National figures indicate Americans spend more than $20 billion a year on faulty or unnecessary auto repairs.
Auto repair rip-offs, in fact, consistently rank among the top five consumer complaints in many states, according to the Consumer Federation of America. Older Americans are often targeted because they are perceived as having more money. They also tend to be more concerned than younger drivers about issues of safety and liability.
The California Bureau of Automotive Repair, one of the most aggressive such state agencies in the nation, gets 25,000 or so complaints a year. And because most victims don't even realize they've been defrauded, that's undoubtedly just the tip of the dipstick.
According to Richard Mundy, the deputy chief of the agency, many of the complaints involve bait-and-switch routines that begin with advertised "specials" that seem too good to be true?for example, $99 for a brake reline. "They say they'll do a particular service for a price, and the price escalates for your model or car, or they'll sell you something additional," Mundy says. "Very rarely does someone get the service for the price that's advertised."
Virtually all auto repair scams, in fact, are variations on the same schemes: pressuring customers to agree to repairs that aren't needed, unnecessarily replacing parts or charging for services that were never performed.
In a recent undercover investigation by a Canadian consumer organization, a test vehicle with an intentionally disconnected vacuum hose was taken to 37 repair shops in three cities. The cost of repairs ranged from zero to $613; seven shops replaced brand-new parts that were working perfectly.:scared
"Your lucky you made it into the shop because your faulty brakes need to be replaced before they cause an accident and kill someone," according to the Office of the District Attorney of Los Angeles. A second opinion might show the truth about what's really needed in this case.
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