Pricing Car Repairs, Before the Repairs

Really interesting concept.

I'm curious how a mechanic would react when confronted with an iPhone that showed their estimate to be much higher than the "average."

Anything that keeps mechanics honest is a great idea in my book. However, I think this misses the crux of the problem: diagnosis.

It's easy enough for me to call a mechanic or two to find out how much they would charge to replace my transmission, but how do I know that my car actually needs a new transmission? My primary fear when going to the mechanic is that they'll claim that my car's problems are much more serious than they actually are, so they can charge me for the more expensive repair.

They can easily get away with this, because I'm not knowledgeable enough on the subject to second guess them. Oddly enough, the situation isn't much different with doctors and dentists. Every time my dentist decides to drill into my teeth, I can't help but wonder if they just see it as an opportunity to make a large sum of money.

If anything, the situation is worse in the medical industry. They almost never give price quotes up front. What's up with that? And there's basically no way of knowing how much your insurance will cover. Generally I just do what the doctor/dentist says and save my pennies while I wait for a huge, seemingly arbitrary bill to arrive in the mail. This system is obviously broken.

Now, one of you HN readers looking to start a company: go fix it! :)

I think it is an asset for legit ones. Just this morning my battery light came on, and when I went to the repair shop I was told I needed a new alternator, and it would cost $400. I thought that was high, but didn't have any data to back it up (and was stuck at the shop without a working car), so I went ahead with the repair. I initially felt like I was taken, but this site says a new alternator for my car should cost $400 - $600, so now I actually feel good about the purchase (and the garage).

Your health-care example is not quite accurate, at least in my experience. Many insurance plans require that people telephone to "pre-approve" (non-emergency) hospitalizations, precisely to be able to discuss the coverage with them and make sure the costs payable by the patient are understood.

This is pretty useless since the price point can vary widely based on where you go to. You can go to a dealer, you can go to a national chain, you can go to a hole in the wall garage.