Labor charge

[Counting Buck]

This. You’re paying for their experience to do that job in that amount of time. The time they spent in school etc.

They give degrees for mechanics now? If someone has an engineering degree sure, but 6 months to a year in technical training isn't the same thing. Also, that's per HOUR, not the total. If someone has less experience they could charge less and take more time but the cost to do the job should remain the same. Experience is irrelevant as long as it's completed properly.

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[Motorpsychology]

The price of manual labor for working on cars is a massive scam. They charge about 4x the cost to actually pay the employee and Admin staff. Don't forget they're already making a cut off the price of materials that they almost surely inflated. Someone once told me $200/hr for a mechanic (one) and I laughed and walked out. That's the cost of a manager at a professional services firm, not someone that took technical training for manual labor and probably didn't even go to school. To be clear there is NOTHING wrong with someone wanting to do that for a living, this is about prices.

Always negotiate labor costs.

I wrote in post #4:

The tech's expenses are closer to $90, or more. Besides wages, add in Employer contribution to Social Security, Medicare, Workmans' Comp, private med ins., employer 401-K contribution, and training & recertification in many cases.

There's always the small independent shops that may or may not warranty their work, use remanufactured or knock-off parts, non certified techs etc I worked in the business for 11 years, mostly at Ford dealerships. You either make big money by charging enough for repairs and maintenance or go way under in a Chapter Seven bankruptcy by trying to be the lowest guy in town; there is only razor thin middle ground.

$200 per billable hr. is pretty low for an attorney these days. Top trial lawyers are $700/bh and up.

 

[Motorpsychology]

They give degrees for mechanics now? If someone has an engineering degree sure, but 6 months to a year in technical training isn't the same thing. Also, that's per HOUR, not the total. If someone has less experience they could charge less and take more time but the cost to do the job should remain the same. Experience is irrelevant as long as it's completed properly.

Time is money. If the newbie is doing the job right but tying up his/her shop bay for an excessive time, they are likely to stay at the low end of their pay scale or be shown the door if they can't beat the job's flat rate much of the time. The car biz is all about turnover; independent or franchise, sales floor or shop floor.

 

[Dr. Zaius]

The labor cost is not just for the technician.

The building, the water, the electricity, the staff, the insurance, the city/state taxes, all of these overhead expenses are also being paid by that hourly rate.

My friend owns an independent garage and his costs are truly sobering when you dig into it.

That said, I had my fronts done (did the rear myself) at an independent garage by a guy that lots of the local Rangers use.

My cost for front strut installation plus several ForScan modifications including the ABS bleed was $250.

Granted that since the tech I used has BTDT it went much faster than typical.

All that to say shop around and also check with other modified Rangers in your area to see who they used. You can likely find a pretty good deal if you research it.

Edit: I just noticed you asked for a rate for Eibachs to be installed.

Is this just the strut or a complete Eibach strut/spring assembly? Mine has the Bilsteins so I immediately thought just the strut, where the Eibachs can be just the strut or the whole assembly.

A lot of the labor is in disassembling the factory strut and then reassembling it with the new strut.

If your Eibachs are the complete strut assembly, your labor cost should be significantly lower.

 

[NotBudule]

Someone once told me $200/hr for a mechanic (one) and I laughed and walked out. That's the cost of a manager at a professional services firm,

I would laugh at 200 an hour for a professional service firm , wait , that's not hookers is it ?

 

[Counting Buck]

I would laugh at 200 an hour for a professional service firm , wait , that's not hookers is it ?

I'd say that if a firm is charging more than $200 an hour for a person that's only a few years out of college like I said in my post (baseline manager), then the same thing would apply to them as what I said about being charged too much for mechanic labor.

 

[NotBudule]

I'd say that if a firm is charging more than $200 an hour for a person that's only a few years out of college like I said in my post (baseline manager), then the same thing would apply to them as what I said about being charged too much for mechanic labor.

I'm still not sure if we're talking about prostitutes or not ...

 

[TheDillweed]

I did my Eibachs in my garage. Took half the day but I took my time and wasn't in a rush. It's not too difficult and is a great way to save $

 

[AZRanger]

They give degrees for mechanics now? If someone has an engineering degree sure, but 6 months to a year in technical training isn't the same thing. Also, that's per HOUR, not the total. If someone has less experience they could charge less and take more time but the cost to do the job should remain the same. Experience is irrelevant as long as it's completed properly.

They’ve been doing it for a long time. My tech school was only a year (associates in applied technology) and cost me 35k, so not cheap training. Also factor in the amount the tech needs to pay on tools. I’ve been in the industry maybe 5 years and already have well over 20k invested in tools. All of this helps fix your car better and faster. There’s a huge difference between “mechanic” and “technician”.
I do agree however 200$ is ridiculous. Highest I’ve seen was 160$.

edit: the tech is not making 160$ an hour to clarify. Most wages range from 20$-40$ an hour for the actual technician’s pay.

 

[Motorpsychology]

I'm still not sure if we're talking about prostitutes or not ...

$200 for the Midas touch; she'll take out to the parking lot and give you a break job...

 

[Msfitoy]

People are surprised at my total investment because they didn't realize that I DIY'd everything and saved a Sh@ton of labor charges...well, I did pay to have my tires mounted lol...

 

[Motorpsychology]

They’ve been doing it for a long time. My tech school was only a year (associates in applied technology) and cost me 35k, so not cheap training. Also factor in the amount the tech needs to pay on tools. I’ve been in the industry maybe 5 years and already have well over 20k invested in tools. All of this helps fix your car better and faster. There’s a huge difference between “mechanic” and “technician”.
I do agree however 200$ is ridiculous. Highest I’ve seen was 160$.

edit: the tech is not making 160$ an hour to clarify. Most wages range from 20$-40$ an hour for the actual technician’s pay.

I don't know if your shop does this, but many have co-op deals with tool sellers, to help offset the mechanics' tool costs; just another slice of the shop's expense pie.

 

[dtech]

The stat below is from Forbes and I've seen stats from other analysts that put the wage gap much higher, some over 500x . This does influence my thoughts regards comp, I don't begrudge hard working folks earning a decent living and having worked on cars, my own and others for 50+ yrs I would categorize most auto mechanics as hard working folks. And does/should it really matter if a person has a college degree ?

Chief executives at S&P 500 companies made 324 times more than the median workers at their companies in 2021 on average, according to an annual report from the U.S.’ largest labor union federation AFL-CIO released Monday morning, as the gap between compensation of top executives and workers continues to widen.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereks...s-in-2021-union-report-finds/?sh=70f51ab5ac52

 

[JesseS]

My local 4X4 shop is $160/hr, charged me $500 to install the Eibach coilovers & do the alignment.

 

[9zero1790]

I was quoted right at $500 out the door including tax and alignment by the local 4x4 shop
Does that sound like a good deal?

sounds like a fair deal esp with the alignment included.

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