How Many Dollars Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

The low beam bulb on my 2007 Saab went out the other day. Herein is a report on the cost of replacing it. My adventure was unnecessarily costly but what I learned might be instructive to readers. Just scroll to the final paragraph if you want to know who was most expensive and who was free.

During my sixteen years of living in Easton I have owned a number of and older Saabs. Many lived up to their reputation and thus I have had plenty of opportunities to get to know both our two local Saab/Cadillac dealers and also a good independent mechanic. Who can best take care of my car? The headlight adventure provided a definitive answer.

I was on Rte. 22 heading to Reading when the “left low beam failure” light flashed below the dashboard instruments. Faulkner Saab was ahead of me but I hesitated. Just a week earlier the odometer was approaching 30,000 miles so I had called Faulkner’s service department to ask for the cost of this service. “About $500,” came the answer from the Saab service manager.

Forget about that, I thought to myself, and proceeded to call Ted Salmay at Dave’s Service Center in Palmer. People recommended Dave’s to me in 1995 and this little local place has always been reliable and reasonably priced—better than that: it has been dependable and inexpensive. 

When I brought my Saab (it’s red, if you want to picture it) into Ted he checked his computer and… what? There is NO 30,000 mile service requirement. It goes from 20,000 to 40,000. I checked the service manual that comes with the car (duh) and sure enough Saab’s official literature confirms this. Of course I’ll change the oil every 5000 miles, but that surely won’t cost “about $500.” What was going on at Faulkner?

Well, it was convenient for me to stop there for the bulb and I had to get to Reading for a guest teaching stint (and would be returning home after dark) so I took a chance and turned off the highway at Rte 512 and headed for Faulkner, hoping they’d take me right away and fulfill an expectation that Dave had given me years ago when I told him about changing a headlight bulb on my old Saab 9000. Dave had laughed at me and said he changes headlight bulbs for free—as a service to his customers. Kinda like jewelers and watch batteries I now realize.

Would Faulkner take me without an appointment? And how would they treat me? I was about to find out. Good luck. A mechanic was sitting on a stool next to Mike, the service manager, waiting for business. He took my “key” and assured me he’d have my car back to me “in five minutes.” And he did. That’s when my unhappiness began. He sent me to the cashier’s counter to pay. She looked up the tab and announced, “That will be $73.30.” What?!!! Yes. “$20 for the bulb; the rest for labor.” Off I headed for Reading, feeling fleeced.

The light bulb itself gave more satisfaction than traffic both ways on Rte 222 but that was no comfort. And it doesn’t get any better. Lightening struck twice. Two days ago the other low beam bulb went out. “Huh?” I thought. “Why didn’t Faulkner ask if I wanted to replace both bulbs, once I was there—assuming they’d have a similar life expectancy?”

Well, always hoping to turn a lemon into lemonade I headed this time to Scott Saab in Emmaus—the other dealership where I am a frequent customer. (They had sold my wife her red Saab and know us both.) This time I was in no hurry and, made wise by Faulkner, asked first. Josh, the service manager gave me an accurate estimate, “$15 for the bulb and about $25 for labor.”

A few days later I went to on Nicholas St. in Palmer for that 30,000 mile oil change and check up. (Yes, in the end it cost over $300 LESS than the price Faulkner had quoted me.) I asked Ted, who had bought Dave’s from Dave when Dave retired, what he’d have charged me for a new bulb. Ted confirmed that he continues the same policy he inherited from Dave. No charge to his regular customers.

Unhappy to have been fleeced and curious as to how Mr. Faulkner would react to my experiences, I returned to the Bethlehem dealership and spoke with Bob, the general service manager. Bob took me to his office and listened attentively. He was very kind and respectful.

He had no answer to why Faulkner charged 33% more for the bulb than Scott, except to say that different dealerships mark parts up differently. As for the labor charge, he hypothesized that Scott Saab had charged me for a third of an hour while Faulkner had charged for a half hour. He also acknowledged that it is true that independent mechanics often do not charge for replacing such things as headlights. He had no answer to why I was charged for a half hour of labor for a job that the mechanic himself had correctly said would take five minutes. He did say that, had they changed the bulb in the course of a full service, the labor charge might have been lower.

He checked my file in his computer and was audibly startled to see how many Saabs I had owned and had serviced there. He offered to “refund some of the labor cost.” I had told him at the very start of our conversation that I was writing a column for Patch and that that was why I had come—to hear his understanding of whether I’d been treated fairly. I declined his offer. We continued to discuss additional issues and, in the course of this discussion he offered to refund my entire labor charge. Again I declined. I was there to write up my experience, not to extort, or appear to extort, money from the dealership. Bob concluded with a sincere apology, saying that the service manager or mechanic should have walked me to the cashier and explained the charges on the bill. Sorry. This would not have made me feel better about a $73 bulb change.

So, the final tally, for readers who may have to choose some day where to take their car for a headlight bulb change:  Faulkner, $73.30. Scott Saab, $41.84. Dave’s Service Center, $0.00. See you again soon, Ted.