Mazda Price Gouging

I recently brought my 2002 Mazda Tribute in for service due to my
steering making noise. I brought it in to a local Mazda dealer in
Durham, NC. They said I needed a new Rack & Pinion. They quoted me
$1100.00 ! When I asked them to break it down for me, they said the
part was $400.00. I asked why it was double than the $250.00 racks I
can find all day long everywhere else. He said " its because its and
origional Mazda OEM part". I replied " why would I want to replace
mine with one of those since the first one didnt last 70K miles ? I
inquired about the $700.00 labor, he said that included the $70
alignment.

I took the vehicle to a reputable shop ( Tire King, Durham, NC ) who
replaced the rack with a new one, installed, aligned, labor tax & all
for under $650.00 !

Look, everyone needs to make money but that is out of hand. I was
auto-savy enough to know when to go somewhere else, but what about the
poor guy or woman that doesnt know any better ?

Thats why I feel it best to post a good or bad experience. Hopefully
it will help someone and drive good people to good businesses.

Big J.

<joeypm RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1174083151.581658.243010@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>I recently brought my 2002 Mazda Tribute in for service due to my
> steering making noise. I brought it in to a local Mazda dealer in
> Durham, NC. They said I needed a new Rack & Pinion. They quoted me
> $1100.00 ! When I asked them to break it down for me, they said the
> part was $400.00. I asked why it was double than the $250.00 racks I
> can find all day long everywhere else. He said " its because its and
> origional Mazda OEM part". I replied " why would I want to replace
> mine with one of those since the first one didnt last 70K miles ? I
> inquired about the $700.00 labor, he said that included the $70
> alignment.
>
> I took the vehicle to a reputable shop ( Tire King, Durham, NC ) who
> replaced the rack with a new one, installed, aligned, labor tax &
> all
> for under $650.00 !
>
> Look, everyone needs to make money but that is out of hand. I was
> auto-savy enough to know when to go somewhere else, but what about
> the
> poor guy or woman that doesnt know any better ?
>
> Thats why I feel it best to post a good or bad experience. Hopefully
> it will help someone and drive good people to good businesses.

Dealers often, but not always, charge a lot more for parts than
independent garages. I usually avoid dealers like to plague once the
warranty is up. Although for some sorts of routine maintenance they
can be cost competitive.

Out of curiosity, I checked the Ford Dealer Price for you rack. It was
$383. It was easy to find one on the web for $171 (with free
shipping). I was surprised that there was such a great discrepancy. It
reminds me of when I owned a Toyota. It only takes a couple of $500
starters and $400 alternators to realize you are getting screwed.

Did anyone offer to install a seal kit in your rack? I notice that
there are seal kits available for the rack for $22. Did anyone offer
to just replace the tie rod ends?

I would have estimated the cost at a independent garage as:

Parts - $250
Labor - 2.5 hours @ $60 - $150
Supplies - $50
Alignment - $70
Total - $520+$18 Tax = $538

So I guess Tire King was in the ball park. The dealer charge should
have been something like:

Parts - $383
Labor - 2.5 hours @ $80 - $200
Supplies - $70
Alignment - $70
Total - $623+$28 Tax = $751

The price the dealer quoted to you seems completely wacko. Did you
quote another dealer? A Ford dealer could have done this as easily as
a Mazda dealer.

One more question, did you just ask Tire King to replace the rack, or
did you ask them to diagnosis the problem? If the steering was working
properly, and you just had a noise, I would have though the problem
was just tie rod ends. This would have cost less to fix than just
replacing the whole rack - although a lot of shops would just want to
replace the rack rather than repair the tie rods ends.

Ed