My son has bought his first car, a 20 year old Volvo. Good condition and low KMs for its age, but you expect things to go wrong occasionally. A warning light came on indicating that the brake fluid was low, I topped it up inspected the car and found a leak in the rubber brake line at the right hand drivers side wheel. A simple job involving loosening two nuts swapping out the damaged line and bleeding the brakes. I'm pretty busy at the moment so I asked Lube Mobile to do the job, explaining what was needed in my job request.
When the mechanic arrived I reminded him what the issue was and what I wanted done. He inspected the car and confirmed what I'd told him, then charged me $149 for the call out and diagnostic. Now I don't begrudge the $99 call out fee but the extra $50 to be told what I’d already told him was surprising.
He quoted me $1100 to do the repair, no doubt the $149 would have been included in that price if I'd gone ahead. I asked how he came up with $1100 he told me a replacement brake line would need to be manufactured especially for the car and that the entire brake system would need to be bled. At this point my BS detector started twitching and I sent him on his way. I complained to Lube Mobile and they backed their mechanic to the hilt claiming the price was perfectly reasonable.
So we turned it into a fun Father Son bonding opportunity, contacted Volvo and ordered the part ($150). The job took a little longer than expected as I got him to do most of it, talking him through it as we went but we were still finished within an hour!
