A few weeks ago I took my car in for its annual safety inspection. It failed. Apparently my front brake pads were a bit too thin (They were).

• Inspection cost: $16.00 (State Mandated Fee)
• Repair Cost: $340.00 (Replace pads, smooth & turn rotors)
• Repair Time: Next Day
• Cost to re-inspect vehicle: $1.00

Umm. No. $340.00 to replace brake pads? Are they kidding? I 've been fortunate enough to have my [step] dad Joe show me a lot of mechanical stuff back in the day. So I choose to replace them myself. I've done it a few times before and it doesn't cost $340.00 and it doesn't take over a day.

• High Quality Brake Pads from AutoZone: $45.14
• C-Clamp from Sears which was needed to more easily recede the brake cylinder: $4.00
• Time spent to replace front brake pads (and going to Sears and back): 2-3 hours.

It's an easy job, really.. less work than than replacing a flat tire actually. I didn't rotate the rotors or whatever but they didn't really seem to need it anyway. Car's been working fine for days. I took the car back to get re-inspected and it passed. Hurray! BTW, The repair shop has free WiFi. Weird.