The Great Car Maintenance Upsell

Got a tale of an overzealous repairman? You’re not alone. With the recession crimping profits, repair shops are under growing pressure to sell extra services that critics say probably aren’t necessary—everything from “decarbonization” to transmission fluid “flushes” that, at the end of the day, can inflate your bill by hundreds of dollars.

The sales push is happening because drivers aren’t just putting off new-car purchases; they’re also scaling back on service appointments. According to market-research firm IMR, the $133 billion car-repair and maintenance industry saw declines last year in almost every category, with basic maintenance down almost 10 percent. To make up for lost revenue, the greasy-overalls brigade is scrambling. “They’re pushing to do things earlier and more frequently,” says Philip Reed, an auto-repair expert with Edmunds.com.

Ask Ken Massey. A veteran grease monkey who has worked on his own vehicles since the days when tail fins ruled the road, he was a bit leery when he stopped by a local car dealer to replace a blown fuse in his Chevy Cavalier and was told that, by the way, his transmission had sprung a leak. Fix it on the spot, the “service adviser” urged, and it would cost only $325. But Massey, a retired engineer in Indianapolis, wasn’t buying it; the transmission had no leak he could see. “I think they got a little greedy,” he says.