Prices of things

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it can be really helpful when you know when you're getting ripped of and I want to prevent you from being ripped off.

So I thought I'd start listing off services/items and prices that I've encountered (and I'll put in parentheses the location of those prices, since they can change dramatically from city to city).

Services:
Car

• Smog Check: $40 (including certificate). After searching around for the cheapest possible smog check I found this place in San Rafael in the Canal Area. A lot of places will advertise a price and then say +certificate, which is always about $10 extra. So for Marin I think $40 is the cheapest you'll find. Other counties are probably cheaper.
• Diagnostic (of an old car): $99. I didn't do as much research as I should have for this diagnostic, but $99 seemed to be the going rate.  They would have given me a free diagnostic if I had a new/fancy car that the computer/machine could read easily, but alas the machine could not read my car's check engine light. =(
• Oil Change: $30. Not many places in Marin County will offer an oil change for $30, but I found one. Though I wouldn't recommend it, my car fell apart shortly after, and I'm just not sure about them anymore. Plus they tried to tell me I needed to get all these things fixed and it was going to cost tons of money. I hate when mechanics do that!

Ok that's it for now. Please, please, please let me know if you have found different rates/prices for things or know something I don't about these services!