[olrocker]

Any “name brand” garage - whether it’s third party or the factory dealer - is trained to try to upsell every customer they can to get as much money out of them as possible. These chain shops need the revenue to keep the stores running and the dealer needs it to cover the overhead of running a dealer.

When you take your car to a local garage, the guy who owns it is only paying his techs and taking some profit for himself, and paying rent/lease and utilities on the building. So not only are his labor rates going to be cheaper but there’s really no need to upsell anyone on anything unless they’re shady. Thats why it always pays to find a good, reliable mechanic/service garage in your area. Get to know the owner. Try to become a regular and be nice and talk to him as much as possible when you bring your car in.

Eventually he’ll be giving you oil changes for $15 + his cost on oil/filters. And when you need major work you know it will get done right at a good price and they won’t try to sell you on anything else - only fix what needs to be fixed.

I actually brought one of my old cars to my mechanic thinking I had a bad ball joint or bushing, as my front suspension was clunking. Turns out just one of the bolts for the shocks had worked itself loose. They replaced it with a good bolt, made sure it was nice and tight, and didn’t charge me a dime.

A lot of unsuspecting customers could easily get ripped off by chain/dealer for that.

Find a good private repair shop.