Kristi King, wtop.com

WASHINGTON — Next time your car needs repair, consider shopping around for estimates before committing to a particular shop. Prices can vary wildly.

Undercover price checks by Washington Consumers’ Checkbook reveal some astounding disparities at area repair shops.

“Some shops are 20 to 30 percent less expensive than the average shop in the area,” said Robert Krughoff, president of Consumers’ Checkbook. “And some are more 20 to 30 percent more expensive.”

Consider estimates to repair the right front assembly on a 2006 Honda CRV. Prices ranged between $667 and $1,222.

There are plenty of area shops that do good work for reasonable prices, however. Nearly 40 percent of the 598 area auto repair shops reviewed by more than 30,000 customers were rated “superior” for the quality of work.

Dealerships didn’t do particularly well in the Checkbook survey, though. Only 55 percent of customers surveyed evaluated their overall performance as superior. Non-dealer repair shops were rated superior on average by 80 percent of their customers.

Here are some examples of auto repair shops with high numbers of customer reviews that also earn Checkbook’s top rating for quality and price:

• On Capitol Hill — Distad’s BP Amoco at 823 Pennsylvania Avenue southeast
• Rockville — Auto Centro at 7420 Westmoreland Road
• Vienna — C & C Garage at 334 Dominion road Northeast

Checkbook as recommends writing down a detailed description of your vehicle’s symptoms and bringing it with you. Make sure the estimate refers to those symptoms, and ask that no work take place until you’ve approved it based on a written estimate.

Before paying your bill, review an itemized invoice including parts and labor. Pay by credit card. Notify the repair shop immediately in writing if you get your car home and discover it still has problems.

Follow “>WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)