Stealership Ripoffs...

I told her to quit going to Jiffy Lube because I used to own a Jetta and have all of the tools needed to change her oil.

Not sure, but probably the one on Golf.

 

I once bought a Jetta at Fox on Golf...I got rid of said Jetta and female driver

 

I do not want to blame this all on the dealer because they base their prices on Toyota Corp. which is also responsible for high prices, but the dealer does have some hefty mark up. I recently hit a deer with my 2015 Corolla and it is in the shop now. The total price for repairs will be around 5500 dollars. The thing is I saw the price for the one headlight that was knocked out. It is 752 dollars and change plus install. No that is not for a fender and headlight or any other work, just the headlight assembly itself if I bought it and walked out the door with it.

I called around to other dealers to check that price and this dealer was 40 dollars lower than some others.

 

^ Yeah. The labor time is also out of a book which means they really don't have say on that. Doesn't mean people can't call it out.

 

On labor the dealer can use any rate they want or think they can get. It is not like there is just one book they all go by.

 

How about the height of absurdity..... $650 to $700 for a backup camera module for an already wired truck. $150 would be more like it for what amounts to a $20 part.

 

Service and Parts is how the Dealer makes most of their money. According to this Forbes article The Gross Profit Margin of the Service and Parts department of Penske Group is 57% and new car sales only has an 8% GPM. Most of that ridiculously high margin comes from the inflated labor hours. I know dealers get a kickback from financing too.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhenr...s-car-dealers-make-the-most-money-off-of-you/

 

Ok. My experience has been with Honda and Nissan are largely stuck to a book, particularly if it is for OEM accessories. Actually, Toyota is pretty much the only experience I've had where the dealer actually willingly installs non-OEM accessories.

 

LOL... got a good laugh reading through this thread. Some of you guys act like dealerships have ZERO OVERHEAD to pay for (employees, rent, hazard wastes, electricity bills, etc). It's a business, it's there to make a living doing things other people can't do themselves. You don't go to a clinic/emergency room to have your arm surgically repaired and then bitch about the price/cost to do something you can't do yourself.

 

I had a '92 BMW E34 525i that had a power lock actuator go bad. Dealer quote to replace seemed reasonable at the time, something like $120 plus an hour of shop time to install at $90. Went in to pick it up and first sign of an issue was seeing the orange flag of the lot charging cart next to my car. They drive the car up running, and I turn it off. Sure enough, won't start. Now they want to troubleshoot my battery/ignition, so I demand to see the manager.

By the time I was done explaining my frustration we got a loaner to drive to lunch, lunch paid for by the dealer, and a brand new Interstate battery installed. And the labor costs for the door actuator were waived.

That's the last BMW I owned. Never again...

 

Unfortunately this profession is the only profession that's constantly talked about in a negative way when it comes to prices. It's also the only profession where people continuously get beat up by ignorant people and still have to provide top notch customer service...no matter how much of a jackass the customer is. It's the only profession that's constantly beat up for discounts...coupons etc. I can't ask my mortgage company for a discoint...or my electric company.
Your hvac guy come over and tells u its gonna cost you 4k to get your ac back in order...do u beat him up? No..u bend over and take it like a man.
Bottom line is...everyone needs to make a living...if u don't like the price, move on. No need to post in a public forum about how bad dealerships are. There are plenty of other shops out there.
Funny thing though....u never hear how the mom arena pop shop ripped someone off....or charged them too much etc. But I see it every day and know it happens.
Sometimes I feel like we are in the same boat as cops. Everyone hates them untill they need them.

 

Completely untrue. Dealerships get badmouthed as a rule and often rightly so. Their technicians get lumped in with the service managers, F&I weasels, and pushy salesforce. Independent mechanics suffer no more abuse and ignorant commentary than any other skilled tradeperson.

 

Flat Rate Labor Guide Manual.

Yes there is a book that they go by.

 

100% agree with this. That is why I posted my previous comment.

savedone was referring to labor charge$ per hour, not labor times.

