Am I out of touch?

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I see you're posting from Illinois. I'm in Maryland, another over regulated state, and the labor prices here are similar or more. Any discussion of labor cost is pointless unless you consider the location of the shop.

The hazardous waste fee is not just for fluid disposal. It includes the cost of demonstrating compliance, the price of handling the red tape.
 
$750 is about right, I'm on my third steering rack with my Chevy they last about 50k miles.

If you DIY I recommend spending $450ish for a brand new GM rack, I have had less than satisfactory results with rebuilds.

At a dealer its a bit over a grand repair, and my local Mercedes dealer gets $125 an hour, GM is $105.
 
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Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
At a dealer its a bit over a grand repair, and my local Mercedes dealer gets $125 an hour, GM is $105.


The Mercedes dealer I went to also had a free breakfast/lunch counter when getting service did yours? It makes up for a little bit of the higher price...
 
I would say the prices you were quoted are both fair and typical. It varies by market of course, but even down here, $85 an hour is a dirt cheap labor rate. I haven't seen a labor rate below $90 an hour in years.

As for the parts cost, I would always expect shop prices to be above retail. They are doing the legwork to get the part so you don't have to run around doing it, and they probably aren't getting a huge break on it.

As you have seen, to all the shops in that area, the job is worth $7XX to them. If the job was a great deal for them at $600, they would make that offer in a heartbeat to get you to use them instead of the other shops.
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
At a dealer its a bit over a grand repair, and my local Mercedes dealer gets $125 an hour, GM is $105.


The Mercedes dealer I went to also had a free breakfast/lunch counter when getting service did yours? It makes up for a little bit of the higher price...


I need to in factor free food when buying a new car with complementary service next time. So I don't have to bring in my car on a full tummy.

Anyways try ATP AT-205 Reseal. I wish I've tried it in my original rack, the reman rack I have in right now is leaking small drops and I'm trying to see if it that stops it.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
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.


Where in Texas are you? $85/hr isn't overpriced from what I've seen from working in shops.
 
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Originally Posted By: Danh
As an alternative, how about trying something like Valvoline MaxLife power steering fluid? If your leaky seal is just old and brittle rather than damaged, this could slow or eliminate the problem. Worth a try compared to $ 750.


It did not work initially on mine when I first put it in (almost a year, and 8K miles ago), but it seems to have stopped leaking altogether now.
I don't know if it was the seal swellers in the Max Life, or if it is the recent cold weather overly thickening the fluid, or BOTH, but it is not losing any over time now.

My 180K+, MUCH abused (autocrosses/open tracking on very sticky tires, daily driven hard in ALL weather conditions on BAD roads) steering rack, which owes me NOTHING, (despite all of the very easily driven Camry owners who will come on here to say it does owe me something since they got > 500K miles out of theirs on hard all seasons- LOL) needs to be replaced anyway come spring since it just feels 'loose' now.

I just wish that someone made a quicker ratio, aftermarket steering rack for these cars, so I could do a performance upgrade at the same time, and get an even quicker yet 'turn-in' response.
19.gif
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
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.


He priced a rack at NAPA for $250, Shop's retail is $380. Roughly a 50% mark-up. That is perfectly legal (And Fair!). Above 50% is not fair or ethical, But still not illegal!


$85 per hour labor rate is also very fair, A seasoned tech gets roughly half that & has 70K invested in tools alone, And the fact this field is very hard on your body & health.....
The overhead at a auto repair shop is high, The only really well off shop owners I know own the building & land the shop is on & worked their butts off to build the business & cliental.

"§17.46(b) of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act provides that it is a false, misleading or deceptive act or practice to take advantage of a disaster declared by the Governor under Chapter 418, Government Code, by:
1. Selling or leasing fuel, food, medicine or another necessity at an exorbitant or excessive price; or
2. Demanding an exorbitant or excessive price in connection with the sale or lease of fuel, food, medicine or another necessity"

Your Lawyer friend was blowing smoke & like most lawyers, was bending the word of the law to his favor by making the shop believe they cannot mark-up parts.
 
Local dealers here are between $150-$180/hr.

The tire shops and other chain shops are at $140/hr.

My friend's home garage is at $80/hr and he has a long long waiting list.
 
That's it, I've held off long enough...this thread needs a little Hall and Oates. My god is this video awful.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
That's it, I've held off long enough...this thread needs a little Hall and Oates. My god is this video awful.




Oats is awesome!!
11.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Danh
As an alternative, how about trying something like Valvoline MaxLife power steering fluid?


If my power steering uses type F transmission fluid, can I even get a high mileage version of that? I don't see any on the internet.
 
[
When did the hourly rate of working on an 11 year old Chevy pickup truck become the same rate of working on a BMW or a Mercedes?

I'll tell you what I told people who wanted to know why it cost so much to work on their moped or old motorcycle. When I go to the grocery store I can't say I worked on old mopeds all week long, will you sell me bread for .10 a loaf.
Time is money!
YMMV
Smoky
 
The hr rate posted seems reasonable, but the other fees seem high.
The parts cost seems a bit high as well but not totally outrageous.

Thing is IF this shop does competent work and is honest (won't
do slimy and criminal things like break other items while the car is in the the rack to rip you off ) I would use them.

Honest and competent shops are a needle in a haystack fine today. If the price is reasonable or even a bit high but they are trustworthy use them. You might thing you are saving a few dollars at a shop down the street but in the end they will cheap you and rip you off in the long run.
 
Remember, with an AAP 35% code it costs $153.89, but you'll still need an alignment afterwards. They're not that hard to install, I personally didn't know a full size GM pickup had a rack-another reason not to buy a newer one.
 
"When did the hourly rate of working on an 11 year old Chevy pickup truck become the same rate of working on a BMW or a Mercedes? "

When most of America started living on government handouts.
 
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The higher hourly rate wouldn't have risen so much, if the dollar wasn't reduced in value.

Be careful what P/S rack you buy. If you see one that is carelessly sprayed with black paint, stay away. Those only last about 1 year. A rack that was rebuilt by the OEM is totally worth it.

Also, rebuilding P/S racks has gotten less expensive over time, thanks to innovation. Mom had a 1985 Nissan Maxima, and the price to replace all that stuff was $1200 back in 1989.
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
At a dealer its a bit over a grand repair, and my local Mercedes dealer gets $125 an hour, GM is $105.


The Mercedes dealer I went to also had a free breakfast/lunch counter when getting service did yours? It makes up for a little bit of the higher price...


Mine always gave me a loaner, for awhile they were GM than they switched to Mercedes. I never had to wait. The one time I brought my truck to a dealer for service I was informed they didn't do loaners.

Having dealt with both GM dealers are not a bargain, their parts support is a joke compared to Mercedes and their parts prices are higher.

My next truck will be a Ram so I'll see how FCA dealers are. So far Mercedes and Lexus are very good, I have not been to impressed with my dealings with Ford or GM, Toyota is so so.
 
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