Unfair costs in car repairs

[Profpointy]

If I choose to pay a plasterer to plaster my walls, I do it because he can do it far quicker and to a far far higher standard than I could dream of doing it. And even if his hourly rate was four times mine I'd still be ahead paying him to do it.

I am not forced to hire from the plasterers' guild who have a monopoly on plaster @ £400 a bag - justified to cover the overhead of the plaster showroom.

 

[screenman]

Robins & Day do not make a lot of money for the turnover they do, regardless of who owns them, they were for a while a customer of mine.

 

[screenman]

So here is a question, once you have saved all this money and put people out of work, what happens then? By the way I charged a main agent £140 this morning for an hour playing around with dents, so no wonder they have to charge a bit.

 

[Profpointy]

So here is a question, once you have saved all this money and put people out of work, what happens then? By the way I charged a main agent £140 this morning for an hour playing around with dents, so no wonder they have to charge a bit.

You've not thought this through. If things are cheaper you can spend the money in something else, which itself creates jobs. If the money spent is merely a rip off / overcharge then that is simply a transfer of money from you to them. If it's for a true value-add - the "labour creating value" of, dare I say Marx, then actual wealth has been created as well as the money transferred.

 

[screenman]

You've not thought this through. If things are cheaper you can spend the money in something else, which itself creates jobs. If the money spent is merely a rip off / overcharge then that is simply a transfer of money from you to them. If it's for a true value-add - the "labour creating value" of, dare I say Marx, then actual wealth has been created as well as the money transferred.

It is not a rip off in many cases, it is the cost of doing business.

 

[mjr]

Robins & Day do not make a lot of money for the turnover they do, regardless of who owns them, they were for a while a customer of mine.

Part of the reason they don't "make a lot of money for the turnover they do" is partly because that turnover almost certainly includes intragroup pricing to export the profits before they can be taxed here.

It is not a rip off in many cases, it is the cost of doing business.

There is a difference between "the cost of doing business" (£140 for an hour of dent specialist work) and "a rip off" (refusing to sell a £22 spring and instead expecting someone to spend £350 to fit a new unit).

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

30 seconds work plus paying to open the place, and the receptionist, and get mechanics off other jobs, and other overheads.

Mechanics don't make a lot of money, and garages aren't rolling around with their pots of gold.

If you're going to a car dealer rather than an independent garage you also need to consider the rest of their business plan. They have to pay for all the sales staff too, and the space for a show room, and there's not a lot of profit in selling cars. So that money also needs to be made by the workshops.

Even though they charge more per hour than a barrister...

A survey reveals that motorists are frequently paying more than £100 an hour for labour at car dealers franchised by manufacturers.

Hourly rates vary across the country, from £49 for Vauxhall in Scotland to £140 for BMW in London.

Steve Fowler, the group editor of What Car?, which conducted the survey, pointed out that a locum doctor charging between £350 and £500 a day is cheaper. Even a criminal law junior barrister will charge as little as £30 an hour, he says.

The report reveals that replacing a main-beam bulb on an Audi A2 can cost up to £66, with the bulb costing just £3.96. A full service on an Audi A4 can cost as much as £440 in London and as little as £220 in Scotland. For a BMW 318 a similar service costs £165 in Bristol, but £370 in London.

The cheapest car to service was the Ford Focus 1.6 - £110 in Scotland but £195 in London.
(old link I know)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/car-mechanics-charge-more-than-barristers-345941.html

 

[Profpointy]

It is not a rip off in many cases, it is the cost of doing business.

Paying for a service is one thing. Being forced to pay quite a lot for a reset is more or less ransomware. Basically you have to pay to be allowed to continue to use something you previously thought you'd bought.

 

[nickyboy]

So here is a question, once you have saved all this money and put people out of work, what happens then? By the way I charged a main agent £140 this morning for an hour playing around with dents, so no wonder they have to charge a bit.

Main agents carry a lot of overhead that doesn't directly add value but has to be paid for. There is an expectation that a main agent has big, fancy premises in a nice part of town, a receptionist, swish coffee machine etc etc. All has to be paid for by the customer

I prefer to go to the lean and mean local garage. No receptionist. No coffee. Folk are free to get work done wherever but there is a heck of a lot of non-value added overhead at a main agent that customers have to pay for

As others have said, the money I save by doing so I then spend on something else which, in itself, creates employment

 

[mustang1]

A friend's car required a £7 (seven) part. The labour to install it was £700 (seven hundred).

 

[PhilDawson8270]

A friend's car required a £7 (seven) part. The labour to install it was £700 (seven hundred).

What was the part?

A wrist pin circlip would only be a few quid but could cost into 4 digits to install.

 

[Smokin Joe]

A friend scrapped a car because the wiper motor bust. Part was only slightly costly at 50 quid or whatever but you had to take half the car apart to get at it which would have been £1500. French car needless to say

I once scrapped a Capri because of a faulty spark plug.

A piston hit it

 

[screenman]

A barrister need a cheap office and a desk, I doubt their insurance is £50,000 a year and rates the same.

 

[Profpointy]

A barrister need a cheap office and a desk, I doubt their insurance is £50,000 a year and rates the same.

Whilst I wouldn't as a rule defend barristers' fees , I do suspect his chambers in Licoln's Inn cost as much as a car showroom in the suburbs. I also suspect a single car mechanic's liability insurance would be rather less than a QC's

 

[screenman]

Whilst I wouldn't as a rule defend barristers' fees , I do suspect his chambers in Licoln's Inn cost as much as a car showroom in the suburbs. I also suspect a single car mechanic's liability insurance would be rather less than a QC's

A single mechanic maybe, a whole dealers worth not so, out of interest my insurance with 20+ years no claims runs at £1200 a year just for me and my car.