The XM radio failed a few weeks ago. Dealer said XM tuner and antenna were bad. $1100. Just so happens I have a nephew in the car audio business for 20 years, so I ask him about it. Long story short, he put a new antenna in it ($30 part on ebay) yesterday and XM now works great. The only thing we found was the antenna retaining nut was barely finger tight. This allowed moisture to get under it and linger, which obviously is no good for electronics. Moderately tight for the new antenna should prevent this. This is the small 'sharkfin' antenna on the back of the roof. The FM radio has another antenna somewhere behind the dash. We still had FM radio but we really like the XM on our trips, and of course we had just paid for the next year so it was a no brainer to fix it - but not for $1100. You know, its in insult when you realize they think you're that stupid just to accept what they say and over-pay by that much for a simple little repair.
BTW, if the XM tuner actually had been bad too, as they said, we were going to get one of those and he was going to install it. In that case my bill would have been somewhere around $450 total, including his labor, for the antenna and tuner. But, he wanted to try just the antenna first in case that was all that had to be done.

 

good info. dealers are always expensive with anything they do or sell. you might want to tell us the dealership so we can avoid them. I know of a few in New York that I will avoid when I visit.

 

Welcome in,I have an Accord that the left speaker kept cutting in and out,I took it to the dealer and they said I would need two new speakers and the cost with installation would be $325, I took it home pulled the door panel off and it was a lead that came off and was touching the speaker lug once in a while,I plugged it back up and no problem since. It's hard o find a good dealer or honest mechanic anymore,when you find one hang on to them.

 

Unfortunately I think their problem is they simply don't have time to really dig in on these problems so they give you a scenario/price that will probably fix the problem. Then if you okay it, they would find the actual problem in the process just like you and I did and charge you a reduced amount. This strategy usually works and has the potential of making the dealer look pretty good. Don't forget, they haven't charged too much by giving a high estimate - I think they're figuring on the 'worst case' scenario - they have only charged too much if they cheat you on what they actually did. But no question about it, the dealer is usually the highest place to get work done, although any shop is capable of overcharging. For example I bought a pair of strut assemblies for my F150 and went to a shop I had been to for a few times - they wanted $375 to install them. I knew that was high, so I went to a place I had used a lot many years before and their price was $205. This is a simple job that doesn't involve a spring compressor so all things considered this was a fair price, so they got the job. Since then they have become my main tire shop and general auto shop as they were before.

 

It's safe to say that I never go to a dealer for anything unless it's under warranty or a recall.