Am I out of touch?

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Yep.

Now compare paying what seems like an outrageous amount against either trading a vehicle every 10 years or less, so as to avoid such costs; or keeping a spare vehicle around (ins and reg) so that you could repair this on the weekends (in case this is a daily driver and downtime is verboten).
 
It's upon the consumer to determine if the pricing is fair to "run a business" versus pay for a mansion and boat.

It's on the consumer to determine that, and to NOT pay if they think it is excessive. The consumer may or may not be right. The consumer can lay on their backin freezing weather if desired.

I don't have any issue with the quote in terms of labor. The part may or may not be more expensive than AZ. Is it a dealer sourced item? Quality? Warranty?

The only thing I'd have an issue with is the puddly fees at the end. Those are notionally "overhead" costs that should be at least partially included in the fully burdened cost of labor to do the job.

That said, the piddly fees are what, <10% of the job? They may be making the owner's boat payment, and you can haggle for them. They do need to work to eat. You're free to take the job elsewhere and theyre free to deny the job...
 
Originally Posted By: supton
Yep.

Now compare paying what seems like an outrageous amount against either trading a vehicle every 10 years or less, so as to avoid such costs; or keeping a spare vehicle around (ins and reg) so that you could repair this on the weekends (in case this is a daily driver and downtime is verboten).
Better to rent a car than have a spare vehicle.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
Originally Posted By: supton
Yep.

Now compare paying what seems like an outrageous amount against either trading a vehicle every 10 years or less, so as to avoid such costs; or keeping a spare vehicle around (ins and reg) so that you could repair this on the weekends (in case this is a daily driver and downtime is verboten).
Better to rent a car than have a spare vehicle.


Sure. Who drives you to get the rental? It's 35 miles each way for me.
 
Originally Posted By: supton
Who drives you to get the rental?


"Enterprise. We'll pick you up."
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
One thing to note... you're not comparing apples to apples here. Your costs might look something like:
Steering rack: $235
Alignment: $75
PSF: $5
Parts Cleaner: $5
Tax: $16
Total: $336

Given this, it is perfectly fair, actually even lot more than fair! If something were to cost me $100 by doing myself vs paying somebody else $200, I would consider it a bargain.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: supton
Who drives you to get the rental?


"Enterprise. We'll pick you up."
smile.gif



I should call them someday and see if they would deliver. That would be a hoot if they did. I'd have to rethink my fleet if that was possible.

Sad thing is that I drive near that area every day on the way to work. For a while I really wanted to like my Toyota dealer, as it was on the way to work. But in the end, it's cheaper to wrench on my own. Pick up whatever I need on the way home, or mail order it.
 
Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: CT8
Originally Posted By: supton
Yep.

Now compare paying what seems like an outrageous amount against either trading a vehicle every 10 years or less, so as to avoid such costs; or keeping a spare vehicle around (ins and reg) so that you could repair this on the weekends (in case this is a daily driver and downtime is verboten).
Better to rent a car than have a spare vehicle.


Sure. Who drives you to get the rental? It's 35 miles each way for me.


I struggle with this one a lot. Plus what hours is the rental place open - the local one here opens a good hour after we need to be on the road. I'm sure I'd save $$$ if we didn't have a third, but the convenience with us both driving to work is pretty valuable, especially when the 3rd is close to worthless.
 
I would try a few bottles of the Lucas stop leak and fill with the Maxlife PSF. Save the $700 for your next truck.
 
I'm curious, at what price would you consider it reasonable for a job to charge for this service?

Not a judgment, just curious.
 
That labor rate is cheap. I think my work was that low when I first worked there 11 years ago. We are $140 an hour labor now and have a waiting list.
 
I was pleasantly surprised how cheap a decent body shop is though, at $60/hour. My independent garage is $85-90/hour.
I guess I can more easily do some basic part swapping on my driveway, but amateur bodywork and paint in the great outdoors has never gone well for me.
 
Means you should just buy a Mercedes. I thought mine was somewhat reasonable at $125/hr, my indy charges $80 and there's a few guys I've found on craigslist that only charge $30-$40/hr, but they don't have as many tools and can't do certain things like welding/exhaust. The indy is decent though, he doesn't charge for shop supplies so if he uses a few bolts or has to spray things down, it's all in the hourly rate. The indy also lets me bring my own parts and I just get them from Advance Auto or rockauto. Is that rack price with a $50 off discount code? Or if you can wait, what's the price on rockauto or Amazon? Find another indy on craigslist, I just check to make sure they're ASE certified.
 
You're not crazy, things have gone up...

I've seen shops in MI starting charging over 100 bucks an hour, when it's been more recently around 80....


In my case, I bring my own parts when I can. They charge a bit extra in labor for that, but it does save some money...
 
Find somebody else. That labor rate is high (dealerships here don't even charge that much) plus them marking up the parts like that. Shops get their parts at a pretty sweet discount,the way they should make money on the part is to buy it at their discount and then charge you retail price. Here in Texas thats a crime to mark up a part like that to gouge the customer (attorney friend of mine busted a shop trying to do that and was going to take them to court,and they of course admitted to it and backed down). The laws there may be completely different though.
 
Don't forget when they mark up the part, they are also warrantying it. If the new part leaks, they are stuck doing the job all over again. There is a slight chance they'll get a labor credit from the place they got it from, but that's unlikely and generally doesn't cover their labor.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Don't forget when they mark up the part, they are also warrantying it. If the new part leaks, they are stuck doing the job all over again. There is a slight chance they'll get a labor credit from the place they got it from, but that's unlikely and generally doesn't cover their labor.


Now that's a fair point to make, and I didn't think of that. The fact that they have to eat the cost of labor if it fails w/i whatever window of time they warranty the repair for.

But if they just charged the same price that you or I would pay for the parts, and bumped their labor charge... Same difference? I guess you could hide that cost any which way, reality is each job needs to have a bit extra bit into it, depending upon the likelyhood of having to do it all over again, but for free.
 
I think the mark up more than covers the possibility that it might fail. Plus they probably only warranty the work for 6 months to a year. If it fails after that, you'd have to pay labor again. Usually when I buy the part, I get the lifetime warranty and I've used them several times as I tend to keep my cars for 8-10 years, most manufacturers are only thinking you'll keep it for 3-5 years so most don't end up cashing in on the warranty.
 
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