About Auto Repair IQ
Data-driven cost estimates. No shop. No upsell.
"Most people walk into a repair shop with no idea what a fair price looks like. Auto Repair IQ fixes that - one data-driven estimate at a time."
What We Do
Auto Repair IQ is a free reference tool that gives you a realistic cost range before you step foot in a shop. Labor rates are sourced from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data; parts and vehicle-specific pricing are our own research (see "How Our Estimates Work" below for the honest breakdown). We cover 12 repair types across 123 vehicle model-years, in 97 major US cities -- 131,532+ specific estimates in total.
Not every repair applies to every vehicle, and we don't pretend otherwise: Timing Belt Replacement only applies to the specific vehicles that actually have a belt-driven engine. Most modern engines use a timing chain instead, which doesn't have a scheduled replacement interval the way a belt does -- those vehicles get Timing Chain Diagnosis & Repair estimates instead, priced for diagnosis and repair-on-failure rather than a maintenance schedule. So the total above isn't a flat repair-count × vehicle-count grid; it reflects that real mechanical variation.
Whether you drive a 2018 Honda Civic in Chicago or a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C-Class in San Francisco, we give you a credible ballpark so you can negotiate confidently, spot overcharging, and decide whether a repair is worth it.
How Our Estimates Work
Labor Rate Sourcing
Labor estimates start with median hourly wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, by metro area. We apply a standard industry loading factor (1.15–1.4x) for payroll taxes, workers' comp, and benefits, then a shop markup of 3–4x loaded technician cost — a convention documented in auto repair industry pricing guidance. Estimates are shown as a range, not a single figure. That's the hourly rate, and it's genuinely sourced. How many hours a job takes is a separate figure — see Parts & Labor-Hours.
Parts & Labor-Hours Pricing
Parts costs, and labor-hours estimates (how long each job is expected to take, as distinct from the hourly rate above), are internal editorial figures — not pulled from a published parts-pricing database or an industry-standard labor-time guide, and not verified against real shop quotes. We're working to bring these to the same standard as the labor rate above.
Vehicle Multipliers
Per-model cost adjustments (why a BMW repair costs more than a Toyota's) are also internal estimates rather than independently sourced data, for the same reason as parts and labor-hours pricing.
Plainly stated:both parts costs and labor-hours estimates on this site are internal editorial figures — not sourced from an industry-standard labor-time guide, not pulled from a published parts-pricing database, and not verified against real shop quotes. We checked this directly: comparing our own numbers against a competitor's (RepairPal's) published estimates, across 11 of our 12 repair types on 3 vehicles, found that most repair categories — Water Pump Replacement, Starter Motor Replacement, Catalytic Converter Replacement, Alternator Replacement, Radiator Replacement, AC Compressor Replacement, and Timing Chain Diagnosis & Repair — ran significantly below real-world pricing, by roughly 1.2x to 4.3x depending on the specific repair and vehicle. A smaller set of simpler, more standardized repairs — Oil Change, Serpentine Belt Replacement, and Battery Replacement — landed close to real-world pricing in the vehicles checked so far (within roughly 0.74x to 1.83x), though this has only been verified on a limited sample of 3 vehicles, not our full catalog, so read that as reassuring rather than fully confirmed. All seven of the confirmed-low repair types — Water Pump Replacement, Starter Motor Replacement, Catalytic Converter Replacement, Timing Chain Diagnosis & Repair, Alternator Replacement, Radiator Replacement, and AC Compressor Replacement — have since been re-sourced with real figures and no longer carry a placeholder estimate.
Re-sourcing complete for all 7 originally-confirmed-low repair types.Water Pump Replacement, Starter Motor Replacement, Catalytic Converter Replacement, Timing Chain Diagnosis & Repair, Alternator Replacement, Radiator Replacement, and AC Compressor Replacement have all been re-sourced with real, verified figures and no longer show the unverified-estimate banner on their own pages. Timing Chain Diagnosis & Repair was the most severe case originally found (roughly 3.6–4.3x below real-world pricing) — its figures no longer reuse Timing Belt Replacement's own labor-hours figure as a placeholder the way they did before this fix. AC Compressor Replacement was the last of the seven closed out; its own re-sourcing also surfaced a separate, still-open scope question — see the labor-rate methodology documentation for detail — which is a job-description accuracy question, not a pricing one, and doesn't reopen this repair type's pricing figures.
What Our Estimates Are - and Are Not
How to Use This Site
- Find your specific vehicle, repair type, and city from the homepage
- Review the cost range and understand what is included in the repair
- Decide if DIY makes sense for your skill level and the potential savings
- Use our estimate as a benchmark when getting quotes from local shops
- Always get at least 2-3 written quotes before authorizing any work
Affiliate Disclosure
Auto Repair IQ earns revenue through affiliate partnerships including Amazon Associates, automotive parts and service retailers. When you click a parts link and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. This helps us keep the site free and continuously updated. Our editorial content is not influenced by affiliate relationships.
Contact
Questions, data corrections, or partnership inquiries: hello@autorepairiq.repair