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Have you ever taken your vehicle to a local dealership’s auto body repair shop for what you thought would be an inexpensive repair only to find out it was going to cost you a small fortune?
I know I have, and you probably have too.
Well, I’m going to share a secret with you that I learned a long time ago. You can often save big bucks by purchasing the replacement part yourself and paying a small mom-and-pop repair shop to install it for you.
Here’s a quick example…
Let’s say you’re following a dump truck and it drops a gravel onto the road that bounces up and cracks the left front headlight assembly on your 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500. You call your local Chevy dealership and they give you the following quote for replacing the damaged headlight assembly:
Note: Prices are the low-end prices retrieved from a web search.
1 – Replacement headlight assembly – $1,100
2 – Labor – $300
Total: $1,400
You might be thinking “$1,400 for a simple headlight assembly replacement?”
Well, truth be told, that’s on the lower end of the scale. Many other estimates I found were a lot higher.
Now, go to Amazon and do a search for head light assembly 2022 chevy silverado 1500 and check out the prices. What’s the first thing you notice? Yeah, the prices for the various headlight assemblies listed there are literally a fraction of what the dealership would charge you for the OEM part.
You can buy a highly-rated generic headlight assembly from Amazon for a couple hundred bucks and take it to a local mom-and-pop repair shop. They’ll install the part for you at what’s likely to be a lot less than what the dealership’s auto body repair shop would charge you just for the labor.
In case you’re wondering if this scenario is unrealistic, it isn’t. I have done this same exact thing myself several times over the years, saving hundreds and even thousands of dollars on the repair every time.
Of course, as always there’s a caveat to this…
Everything I said above assumes you’ll be paying for the repair out-of-pocket. If your insurance company is going to cover the costs of the repair then by all means take the vehicle to the shop they recommend. But if you are self-insured you can save big by going the Amazon/local mom-and-pop repair shop route.
And by the way, this strategy works for most any car part you can think of, including engine parts like alternators, timing belts, fuel pumps – you name it. If Amazon or your local auto parts store sells the part you’ll definitely save money by skipping the dealership and following the strategy detailed above.
While it’s true that parts purchased from a third-party seller probably won’t be official OEM replacement parts, you should be fine if you choose third-party parts that are highly rated.
And now, here’s one final tip…
If you have a set of mechanics tools and you’re good at following video instructions you’ll be able to make many repairs yourself. Just look up the repair on YouTube! For example, if you search for replace headlight assembly 2022 chevy silverado you will find this video in the list of search results:
Pretty cool, right?
Bottom line: You can save big on many auto repairs by using the strategy I detailed above, and it can really pay off if you’re having to pay for the repair yourself.