Rising Costs Drive Amateurs To Try to Fix Their Own Cars --- Deterred by staggering repair quotes, some drivers save with a few tools and YouTube videos

"After Andrew Poelstra smashed his car's side-view mirror on his garage wall early this year, a dealership quoted him $1,000 to replace it. He resigned himself to paying the hefty bill until he found a part online at a fraction of the cost.

"I thought, you know what? For 50 bucks, versus $1,000, I think I should at least give it a shot," said Poelstra, a 33-year-old mathematician in Austin, Texas.

As car maintenance and repair costs ballooned 28% in the past three years, according to Labor Department data, more car owners are considering a do-it-yourself approach. 

With even minor fixes climbing into the thousands of dollars due to all of the technology packed into newer cars, many drivers groan and pay up. 

Others roll up their sleeves and cue up instructional YouTube videos -- as a financial necessity or a matter of principle.

In the first half of 2024, about 30% of drivers said that if their vehicle needed a repair immediately, they would likely try doing the repair themselves, up from 26% of drivers in 2020, according to IMR, an automotive market-research firm.

Newly motivated DIYers say they are succeeding. Mostly.

Poelstra said that replacing the mirror on his Honda CR-V required a screwdriver, a wrench and only 40 minutes. He said it doesn't look like a DIY job, although the paint color is slightly mismatched and the new mirror doesn't have a built-in turn signal like the original did.

"Other than that, you would not know," he said.

Drivers can purchase repair guides for specific vehicles, but some mechanics also praise YouTube as a learning resource. Bo Fader, who provides consumers advice at the website RepairPal, said that professionals sometimes turn to how-to videos themselves when working on an unfamiliar model.

Roughly 25% of drivers delayed service or a repair in 2023, up from about 18% in 2020, according to the Auto Care Association, a trade group. Their most commonly cited deterrent was cost.

But trying to save money can come at the cost of time and frustration.

Lauren Leeman drove around with a burned-out headlight for two months because she feared what a repair shop might charge her to fix it.

At night or in the rain, the 36-year-old fundraiser in Denver used her Toyota RAV4's high beams instead, which prompted at least one driver to give her the middle finger. "I would rather be safe and annoy people than have them not see my car," she said.

Botching higher-stakes fixes can be dangerous and ultimately more expensive, Fader said. When he worked at a repair shop, customers who bungled at-home repairs occasionally drove up in cars whose brakes barely functioned. One vehicle that arrived had burst into flames.

Others would show up with bags of parts and no vehicle and admit, "I just took this off my car and I don't know how to put it back on," Fader said.

People who work on their own cars tend to be younger. About 21% of Gen Z drivers needing maintenance or repairs did so or enlisted a friend in 2024, versus 7% of baby boomers, according to J.D. Power.

Kevin White recently turned a staggering repair quote into a family reunion.

White, a 52-year-old in Honolulu who serves in the military, needed to replace a catalytic converter on his GMC Sierra. He was told by the dealership the cost for the part alone would be $2,000.

After a phone call with his dad, a mechanic in Dallas, he determined that it would be cheaper to have his dad buy universal catalytic converters in Texas ($600), fly him to Hawaii ($550) and purchase welding equipment ($400) so that his dad could do the work in his garage.

White set up his dad's visit to coincide with his daughter's fall break at school. The family had some fun and went to a luau before father and son tackled the job.

"Priceless," White said.

Car owners are capable of more than they think, said Rushit Hila, the founder of an educational repair shop called Youcanic outside of Baltimore. He said that replacing a wheel-speed sensor, a job that could cost $800 or more, is easier than an oil change.

Many would-be tinkerers are intimidated by the electronics threaded throughout newer cars, but Hila said they don't need to be.

The bigger obstacle, he said, is that diagnosing problems and clearing error codes can require a software subscription or tools that dealers have.

Paint is one area of car repairs that many say is best left to the professionals, but Menachem Lehrfield, a 29-year-old accountant in New York City, found a low-budget workaround.

A repair shop told him it would cost $2,500 to get rid of various minor scratches. As a friend suggested, Lehrfield contacted a local store that supplies paint to body shops, asking if they would sell him a small amount to match his black Toyota Avalon.

A spray can each of paint and gloss cost $90, and Lehrfield also bought scouring pads for $4.

His handiwork was good enough that the car's paint didn't raise any questions when he later decided to trade it in for a new one.

"I just don't want to pay for something that I can do myself with a couple of YouTube clips," Lehrfield said." [1]

1. Rising Costs Drive Amateurs To Try to Fix Their Own Cars --- Deterred by staggering repair quotes, some drivers save with a few tools and YouTube videos. Pinsker, Joe.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 27 Nov 2024: A.11.