My mom brought her 2007 Audi A3 in for the 90,000 checkup today. The back window just stopped working recently and slid down and won't come back up so she took in to have that looked at and have the checkup. They have quoted her $3000 for tires, rear brake job, door window regulator and vacuum line from vacuum pump to intake manifold. I told her some of this probably doesn't need to be done right away and they may just be trying to add on things and jack the price up. Does anyone know what the average price would be to have some of this done at a independent mechanic?

The rear window not going up is one of the main things and I would get a second opinion on the tires and brake job. Not sure what the vacuum hose is?

Do these prices seem right?


I have attached a pic of the quote they emailed her. Thanks for any help.

 

They don't call them the "Stealer" for nothing. I bet you can get all that done at a non-dealer German Car shop for half that. The tires do not have to be Z Rated Continentals. I have 18" wheels on my A8 and I run an H rated (like I'm going to be going a 120mph anyway) tire (Mirada Sport) and they're running about $160 a pop. I replace them one at a time as they wear and I run them till they're slick.

That vacuum line they quote must be gold plated. The price on the brakes may be a little high but you may not have to replace the rotors if they're not worn too bad. You can get at least one cut on them to straighten them up. The rears will last twice as long since there is always less wear on the rear. You'll go through pads and rotors twice as fast on the front than you will on the back.

The rear window can probably be fixed without having to replace the whole regulator. Truth be known, it's probably just either come out of the track or one of the rollers has given up.

But whatever you do, don't just take it to any "independent mechanic". Find a shop that deals with European, preferably German, cars. For some reason some shops think that German cars are some mythical beast that cannot be worked on by mere mortals and they simply do not have (or do not want) the technical ability to work on more precision made machines. Some would rather deal with sloppy things put together with sheet metal screws and a few inches of slack in everything