Stealership Ripoffs...

You posted:
"My point is to show the disparity in what the guy doing the REAL work gets vs. the dealership."

I made the point that it's wrong to make that statement. Because you are assuming only those with dirty hands do "the REAL work"

You further made it personal by assuming my place in life. You know little to zero about me.

Then, of course you want to "let it go" because you have no facts to support your position. And your ego/pride won't allow you to admit you are incorrect in multiple assumptions.

Btw, I fish Pelagics. You are baitfish.

 

warranty rate is based on what the actual customer pays on the cash end and what dealers in the area are getting. labor times are published by the manufacturer. customer labor times are published by flat rate labor guides such as MitchelL, Motor, AllData etc. just b/c Toyota says it pays 1.5 to replace an axle under warranty and the cash labor guides say it pays 2.5....we dont charge the customer 3 or 3.5 to make up the differance...thats absurd.

cash labor rates are based on what the average is for area dealerships aswell. warranty labor rate and cash rates are typically pretty close....case in point my dealer...warranty rate- $112.54...cust rate- $114.00.

they change warranty labor times on the reguler...sometimes in the other direction. customer doesnt get penalized for that....atleast not in any dealer ive ever worked at or the currant one i work at.

 

LMAO...well it doesn't sound like you are having a nice day. Now it's your turn to chill. Get over it Mr. High-And-Mighty!

 

I'm chill man. And I'm having a great day. It's Friday. My work week is through. I'm going bowling with friends tonight. I just left Tractor Supply picking up some stuff to work on my property this weekend. And I grabbed a few goodies for my pup. Life is good. I'm blessed
But I'm neither high or mighty.

 

If a dealer charges $100 per hour, out of that $100, how much money do you think is a "fair share" for the tech to keep??

 

Master tech is @ 35hr

 

Trade school avg cost 15k to 40k plus tools and yearly 1k software updates

 

It is a constant race against the clock when on comission

 

There are good dealership alternatives pay the tech who works at dealer 50hr to work a side job for you or go to independent who has the guy that sacraficed it all to start his business charges 85 hr.then theres firestone.

 

I got a notice from Toyota in the mail years ago for a 2005 Camry SE I had. Said they were recalling a crankshaft pully (Recall# 77247) that was bad. Never had a single problem with my car. Figured I'd better take the car in to have the pully replaced just for good measure though. Anyhow, I dropped it off for service and left in another vehicle with family.

Literally drove to the library (10 minutes) before the dealership called me. They told me my belts were tattered and about to break. Said my water pump was leaking all over the place. And I needed to have my fuel injectors cleaned. In shock initially (having no idea how my belts or water pump could so suddenly be so bad) I asked how much they thought the repair would be. I was told $1,000. I couldn't believe it. I asked if they could help me out and they offered a 10% off coupon they had for service.

I told them just to do the recall repair only. I picked up the vehicle, took it down the road and left it with an independent mechanic all day. When I picked it up he charged me NOTHING and said he couldn't find a single problem with the car. Said he looked it over bumper to bumper and would take it on a vacation to the east coast without hesitation. Said my water pump was in perfect shape and my belts were not even dried/cracked.

 

That's not too bad. I work for a hot tub dealership. To cover our overhead costs we have to charge $88/hour for labor. Warranty only pays us $60/hour. And we don't get paid for travel time or expenses either. So, to provide our customers with warranty support for products we sold them we have to be willing to take a loss every time we do a warranty service call (or charge a warranty trip fee as allowed by manufacturer). People only think about, "How much is this tech being paid per hour?" They neglect to consider the employee who took their phone call, the printers, paper, ink involved. The vehicle used to drive to them (fuel costs, maintenance costs, purchase costs, insurance costs). Then throw on business insurance, electricity, employee benefits, etc, etc.

 

exactly...so you understand just how much overhead a dealership has. they have all that that you point out plus training for 20+ techs every year (at about $1500 a pop every time one goes)...$50K alignment machines and maintenance....Toyota Tech streams at $4k a piece (we have 8 of them)...balance machines...lifts....brake lathe machines...etc. i can go on and on. some people just dont get it....but hey, thats why i love this business (enter sarcasm).

 

Service industries are difficult. There's not always much of any profit and it's always difficult to provide a top notch level of service and keep customers truly happy. But - if you can't service what you sell you'll be out of business anyhow. So sometimes you have to break even (or at times accept a loss) on the service end to keep your sales end making the business profitable. The true challenge is running a service business that's profitable, provides quality service, and creates very happy customers all at the same time.

 

I replaced the headlight assemblies myself on my 2008 Honda Civic for $125...dealer was going to charge me $850 parts and labor. It took me about two hours to do it after watching a YouTube how-to video...

 

WOW

 

Here's another story about same Honda dealer as the one I posted about in post #117:

The car had 225,000 miles on it and took it for its annual Pa. State inspection. That dealer nit-picked me on all kinds of needless stuff and tried to bully me into spending $1500 to get it to pass inspection. They wouldn't pass it if I didn't agree to have them do the work. I took it to my favorite tire guy who also does other work and he told me everything they quoted me was unnecessary and all it needed was a break calliper that he fixed for less than $100.

Too bad for the dealer who tried screwing me twice, they had been good to me in the past, as I was soon in the market for a new vehicle and crossed them off my list....went with the 2015 Tacoma instead and I love this truck!