TalkAboutAutos Review

Have you ever paid more for a car repair than you should have?  Did they charge you for parts and labor your car did not need?  Probably so.  And, you can include me in that group.  I am a woman and am not very knowledgable about cars and what makes them work.  My husband is fairly knowledgable in this area, but he is not familiar with every single car in the universe.

When we purchased a used BMW several years ago, we had a horrible experience with the dealer.  The car was a Pre-Certified BMW.  That is supposed to mean that they have thoroughly checked out the car and it is in good running order.  Well, about one month after buying my Pre Certified car, I noticed that the brakes were making a terrible noise whenever I drove the car.  We took the car into the dealership where we had purchased it to have it checked out.  About an hour later, the service technician called to tell me that the entire brake system needed to be replaced and the cost was $1,600.  Needless to say, we were not too happy.  Luckily for me, when I left the car, I had pulled all my paperwork, including the car manual from the glove box and taken it home with me.  I looked through the paperwork and found that the brakes had just been repaired (new rotors, etc.) one month prior to my purchasing the car and I had the receipts from the previous owner.  When my husband called back and spoke to the service manager, he told him that the car was Pre Certified and there shouldn't be anything wrong with the brakes.  We also told him that he needed to pull up all repairs performed on this car on the computer and check it out, and that we were going to see the Manager of the dealership.  Low and behold, within a half hour, we received another call from the Service Manager saying that he had checked the car out himself and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with brakes.  He said it was making that noise because the car had been sitting for awhile and that as I drove the car more and more, the noise would disappear.  So, the repair went from $1,600 to zero in a half hour.

Had I known about the Talk About Autos website at that time, this probably would never have happened.  This is one of the best websitesI know for free, expert advice that is especially useful if you are not a car repairaholic.

The site is entirely free and all you have to do is set up a User ID and password and then you can post a question for the experts to answer.  They will respond quickly with their diagnosis of your problem, and what you can expect it will cost to repair.

Last week, my fan blower started acting up.  The A/C would be working just fine and then, all of a sudden, the blower would quit blowing.  All the indicator lights said that the fan was on and operating, but no air was flowing.  The blower would then come back on in a few minutes and work fine.  Then, it would go off again.  It was like a demon was controlling the fan in my car.

I went to Talk About Autos and posted my question.  Within one half hour, I had answers from two separate experts telling me that this was a common problem for the BMW series I own.  They told me the name of the part, they had already looked up the price of the part on the internet for me, they told approximately how much labor was required (i.e., one hour); and they provided me with a link to another site that discussed this issue in length and gave DIY instructions should you wish to fix it on your own.

I was able to go to my local mechanic, tell him what the problem was, and ask for an estimate to fix that particular part.  He quoted me a price for the part and it was very close to the price the website had given me and so was the labor.  So, instead of going out and having a mechanic tell me I needed a whole new blower motor ($500+++), my car was fixed for under $200.  And, I have the comfort of knowing that I wasn't duped yet another time.

I would recommend this site to anyone who needs help diagnosing a car problem.  No one wants to have the wool pulled over their eyes and no one wants to be cheated.