Peter has stumbled on a way to save big money on car repairs: ask the dealer to refer you to their go-to mechanics, schedule an appointment with the source and tell ’em who sentcha. He says the technique has slashed his car repair bills:

A little while ago, a mailbox hit my Honda and — in a separate incident — a pipe in a parking garage scratched up the door. Since I wanted to get the dents and scratches fixed without involving my insurance company, I took my car to some body shops and was given an exorbitant quote. So I contacted the Honda dealer that sold me the car and he gave me the contact of the guy that does the dealership’s body work. I contacted that guy and told him that the Honda dealer gave me his number, and he gave me a quote that was half the price of the other body shops!

Recently my Honda was broken into and the window smashed. Since the window installation shop didn’t do tinting, I contacted the dealership to see what tinting shop they used. When the guy at the tint shop gave me a quote on tinting my window, he gave me a price less than half of what he advertised because the dealer referred me!

So my trick for getting discount body/non-mechanical work? Use the same shops the dealer uses and mention that you are a reference!

What do you do to save money on car repairs?

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