When it comes to car repairs, Ebony Hawkins relies on her dad to make sure she’s not getting ripped off by an unscrupulous mechanic. But when Hawkins needed to get her car serviced and dad was out of town, she turned to RepairPal.

“It made me feel liberated,” said Hawkins about the new Web site, www.repairpal.com, that uses industry data not typically available to the public to give car owners estimates of how much repairs should cost. “I had the knowledge to go and say an air conditioning service costs this much,” said Hawkins.  

RepairPal, which went live roughly three weeks ago, culls data to determine how much every car repair will cost based on the region. RepairPal licensed information on how much it takes mechanics to repair something from an undisclosed data provider. The company will also alert users to what other parts may need to be replaced when getting a specific service.  

“Cars are really complex machines and the mechanic or shop is always at an information advantage versus the consumer,” said David Sturtz, co-founder and chief executive of RepairPal of Emeryville, Calif. “I’ve worked with cars for 25 years and when bringing one of my vehicles for service I don’t know if I’m getting a reasonable deal.”

According to the Better Business Bureau, it received more than 12,000 complaints last year about auto repairs. That’s up 10% from 10,882 in 2006. Complaints for repairs declined in both 2004 and 2005 but started to climb in 2006.

Visitors to RepairPal are asked to choose the model, make and year of their car and then pick from an expansive list of services. Seconds later, the user gets an estimate based on the zip code. The repair estimate comes in a range of highest and lowest and breaks out how much the parts cost opposed to the labor. RepairPal also provides a list of shops in the area and information about the repair. For example to replace the front brake pads on a 2004 Acura RSX will cost between $154 and $256 with the parts costing from $48 to $121 and the labor ranging from $106 to $135, according to RepairPal. The service is free to consumers. RepairPal makes money from advertising.

For a fee of $9 to $30, depending on the level of complexity, users can ask certified mechanics a question and get an answer online. RepairPal also has an auto-repair encyclopedia and a web page where users can house all of their records and get e-mail reminders, safety alerts, recalls and discount offers.

“It’s very difficult for consumers to get comparative prices” on car repairs, said Sturtz, who started toying with the idea of RepairPal 10 years ago. After years of working on Wall Street, about a year-and-a-half ago Sturtz began creating RepairPal along with co-founder David Esser. “We’ve done pretty extensive pricing surveys and found pricing is all over the place,” he said.  

Indeed, Hawkins, who turned to RepairPal for an estimate on a wheel alignment and air conditioning service, said she has been burned in the past by mechanics. In at least three instances, Hawkins said she was quoted prices on repairs, and, when her dad would call the same shop minutes later, he would get estimates that were $100 to $200 cheaper.  “Not knowing and it being a car, you want to make sure everything runs properly,” she said.

According Sturtz, RepairPal has had success since its launch. He said one female user managed to save $1,300 on a bogus repair. “There’s been lots of really positive feedback,’’ he said.

But how do mechanics feel about a service that tries to take the guesswork out of an industry known for huge price disparities? Sturtz said the honest mechanics love it since RepairPal provides listing of local shops. As for the shady mechanics, it’s a different story.

“If you’re a swindler you don’t want transparency,’’ said Sturtz. “A lot of honest mechanics hate the fact that every time they have a conversation with a customer the customer doubts the mechanic’s integrity.”