What would you class as 'reasonable'?

Today I was charged £60 which was an hours labour. Well it wasn't, it was probably less than 15 mins work. This was by an Indy and not a main dealer.

What rates do Dealers charge?

Think labour charges are Minimum of first hour, so if it's 10 minutes or 59 it's still an hour's charge

 

Dealers, at least a Trillion

Yeah I understand that, just wondered how the prices vary across the country.

Is £60 really too much? I feel it is a lot..

Lets just say, my cars in for a service tomorrow at the steelers dealers and I asked about an air filter £20 ish to buy, £30 fitted, Make your own mind up

 

I'll fit my own thanks

It will not just vary across the country, it will vary across your town and depend on what a Independent or Dealer works on.

 

It was not £60 an hour if it was a VAT Registered Garage,

it was £50 Labour plus 20% VAT.

 

Best ask the Labour Rate before getting work done.

Sometimes the Labour might be a Bargain, and then all Fluids etc can be charged for.

 

so sometimes a Straight 1 hours labour charge can be a bargain.

If someone does a Diagnostic, Plugs the car in, uses Equipment, paying just the Labour can be a saving. IMO.

 

I would rather someone experienced takes 15 minutes and knows what they are doing,

rather than someone that requires trial and error and replacing parts and takes 90 minutes.

Edited 1 December, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

What was the work carried out?

It will not just vary across the country, it will vary across your town and depend on what a Independent or Dealer works on.

 

It was not £60 an hour if it was a VAT Registered Garage,

it was £50 Labour plus 20% VAT.

 

Best ask the Labour Rate before getting work done.

Sometimes the Labour might be a Bargain, and then all Fluids etc can be charged for.

 

so sometimes a Straight 1 hours labour charge can be a bargain.

If someone does a Diagnostic, Plugs the car in, uses Equipment, paying just the Labour can be a saving. IMO.

Exactly for instance where I work on servicing jobs charge per job.

For instance to service an E60 M5 we charge around £650 iirc which gets all genuine parts. BMW charge nearer to £1000 for the same service.

What was the work carried out?

Clearing the engine management light. Making a note of the errors.

It was more a thread on how much a garage should charge as a labour rate. Dealers are generally more expensive?

Clearing the engine management light. Making a note of the errors.

It was more a thread on how much a garage should charge as a labour rate. Dealers are generally more expensive?

You're lucky some places charge a lot more for a simple diagnostic check

£60 per hour at an indy sounds about right. Not my area but I think our labour rate is ~£95 per hour. I've heard of rates up to £120 p/h in a few areas down here for Skodas.

Think labour charges are Minimum of first hour, so if it's 10 minutes or 59 it's still an hour's charge

 

Dealers, at least a Trillion

 

My local main dealer (All Electric King's Heath), charges £18.12 + VAT labour to change a battery.

I'm guessing that's 1/4 hour.

Clearing the engine management light. Making a note of the errors.

It was more a thread on how much a garage should charge as a labour rate. Dealers are generally more expensive?

VW wanted £75 to diagnose a faulty brake light switch on a polo, plus parts, plus fitting, plus vat.

So i chanced it. Bought the part from a motor factors and fitted it myself. £8 plus literally about 2 minutes to fit.

It did pay off. Muchly. . All good now .

Vasstech is £40 per hour, and they do half hours too.

I think £50 plus VAT is sensible.

Payable per half hour.

 

Dealers wil always charge what they can get away with.

When I had the Range Rover the local main dealer was £120 per hour.  Three years ago.

Looks wonderful.

 

http://thevasstech.com/services

Edited 1 December, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

I think £50 plus VAT is sensible.

Payable per half hour.

 

Dealers wil always charge what they can get away with.

When I had the Range Rover the local main dealer was £120 per hour.  Three years ago.

The thing is that most of the people who take the car to the dealers would keep doing so to get the stamps / warranty which means the customers who would come back will and you can bump the prices up as you then have a captive audience.

Clearing the engine management light. Making a note of the errors.

It was more a thread on how much a garage should charge as a labour rate. Dealers are generally more expensive?

 

I was curious, if it was something that should have taken longer but just went really well and took less time then I'd say it's a reasonable charge. £60 for a scan is a little strong for my taste, £30 or so is what I WOULD have paid last time iirc, but on getting them to do the work there was no charge for the diag. Nothing to go wrong or and unexpected issues doing a scan so I think £30 is reasonable. 

It all varies on area and what make.

I used to work in the parts Dept at our local Jag dealers and they were charging £96 plus vat per hour and that was 15 years ago.

wen i got brakes done earlier this yr it was 40e/hour - was quoted 90mins by the owner. Lads had it done in 40mins inc a drive to check all was good, charged me 30e... I gave the chap who did the work the other tenner for a couple of pints... It was a friday afternoon, and he's a good lad.

i should add, that meant me disc and pads change was 180e total for the front end. Local dealer want 250 just for parts...

My local Indy £40 per hour. Main dealer is £60-70 I think. And I've heard the local bmw/volvo is £100 ph.

My local Indy who I have used a few times for anything I cant do myself and have been excellent charge £40 Per Hour.

Local Subaru indy charges £42 inc VAT

He's fairly knowlegeable builds decent rally cars too.

Edited 2 December, 201411 yr by loskie

Oh, and... the Service dept head in my local Dealers also does his own stuff at home after hours - €40 per hr give or take.

Place near me charge 35 pounds an hour best thing is all in there 40s so know quite a lot between them.

charge 35 pound an hour for fault finding if it takes less will ask permission to put on ramp and show you the fault then up to you whether they do it or you do it yourself. that is an all in price up to the hour.