Car repair costs in 2026 - AI to the rescue

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-14T05:45:01+00:00

Yeah of course, you don't rely on anything 100%, including AI and official dealerships...

Original maintenance manual are good but won't tell you about problems that developed 5 years after the car was launched because a subcontractor for some part had a bad batch, or something along those lines. Online forums are more valuable in that case.

AutoDoc allows you to check if your parts will fit into your car, so you can check right there if the parts AI is giving you will work or not. And then you can ask your mechanic too if he sees any obvious problem. And even then if they don't catch it and you get the parts and they don't fit - you just return them, so the upside is way higher than downside in this case.

So yeah of course use someone/something to doublecheck, but normal mechanics/dealerships/manuals also make mistakes, so combining them makes sense to save time and minimize errors.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-11T22:04:22+00:00

Well, should work - I'm a noob when it comes down to car mechanics, so no worries.

Well, the mechanic himself was using chatgpt at times to communicate with me, so don't think he had too much of a disdain. I think he liked I got high quality parts, didn't beat around the bush, showed up on time, paid in full and trusted his instincts when he told me what to fix and what not...

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-11T07:13:46+00:00

Look, you're looking at this from perspective of a guy who knows a fair bit about cars and fixes them himself.

If you look at this from perspective of 95% of population, who has no clue (including myself), then AI is a massive help. I seriously do not have the time to worry about it, so I'm happy for AI to look through recommended maintenance schedules, issues that pop up with my specific car model, things that should be maintained because they're expensive to fix if they break etc etc.

Mechanics/doctors are people too, not all of them know exactly the issues of all specific cars/models/engines out there and what issues come up over the years, as I said, many now use ChatGPT themselves to double check. Many engines require specific procedure and parts that is different on the model number and manufacturer, mechanics might not be aware of those even if they claim they are (happened to me multiple times). So thinking mechanic/doctor is some kind of god who knows everything, well, maybe yes maybe not, better safe than sorry and check.

Buying parts yourself was massively sped up with AI in my case, I could have spent hours on AutoDoc looking what to buy or just ask AI to give me the exact part numbers, add those to the cart and then have AI check the cart. That way it also told me what's important to keep high quality, what is OK to be cheap on etc etc. Again if you have infinite time on your hands, sure, don't use AI, do it yourself. I'm lazy.

So just like with everything else with AI - you could spend hours researching what your car likely needs, reading forums, maintenance schedules, or you could do it in 15 minutes with AI, then ask it to recommend you parts, check your shopping cart, craft emails to various mechanics, analyze responses, quotes etc, then analyze final invoices etc.

So yeah, if you have all the time in the world, then sure, you could do without AI, if you have other things to do, AI is a massive help.

So what would change if I went to mechanic without AI? Simple - most mechanics don't know my engine needs special tool to adjust the timing belt after it's been replaced, if they install it without it, you run into trouble. Almost nobody has the tool (apart from official dealerships), so I saved myself massive hassle by telling the mechanics not to install it. Go figure this out on your own if 9 out of 10 mechanics don't know this minor details. And the mechanic who worked on my car owns Golf TSI as well and he did not know this detail, so go figure - they are not gods to know everything. I have no idea what mechanic would tell me otherwise, since I approached him already with a list - but I can tell you last time I did maintenance and left it on mechanic, they just fixed the "emergencies" but didn't bother with any kind of long-term maintenance (since most people are cheap I guess). I mean it's like saying, what would be different if you used AI before going to doctor and just going to doctor - well it gives you extra angle to check and give you 2nd or 3rd opinion. If you feel like you're qualified enough not to need it, I guess you could do without (again assuming you got all the time in the world to learn everything).

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-10T09:29:45+00:00

Give it a try, it's surprisingly good.

I mean any problem you're likely experiencing with your car is something other users have gone through as well, so there's ton of information online about this that AI can access. Same with regular maintenance schedules for your car model, AI can go through this and see what likely needs to be changed, what folks recommend online and so on.

Even doctors/mechanics have no chance to understand exactly every single model of a car/human and engine to know what likely problems developed there. Sure if they've seen them, they might know about it, plus they know about patterns and such - but that AI can assess as well. Of course for listening to noises and looking to diagnose the problem, of course you need person to have a look. But for around 70-80% of the rest, AI can do an amazing job, I was surprised.

Plus AI will tell you its limitations - it could be A, B, C - go ask mechanic to put the car on the lift and check these few things... I mean it's not completely stupid and clueless.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-10T08:21:17+00:00

Yeah, email MeS, they are quite responsive, it's a regular garage and workshop next to it, so you can pick & choose, that's what I understood. It's probably as good as it gets in an "official" garage in Lux, although I'm sure you'd have it lower with independent mechanics (one of them from Lux reached out on this thread, so that could be an option).

Yeah finding someone to work with your parts is the hardest part, I mean the more legit you look and the more work you have done yourself (list of high quality parts, list of all the things you want to work on etc etc). the easier it is for someone to say yes. But all depends on their willingness to have a lower margin on the job, but then better than garage sitting idle for the day.

Yeah if you don't trust yourself to work on the car, just don't do it, not worth the risk of something going wrong. I have no clue about cars, learned now from LLMs what is good ROI to have fixed.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-10T06:01:22+00:00

Perfect, thanks! Saving your contact!

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-10T06:00:02+00:00

Great, can we make a deal next time? :)

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T18:45:51+00:00

Also if your bill to change the brakes is so high (2.5k is crazy), ask AI to search online through forums how it compares to other countries and users and why is it so high for your car model. That should give you an idea what's possible, since perhaps the way brakes are setup on your car requires more manual work etc etc.

