Most of the time shops are finishing jobs way faster than the hourly rate. Brakes are a great example. I can do a set of brakes in my driveway with no power tools in 30-45 mins. Shop will charge you two hours labor and finish the job in 20 mins. That is the reality.
This is life what most people fail to realize it took me 30 years to learn to do the job in twenty minutes, efficiently and safely, without the possibility of a come back issue.
I've worked at almost a dozen shops. Your average tech is not racing to do a brake job in 20 minutes and you really shouldn't encourage it considering how important they are. And at my shop we have a torque wrench policy on all safety items. All those shops I worked at charged 1 to 1.5 hours per axle. That includes burnishing the pads.
A hourly book rate is based on a new vehicle right off the show room floor… Book rate on a 10 year old rig that has 200k on it is setting your self up for failure… I’ve spent as much time as book rate says on some items just breaking loose rusted bolts and dealing with already rounded off bolts… Every shop around here that charges book rate is 170-190 a hour…
Good point, with my 77 Camaro I had to break most of the bolts in the suspension because they were rusted. It took longer than expected. Now I see my 77 Camaro and take a deep breath before I work on it.
I just got quoted 1200. Dollars for three hours labor replacing an oem radiator and water pump which l bought a supplied for the job.the estimated labor was 3 hours, here in cali it works out to 400.00 an hour. Went somewhere else and paid 700.00
Thank you sir! Now, I understand where is my confusion. The double works! For example, when you go to the dealer for brake service, they can "suggest" you to replace rotors and pads at the same time, and this is when they can double their works at one serivce!
No, it's just good practice to replace rotors and pads at the same time. If you don't have the time customer will come back complaining of a brake squeak or the rotors will start to warp and get shaky.
If you buy the oem parts yourself and just putting these back on it should not be double billed,you are just doing the labor to finish the job,here in CA. Its not 100$ an hour it's 400.00 an hour.l was quoted 1200.00 dollars for a radiator and water pump replacement with me supplying the oem parts,Denso radiator and water pump on a 2.4 1997 tacoma.l saved 500.00 going somewhere else
Fantastic video. I'm on the same page . In our industry there so many different cars exp. I know German cars .and I don't work on American cars lol. A little easier the cars you know .
And they also send yall back to school for updating right? to learn new systems and stuff.think they also hire young bucks and teach them and send them to schools also.
Yeah they double charge. They charged me just labor $470 for an axle, tie rod, ball joint, axle seal and caliper. I thought labor rate per hour means labor rate per hours. They work on your vehicle and fix whatever and charge for the hours, instead they itemize every work done. Even though each work took less than 30 minutes
really its the mechanic that gets ripped off less you own your shop cause 98 percent of mechanics are flat rate pay with a slum boss that will try under pay the mechanic they make 165hr or more for labor and pay the mechanic 25hr out that and get the rest and top it off they want to charge 6 hr on a 12 hr job cause everything is just garbage or rusted you work on! so it takes twice as long so you loose quality cause the mechanic thats getting screwed is sick of going under and making the boss 10,000 a week to set on his ass and eat chips while you take care of the vehicle, customers, ordering parts and cost you that much more time and the shop also charges 60 percent or more mark up on the parts too. so if it a 500 dollar parts it would be billed to you as 800$ im start my own mobile shop and be reasonable with people. and do it on my own
Auto mechanics are very dishonest people. Yesterday at Big O Tire they charged me $1200 to replace both front wheels hub assembly in my 2004 Toyota Sienna using Moog parts. Today I discovered that they used cheap generic parts. Plus they charged me 4 hours of works but they finished the job in less than 2 hours. I know it because I was in the waiting room. I hate auto mechanics!
I work at a parts store, and in the first few days of training on the computer, I took classes for management by accident. One of the lessons was telling management to be wary of shops that charge full rate price for high end aftermarket or OEM and buy cheap garbage parts and pocket the difference. The mechanic does not see a penny of that ripoff, but the shop does. It isn't the mechanics that rip people off, it is often the shop owner and those in charge of billing. The mechanic gets his book time, but all of the overcharge of the parts goes to the owner.
