Do you understand how repair labor is charged? Parts Mark-up?

To Toni R, The reason the dealers and large shops charge 80 or more an hour is their overhead expenses. They have to cover their building, training of the technicians, special tooling, computer diagnostics, car lifts, insurance (sometimes even for the employees), utilities, shop supplies (such as rags, hand cleaner, the little paper they put on the floor of your car to protect it plus more), etc. And then pay the service technician to work on your car, and plus make some money for them selves. Yes the home or small shop service repairman can charge less, but that usually means he has less overhead and most likely less experience. There is truth to the saying "you get what you pay for". I personally charge a hourly rate, but for my customers that is not a problem for them, they understand that I do not have the same experience as the dealer service technicians do, and in almost all cases they come out ahead in savings by using me. Other people want the car repaired by a dealership for they feel they have all of the knowledge about that car/truck. So I don't have the special tools, lifts, and specific knowledge about a particular car where the dealerships and big auto repair places do.

Here is how I determine how I'm gonna charge someone in my shop.....as the actual person working on your car.......I will punch you a time card, this card is for the time i worked on your car and your car only...when im done i will total that time card.....you will get charged a per hour dollar amount for this time. NOW with that in mind, when it comes to parts, I (as a shop owner) get a certain discount on ALL my parts, the discount that i get is no consern to what i sell it to you for. I simply take the suggested retail price and add 10%. this will be your cost. extra fees apply, via diagnostic check, ac recharges, anything hooked up to you car manually or elec. is gonna cost extra. Heres where the problem comes, people walk into a shop and say will you look at this and tell me what it will cost to fix it........in this case, heres what happens, The mechanic makes a quick assesment of what he THINKS is wrong with it, he'll total up what parts he thinks he needs, and then he'll look in the flate rate book to see the time it takes to do what he thinks is wrong, then give a dollar amount......In most cases when ya start working on it, it takes more time to fix other stuff thats gone wrong too that affects the out come...some times it takes more parts, more time....so when the guy goes to pay his bill he or she feels cheated cause the total is not even close to the estiment....You really have to look at the bill and understand what was done to you car to acheive this total....alot of people dont understand the work that was done and/or why, in this case you should take time to ask questions, its important as the owner to understand whats being done. Have the mechanic explain to you the work done and charges that apply. as for the cost of operating your own shop.......it cost me $27 in the summer...and $60 a day in the winter to stay open.....you get charged a heat charge for opening the door to bring your car in, in the winter....i charge a $1.00 a time.

I understand how it works but regardless as how it is charged.... I dont know many people who make $80 per hour, do u? I have a few mechanics in my family and they only make $25 ph. but thier shops charge $80 ph. I dont mind paying the exact amount and not an estimate. you should give a higher estimate so when we get the bill that we are excited that it was less.

The sign says $80 an hour -- not hard to understand. Some charges are flat rate like computer diagnosis. Whether they charge by the flat rate or by the book the rate is still $80 an hour. They use the book to determine cost if the job if it takes longer than one hour...

the average honest shops use labor time from all data,motor,or mitchell demand manuals. flat rate is use by car dealerships which is use for manufacture warranty. some independent shops (but not all) and all car dealers take advantage of customers when they found out there is no competition in their areas and overcharge the customers. parts are market up between 20 percent to 80 percents depend on demand and the areas where you at. this is nothing compares to home repair supplies or drug companies. they market it up to 300 percent. more repair shops around your areas will cut costs due to competitions.