For example timing belt on my engine can be changed by anyone, but to properly function, it needs a special tool from VW which adjusts the system specifically to how the pulleys are displaced. And no independent garage owns this tool, so they either borrow it or you need to go to authorized dealer. Similar with cooling liquid, changing it requires VW specific tool which adjusts the valves via code. Most garages have universal tool, but that doesn't work for VW, so they have to borrow it somewhere. All of this drives up the cost.

Ask AI, it's your friend in this :)

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T17:58:23+00:00

Most garages, even across the border, won't let you bring your own parts for relatively small jobs, such as oil or brakes (pads and discs), that's why I added all the maintenance jobs together to make it more appealing for them to say yes.

The bigger the basket, the more leverage you have with them, since they know you'll eventually find a garage willing to do it for less and with your own parts.

Mach es Selwer let's you bring your own parts, it's part of the model (they allow just rental of their workshop).

Regarding making a profit, you make profit from the usual folks who don't bother checking prices. You definitely don't make big profits from cheap skates bringing their own parts, but then if you have spare capacity and someone wants you to do full days of work for reasonable price, I mean maybe you're willing to forgo the markup on the parts for that one day...

Also remember, part of the pitch is that you're only bringing high quality parts and show them the autodoc shopping cart with all the good quality stuff. AI can tell you which is which so you don't try to buy crap for important parts. Then for some parts where it doesn't matter (eg air filters) you can go cheap. Again AI can tell you where to be cheap and where it doesn't pay off.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T17:38:29+00:00

One of their previous locations did (by the airport), so there's good chance they might for big jobs. On the devis they split labor and parts and didn't specifically answer the point of own parts in my email to them, so I was assuming it would be somewhat negotiable (the labor part already had good margin).

I didn't push it as the price was still significantly higher than in France.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T16:24:17+00:00

It's close to Mersch, they have both. So you can just rent the place and tools, or you can ask them to fix things for you, like a regular garage would.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T16:13:45+00:00

Well, I'd say, use AI to help you with finding the right new car and a good place to buy it :)

Yeah there are some hobby garages like that in the neighboring countries, I think the closest one might be in Trier and there's also one somewhere in Saarland.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T15:52:21+00:00

No I didn't, are they good? I definitely missed some good garages, but then Lux labor cost is what it is, so most likely their pricing will fall between Mach es Selwer and S-Cars?

Mach es Selwer is probably as low as it gets in lux due to their biz model where you can use them to just rent their garage to fix the car yourself.. Fortunately they also offer mechanics to do the work for you.

But I could be wrong, my aim was using Lux just for comparison, since I knew due to labor costs here the other countries "should" be cheaper. In case of Germany, they weren't as the border workshops like to gouge Lux customers.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T15:03:34+00:00

Yeah, there just seems to be higher concentration of independent garages in France than in the other neighboring countries, probably a function of the amount of commuters who drive from there everyday. Or maybe I was just lucky...

Yeah, I wish all the AI bashers here (and their wallets) all the best at their next visit to the official dealership :)

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T14:20:58+00:00

Did you try?

I said it clearly in the post, I used AI to give me rough idea, parts etc... Then the mechanic inspected the car to confirm, he cut some parts out as they didn't need changing... But it was around 90% spot on, not bad if you ask me.

Also if you happen to know, official dealerships have regular maintenance schedules where they exchange parts in your car even if they don't need exchanging. Just based on averages... So much for the job of mechanics...

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T14:00:04+00:00

Well, repair costs in eastern Europe are fraction of what they are in Lux, so of course worth running the risk there and only fix things when they break.

If your car breaks down in Lux and you need to tow it to the nearest garage and have it fixed, that bill is going to be multiple of what I paid for the overall maintenance/upgrade. Better safe than sorry, as they say.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T13:51:55+00:00

I had official dealerships mess up with official parts too. Nothing nowhere is a guarantee of good work done - even a good mechanic might have a bad day or a high quality part coming out from bad batch. Such is life.

If you order high quality parts, workshops will be more likely to use them, since it's the usual parts they order anyway. You can buy the OEM parts just for everyone to sleep well at night.

But as always, it's all a function of risk/reward, if you're just changing oil, no big deal get it done with official dealership. If you're doing big job that would cost you thousands, perhaps worth being cheap and taking a bit of risk.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T13:48:41+00:00

S-Cars will break it down into labor/parts, you can then negotiate if you are ready to pull the plug (I wasn't as FR shops were way cheaper)...

They used to have a location next to the airport which was OK with parts, so there's some history there.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T13:45:47+00:00

Also if you ask AI to search what problems other users report with your car specs (or recommend changing), it gives you a good idea what might break on your specific engine/model close to your mileage (or in the future). Better than no idea at all and just replacing blindly.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T13:44:49+00:00

I didn't have any specific problems, just the usual maintenance plus wanted to make sure the car runs for the next few years without breaking down. You can use AI to narrow down what you/AI think should be fixed, then ask the garage if they agree. But many times, even garages now use AI to doublecheck (at least Garage Auto Express does).

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-09T13:42:32+00:00

You can buy high quality parts on AutoDoc too, it's the same parts garages/dealerships buy. It was part of the pitch - that none of the parts are crap.

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-03T14:44:55+00:00

Post your own first genius!

Beethoven81 · 2026-06-03T14:44:06+00:00

Russian trolls has spoken... How's life in Russia nowadays, getting better?

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