Dealer repair cost......WOW FACTOR

[Booreatta]

I have in my hand a repair quote from a dealer for a friend of mine 89 Reatta repair bill. The car was taken to Schofield Pontiac Buick GMC to get an est on the repair cost of the brakes. The repair est was $5111.50 for the repair.

Here is the break down

found a defective master cylinder/accumulator/anti-lock combination module, also found a worn out broken r.r. brake cable. customer was quoted but declined repairs.

The car was repaired at a mechanic in Wichita for $148.00.

WOW what a difference.

here is the cost of the parts quoted

part # 25533700 switch 174.92

25535707 pump and motor 778.38

25535706 acturatio???? 2398.68

1646523 f-valve 854.51

12377967 accumulator 192.87

12377967 fluid 16.20

And that is just the parts. Labor was quoted at 8 hours.

and just to make you feel warm and fuzzy the dealer also quoted 17.95 for the air filter and 16.00 for wiper blades, why the blades were going to be replaced when the brakes didnt work is beyound logic.

When I heard of this I requested a copy of the est because I thought that there was no way it could cost anywhere near that amount, but it is in my hand and I still dont belive it..again parts 4440.00 plus labor for a total of 5111.50.

I have done business with this dealer before, but now I would have to give it another thought

[Guest F14CRAZY]

I am assuming from previous evidence and cases like this that most Buick dealers simply do not know what the hell the Teves system is, let alone know how it works.

Really, from how I see it, the only expensive thing is the master cylinder, which typically doesn't seem to be the source of the problems. Wheel sensors can also be expensive, but with the 4 Reattas we've had/have, I haven't had a bad one.

The rest of the components are simple and not that expensive. I think of it as a well system in a house (remember, we are a family of plumbers).

Replaced a relay on my coupe, accumulators on all except the Select 60 (which was kept up by Dolores) at the '90 white coupe (not in service yet, about to get one), and a pressure switch on the '90 Maui convertible we had. We did/do flush/bleed them out

[reattadudes]

Chuck,

you're exactly right. most of the techs don't really understand how the system works, although it's kind of unusual to hear the about Schofield; they've been a Buick dealer since the dawn of time.

technicians really don't do much troubleshooting anymore. it's just easier for them to just replace everything.

you can't imagine how many dealers call us every week needing help to repair Reatta problems...and then charge the customer $90 per hour to repair it.

Mike

[Howard]

Just for grins, I enter the part # 25535706 and ran it on GM Parts Direct's website. The list price is indeed that much! Their price for the same part is a little more than $1200. Can't this whole set up be bought at Priors for around $700 rebuilt?

[DeeBee]

From dealer retail parts, the Reatta is probably a 150 grand car.