How bad did I just get ripped off for brake pads and front rotors?

[Beefsquatch]

paid 320 shipped for rotors and pads for all four corners and installed in the garage

[DonM]

I got quoted ~$760 for all 4 corners, new pads, rotors & hardware

[gmpartsman]

post your invoice so we can see what line of parts they used. parts prices vary alot depending on the line of part used..

[gmpartsman]

but that does sound overboard by the way..

[jeremy3721]

[racesloth]

Ripped off big time - I did the whole ZL1 front brake upgrade to my SS for that number. But did the labor myself.

[mydreamcar]

I got quoted ~$760 for all 4 corners, new pads, rotors & hardware



pretty much on point same for me , 800$ plus tax. for everything.

[danvillekidd]

Well, looking at your invoice, your front pads and rotor ONLY cost 608.xx. not as bad as your op implied, but still not good. The 1100 cost included rear pads and turning the rear rotors and an oil change. Could have been better...or worse. I just paid right under 1000 for DBA4000 series drilled/slotted rotors and hawk street/race pads for all 4 wheels of my ZL1. No labor as i installed myself.

[jeremy3721]

Originally Posted by danvillekidd

Well, looking at your invoice, your front pads and rotor ONLY cost 608.xx. not as bad as your op implied, but still not good. The 1100 cost included rear pads and turning the rear rotors and an oil change. Could have been better...or worse. I just paid right under 1000 for DBA4000 series drilled/slotted rotors and hawk street/race pads for all 4 wheels of my ZL1. No labor as i installed myself.

Your right, I didn't mean to imply I only did the front but that's totally the way the post read (fixed).

I just feel stupid for not doing it myself. My wife and I have worked really hard to save money the past few months and I just set fire to $500 for no good reason. I've been reflooring a bathroom and a bit overwhelmed lately so I didn't stop to check how easy it would've been to do it myself.


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[snarky]

always good to get an estimate. look on the bright side! should be good to go for another five years.

[jayno20]

If you would have done it yourself the parts are around 3-500 dollars. Brakes are very easy to do.

[Billy10mm]

You didn't pay just for what you told us you paid for. You paid for:

Front Pads + Rotors Installed
Oil Change
Brake Fluid Flush
Rear Pads Installed

I had my pads replaced at 25K miles. I paid ~$400 for OEM Chevy pads (all 4 corners, not just front) which is right around what you were charged. Your rotor costs are pretty standard as well. I assume their shop rate is $129.95/hr.

They charged you 1 hour to do the front pads + rotors which, while a little high IMO, isn't egregious. I would assume a competent tech could get the job done in around 45 minutes. If I'm right, then you over-payed by ~$33 for that labor charge.

The oil change is properly quoted (cheaper than I pay at Valvoline actually).

For the brake fluid flush, they charged you for 40 minutes worth of time (66% of $129.95/hr). Again, they probably completed it quicker (30 minutes possibly), but this is not egregious. Again, if I'm right, you over-payed by ~$13.

For the rear pads + resurface, you were charged for another hour of labor. By itself, this isn't too bad as resurfacing rotors takes longer than installing new rotors, so this labor charge seems okay. All in, you paid $800 in parts and the rest in labor + tax. This doesn't seem unreasonable in a line-by-line sort of way. The problem here is how dealerships in general handle service.

If I bring my car in for front brakes service, it takes the tech time to roll my car up onto the lift, get it up in the air, walk on over to parts to get all the parts he needs, and take off my wheels. THEN he starts finally doing the real work. When he's done swapping out my pads and rotors, he now has to put my wheels back on, lower the car back down, test everything, throw out the trash from the parts he just unboxed, and notify the service manager than this job is completed. This is fine, and the 1 hour of labor reflects all of the time necessary to do all of those steps.

The problem here is that for your brake fluid flush and your rear pad replacement ... most of that "extra" stuff is already taken care of by the other labor. While on a line-by-line basis, the labor/time charges for your work seem reasonable, in aggregate, you paid for 2.66 hours of labor + $10 flat fee for the oil change. All in all, a good tech could likely get that done in 1.5 to 2 hours. So figure you overpaid by about an hour ($129.95). All in all, it could have been much worse. It looks like your problem is partially due to scope creep as well. You added $200 + tax worth of parts and labor by asking for an oil change and brake fluid flush.

[CamaroDreams76]

Originally Posted by jeremy3721

$1,100 is about right? That doesn't seem to be anyone else's opinion.

Not exactly. Keep in mind the prices I got quoted were discounted. Including the labor at a dealership your 1100 is around the right ballpark. Dealership rates are about 100 dollars + an hour.

Front pads $190.00 rotors $96.00 each
Rear pads $104.00 rotors $124.00 each
if you need the parking brake shoes there $72.00
per side

190 + 192(96x2) + 104 +248 (124x2)

$734. Then I got 8 TTY bolts. It was about 750ish for pads and rotors for all 4 corners.

[jeremy3721]

Got a call from a customer service manager today and I feel a little better about everything. They are sending me a $100 adjustment check after they called around to other dealerships in the area and found one that would've done some of the work a little cheaper.

It still feels expensive and in the future I'll order my own parts and most likely install myself. If I could do it over again I would have done just that and taken my time with it; even if it would have taken me a week I could've rented a car and still saved hundreds. Just something else I didn't think of because I tend to get flustered when faced with unexpected things that impact the work week.