Get Car Repair Estimates Without Leaving Your Couch

Going to a car repair shop alone, if you are a woman, can almost guarantee that you will be charged more than if a women went in with a man or if a man went in alone. Unbelievable in 2010, you say?  Not so fast. A study looking at this very subject was done a few years ago. What did it find? A staggering 90% of auto shops charged a woman alone more for the repairs. That's nine out of 10 shops. Interestingly, women bring cars to the shop for repairs 65% of the time.

Women have known for years that they get treated differently when conducting business in typically male fields when they are alone versus when they are with a man. The study just validated that sad fact in the auto repair business. Sure, things have changed, but there are still miles to go...

The Internet has made it easier than ever for people to share customer service horror stories and to warn people away from businesses that have particularly poor service. On the flip side, businesses who provide stellar service, can find a good bit of free advertising from happy customers.

Now, the Internet can even remove gender from the car repair equation. A site called RepairPal lets a car owner get an estimated price range for any auto repair done in his or her area. It's free, so I decided to give it a try and see what it was all about.

My Scion xA's check engine light came on a couple weeks ago. It's due for a tune up and an oil change. What better thing to try on this site. So I did. I also entered my zip code and hit enter. The next screen brought me to a general price range for the service and showed me how dealerships in my area stacked up against independent shops. Local shops were located on Google maps.

Seeing that I live in a teeny, tiny town that got its first stop light a couple years ago, I thought for sure the application would come back empty-handed. The results came back with eight shops pegged on the map. Not bad.

Just for kicks I decided to try the application out on an Acura Integra. The estimate was broken down into labor costs and necessary parts and what they cost. I had the option to register (free) and save the estimate to my account. If you're registered with the site, it will email you when your car is due for service. Oh, and there's an encyclopedia that explains all about different car service procedures and answers questions like how to get a California smog inspection and why could my car be leaking fluid.

If I lived in a larger city, I can see how the RepairPal service would be a huge time saver. It certainly is a lot easier than calling five different shops and wondering if you're getting the same price as the guy that just called in five minutes ago with the same car problem. I'm going to be scheduling my car's checkup in the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know how well the estimate from the RepairPal service matched with what I actually paid.

This post is brought to you by RepairPal.com.