Repairpal.com Review

I recently came across repairpal.com on my quest to find out how much it would cost to fix my car. I didn't want to just take it to any San Diego auto repair store so I figured I try online first. The website had both it's ups and downs but first let me first give you a little background on what was going on.

I took my Ford F-150 to autozone the other day because my check engine light came on. I know it's still under warranty right now but only for another 1,000 miles so I figured I better get it in soon. After going to autozone and having them hook it up to their machine, they told me it was the coolant temperature censor. Now I really have no idea what that is and how much that would cost so I figured I should look it up prior to taking it in. I do think i have a deductible if I remember correctly.

Now if you haven't noticed, auto mechanics have a tendency to rip people off and overcharge them for certain things. So I went online to find quotes so I knew what to expect when I brought in my car. When I came across repairpal.com, my first thought was "cool, I can get an estimate right here". I typed in my cars make model and year and then it asked me to choose a type or repair. So I'm looking through the list trying to find coolant temperature censor but couldn't find it. Then I saw the search box and thought "ok, let's try that". So I typed it in a guess what...still nothing. Everything just got greyed out. I tried a few different categories thinking maybe it would be there. I thought wrong. I eventually gave up and and went back to google. Maybe it was just me or maybe not. When I see a search box though it should do an actual search and not just eliminate categories base on the word you type in. That's really my only complaint about the site.

There are a few things though that I did like about repairpal.com. For instance, you don't need to register or anything to get an estimate. It's a very clean and simple site to use. I've seen some sites that make it almost impossible to do anything on. It also tells you what places are near you so you don't have to do a separate search on that.

So the bottom line is, if you need your coolant temperature censor replaced, repairpal.com might not help you. Although, there are about 50-60 other categories to choose from so you might be in luck if say you needed a power steering pressure hose. I guess I just happened to have the one problem not listed on their website. Lucky me!

I would recommend checking out the auto shop first because it only takes a second and who knows, they might be able to help you. It definitely beats searching google for a hour.