 

Actually almost everybody uses the same computer software. I have a copy on my local machine from when my son ran an auto repair business. "Realtime Labor Guide." You only have to plug in your hourly rate you want to charge. It has a huge database that gives hourly estimates for every possible job or combination of jobs you might want to do on a car. Bad thing was, I could consistently beat the quoted times by roughly 50% (it would say 4 hours, I would finish in 2 hours). Yes I know some go over. I've seen a simple t-stat replacement turn into 4 hours when one of the bolts breaks due to water intrusion (Chrysler 318 V-8 was horrible for this). Son worked at a well-known shop (and a dealership or two before getting disgusted with them) and saw mechanics doing 30+ hours of billed work in a single 10 hour workday.

Unfortunately, part of this is caused by customers. I'd like to give someone an estimate of "This will take one hour best case, but an occasional problem (frozen bolt, etc) might turn this into 4 hours. Then they leave thinking one hour, and return to find a 3 hour bill and get pissed. About all you can do is give an estimate that will not lose you money very often, and move on. Which means you will be over-estimating more often than not.

Here's an example. Guy was at an AutoZone a few years ago with a Maxima. VERY hard to steer. Power steering pump growling. He pours fluid into the reservoir and it poured right out on the ground. A shop next door told him it was leaking at the rack (which it was) and quoted him some horrific price. The auto-zone guy knew my son and asked him to stop by. He also said "rack is pouring fluid" but in looking at it, we figured 3 hours or so (realtime said 5.0) to replace it. Told him he could by the part from auto zone if he wanted, we would install it as we had said.

We got to his house, put it up on jack stands, and when I looked I could see the fluid pouring out of one end of the hydraulic ram. On closer inspection, the end cap had backed out and was letting fluid drain out rather than pressing the ram in the right direction. I threaded it back in, tightened it to torque spec, filled and purged air and he was good to go. We charged him one hour labor. He was flabbergasted. Our local quicklubes will NOT do that. The thing quicklube and such don't get is that this guy became a permanent customer of my son's services. A little good will goes a long way.

In any case, you can buy a copy of realtime for a hundred bucks or so, or you can even get a 30 day trial for free. Might open your eyes to how estimates are done. I'm a computer person, and estimating time for a computer project is just as difficult. Impossible to guess where the twists and turns will take me. If I under-estimate, I take a loss, so I also have to be careful. But I do refuse to gouge just because I can.

 

I try to do everything myself with the help of this forum. Whatever I cannot do myself, I avoid deallerships and go to shops with good reviews online. For example, mount and balance tires at discount tire, alignment at precision tune.

 

I would only add that the business is ACTUALLY there to make a return on investment for the person or group of people who forked over the money to start or purchase the business in the first place. There's nothing wrong with profit and No one forces me to use the dealership for any service, Most of the profit they make is on these kind of services, but I'm sure that profit goes to support all the other areas in the business that aren't anywhere near as profitable or may actually loose money.

 

I do agree, it is a business and my wifes uncle owns a dealership. I will say though, he's not struggling business wise and life wise.

However, consumers too have to live by paying rent/mortgages, utilities, car payments, insurance, and etc. I just don't like the fact that places charge insane labor to change cabin and air filters because the person is oblivious of how easy it really is. I could never look at a struggling college student or struggling family that needs their car to drive to work and say "yeah, to change that filter, it's going to cost you an arm and a leg." knowing it doesn't really cost much and take much effort.

 

I think everybody has a threshold of what they're willing to pay for versus learning how to do it themselves to avoid that cost. I understand dealerships have a ton of overhead and I don't really balk at what they charge for labor rates for complex repairs. Some people have no issue (for many reasons I imagine) paying $80 for a 5 minute air filter change. As long as they have x # of people willing to pay for that, they'll keep charging that.

To me, paying a plumber $200 to swap out a leaky faucet isn't worth it, as to me that's a pretty easy thing to do and for others, it's like particle physics and they want nothing to do with it.....call the plumber!! Now if my water heater shits the bed.....I'll gladly pay the plumber his normal hourly rate for a repair. Maybe I'll watch what he did and could possibly repair it myself if it happens again in the future.

I'm sure there are people in this world who call & pay an electrician to change a freakin' light bulb too!

off topic - something I always get a kick out of. When gas prices were through the roof ($4+/gallon) a few years back everybody (including myself) was bitching about it.....but folks (not including myself) were happy to spend $2.00 for a 16oz bottle of "spring" water...that was most likely sources from a local water supply.

Just my 2 cents.

 

The same Tesla that gets millions in government subsidies?