple jobs to be done. While in the garage, it is easier for mechanics to just get everything done all at once.

Rule #5: Use a repair estimate tool online first before going to the dealership. AAA has one of these, and there are others if you do an online search for "car repair estimate". If you know what needs to be done, price it out. When you do, any of the estimate tools will give you a price range for a specific service. Always assume the high price.

Example situation:

Your car's A/C doesn't work because the compressor is busted, your headlights are dimming at night because the alternator is almost gone, you need a new battery, and the starter is about to quit on you because the engine is becoming increasingly difficult to start.

You use the online estimate tool and see that the cost of all that for your car will be about $2,000 on the high end. Yeah, that sucks. But at least you know what to expect.

At the dealership, let's say that's the exact price you're quoted for the work, $2,000. Say the following:

"Can you do $1,700 with tax out the door?" (You're asking for 15% off here.)

What this means is, "Could you lower the price to $1,700 with sales taxes included?"

The service desk guy is going to think about it for a moment. You are agreeing to having all the work done, all at once, and didn't say anything about financing so there will be no finance crap to deal with.

What will he say?

He will either say okay and give you the discount, or say no. If no, offer $1,800 (10% discount), again with tax out the door. He'll most likely agree to it.

If he does, what just happened is that you got more than a 10% discount since the taxes are included with the price. You did well.

Does this actually work?

Yes, it does.

In my experience, the new car dealership service garage usually does have the best prices if you know how to go for them.

If you make it as easy as possible for the dealership service garage to make a sale by combining large repairs and not financing, you can haggle a lower price.

Does this work all the time? No. From the above, you know that low-cost repair and maintenance prices can't be negotiated. For big-cost repairs that involve a lot of labor, you can't really negotiate those either. An example of that would be a head gasket replacement, which is a slow job that can be a real bear for the garage to complete.

It's the "medium effort" repairs and maintenance where you can find the biggest discounts on repair work. Struts, shocks, other suspension items, tires, exhaust, brakes, drive belts, and so on.

It is also helpful, whenever possible, when you can inform the garage of exactly what you want so they know exactly how to price it. If you say, "I need brake rotors and pads on all four wheels, four new tires, an oil change, new battery and transmission service", that makes the service guy's job a lot easier.

I've haggled successfully at getting a lower price several times. It doesn't happen every time, but it's always great when I get it.

Things that don't work for haggling and/or getting discounts

Some people believe certain things work when they actually don't.

"I'll bring the part"

Some believe if you buy the part yourself and bring it to the dealership garage, that will result in a lower overall service price.

It doesn't.

Yes, you saved money getting the part yourself. However, new car dealership garages hate it when you do this, because at that point the work cannot be guaranteed since you brought a "nonstandard" part, even if the part is 100% correct. If the dealership didn't order the part, it's considered nonstandard and can't be guaranteed to work. No way, no how.

No dealership will discount a quoted service price using nonstandard parts.

Bringing a printed quote from elsewhere

The service guy at the desk will instantly hate your guts the moment you take out that printed sheet showing a lower price than what he just quoted you. DO NOT do this. If you do, you just lost any chance of getting a lower price. It's not happening, because you ticked off the service department. They will remember you did that and always charge you the highest price from that point forward. Count on it.

A dealership service garage is not Walmart. They don't do price matching.

Presenting any sort of automatic discount after the work is performed

I mentioned AAA above, so let's use that as the example.

You can get AAA discounts at a lot of garages, including some dealerships. However, you present the AAA membership at the time you are quoted the price, meaning NOT when the time comes to pay. At the time you go to make the payment, the paperwork has already been done.

If you flip out that AAA card when going to pay, more often than not the garage will flat out refuse to accept it even if they're listed as an AAA-Approved garage. Why? They don't want to do the paperwork all over again, so they won't, and you get no discount at all.

Any discount you have you present BEFORE work is done, as in before the paperwork is started, and not after.

Making the service guy at the desk look at your phone for any reason

Put your damned phone in your pocket and leave it there while negotiating a price and don't use it to point anything out. The service guy is giving you his full attention, and you must return it in kind. If you shove a phone in his face (which is what it is interpreted as no matter how nice you are about it), you're being rude, and any discount you thought you were going to get will vanish right then and there.

No whining allowed. Ever.

Don't shove a printed sheet in anybody's face. Don't bring parts unless you're specifically instructed to do so. Don't try to sneak in a last-second discount when going to pay. Keep that stupid phone away. Be nice, be courteous, and don't get too greedy.

No, you don't have to kiss the dealership's ass to get that discount, but you do have to keep it professional. The service department at the dealership is totally different than sales, and the service people will work with you as long as you're nice and courteous.

Remember that the guy at the desk deals with people either getting mad, whining, and/or trying to get everything for free on their 100%-out-of-warranty car. Don't be one of those people. You can get the lower price as long as you know the right way to go about it. And now you do.

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Published 2022 Apr 14