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Thursday morning I had an appointment at Santa Monica Subaru because my driver's window is off the track and I didn't want to take apart my door and try to mess with it before I drive to Lake Tahoe. I also noticed the driver's side tie rod boot is cracked, so I wanted to get that fixed.

Going there turned out to be a pretty bad idea.

It's a pretty small dealership, and I pulled into the small car lot to go into the showroom to ask where service was (turned out to be across the street). I walked in and the place was completely empty. There wasn't even a secretary at the desk or anything. I wandered around a little and looked at the STi they had, then some salesman walks in the door and asks if that's my car parked there:

Me: Yes, that's my car.
Him: Well you have to move it.

Good thing I wasn't there to buy a car. He had blocked me in with a Forester he had brought up, and then made a phone call before going out to move out of my way.

I went over to service, and a guy came up to help me. I showed him the window and he said it was probably the regulator. I asked him about the tie rod boot and he told me it would have to be inspected. I said alright, that's okay, and we went to fill in my information and get an estimate, and he checked on the prices of the parts. First he pulled up a CV shaft and I had to tell him it was the wrong part, then he got the right boot and it was something like $235. I checked allsubaruparts.com and the it costs $22.54. The he checked the price for a window regulator. Once again, it was over $200 (the price online is $160).

The best part was when he told me an estimate was going to cost $150. I almost went for it until I to get a ride back to my house because I had class later. The shuttle wouldn't take me because it was too far. I asked him how I was supposed to get back to school and go to class and he said he could call a rental car agency or something. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't rent a car if I tried. You have to be 25 or something and I'm 21. At that point I just told him to give me my car back and I left.

My car's getting checked out at a local mechanic tomorrow morning. That estimate was only $40. Needless to say I will never step foot in Santa Monica Subaru again, and I'm definitely going to send in a comment card.

What, exactly, did you expect ?

A window regulator job averages $200 to $300 at a dealer. The tie rod boot sounds pretty excessive but you have to understand that they are not going to just replace the boot, because odds-on the tie rod end bearing itself is worn due to the ripped boot, and furthermore it is a hassle to just replace the rod end, so you know they are going to replace the whole tie rod on that side, with the inner and outer ends, then have to align the car.

So I think the prices are not too unreasonable, save for that cost for the estimate. That is actually illegal in some states.

If you get this done for $40 I want to see the reciept. I wouldn't do it for less than $100 in my back yard. Its 3 hours of work, probably.

Kinda thread jackin’ but here is my bad dealer story. When I was looking at new Suby’s I stopped into the one in Des Moines while visiting my Lady-Friend. Well the dealership had Suby/Mazda/Pontiac/VW/BMW. I was strolling around the new Legacy’s and a sales person walked out. The Leg’s were near the parking for BMW/VW parts department and there was a mid-restoration BMW 2002Tii parked there. The salesman asks about a trade in, and I laugh and say it’s not worth too much (talking about my old Leg) and he points to the 2002 and says, “as long as it’s better than that pile of crap.” I said that is a sweet car, you suck and I’d never buy a car from you. My Girl Friend was going to lease a 4dr import, I had her convinced to get a Legacy. She went to that same dealer and she was treated so poorly that she leased an Altima instead.

I didn't expect to pay $150 for an estimate and then have to spend a total of like $800, and the guy didn't explain any of that to me. He was just throwing out what seemed like ridiculous numbers.

The $40 was just for the estimate. He called me back this morning and it was a lot less than what the dealer said. I'm about to go over there so I'll see exactly how much it is.

Yeah, $235 for inner & outer tie rods plus the boot and the necessary alignment isn't bad. The regulator is pretty high. You could do that yourself. Usually when a mechanic charges for an estimate they take it off the bill if you get the work done there. The guy isn't going to spend time on a car to give an estimate and have the guy then go to a chain-store with what needs to be done in-hand for less. Still, $150 is rediculous - even if they were going to apply it to the eventual bill, there's no way they'd take 1.5 hrs. to check it out. My mechanic will do inspections for used car buyers for $50 and that takes about an hour.

Steve