Editorial policy

What counts as a source

Labor times come from the service bulletins and recall instructions that automakers file with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, each recorded with its number and address. Wages come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the spread of posted shop rates from a published industry survey, price changes from the consumer price index, parts prices from a public online catalog read on a named day. State rules come from the statutes and the agencies of each state. Pages written by shops, parts sellers, warranty companies or lenders are read to know what drivers ask, never as a source of a number. Commercial labor time guides and repair cost databases sold under license are not used or copied.

How a cost reaches a page

No cost is typed into the text. A script reads the raw files and writes the hours by repair and vehicle type, the wages by state and the parts by reference vehicle; the pages compute every figure from those files when the site is built. A repair whose part has no public price is shown as labor only, with a field for the reader's own figure.

No diagnosis, no shop

The site prices a repair once the fault is known; it never says what is wrong with a car or which repair it needs. That is the job of a mechanic who has seen the car. The site names no shop, chain, part brand or warranty and earns nothing from any.

What is to come is labeled

A wage release, a survey or a state rule announced but not yet published or in force is shown as to come, with its date, never as current. A figure we cannot trace to a public document is not published.

Independence

Radif Partners receives nothing from repair shops, dealers, parts sellers, warranty companies, insurers, lenders or lead buyers and links to none of them. There is no advertising today; if some is added it will be labeled, limited to three places a page, and never placed above a calculator.

Review and corrections

The site is reviewed at least every 12 months, and when the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a new wage edition or a new shop rate survey appears; parts prices are read again at each review. A reported error is checked against the source and, once fixed, moves the date shown on the page. Write through the contact page; the steps are on the method page.