First service - how much?

[ORD]

sleep envy said:

ORD said:

I had a funny call with an OPC about oil changes. He said "It is £350 pounds for that". I said "How much does the oil cost?". He told me. I said "How long does it take?". He tried to avoid the question but then said it was about 15 mins. I fell off my chair at the effective hourly rate for the 18 year-old kid who is only allowed to do oil changes.

The rest of the cost is the labour charge for dry fisting the customer.

And then they charge for the unused oil on that one.

[mollytherocker]

OPC's have HUGE overheads, both direct and indirect. The oil and the labour are probably the smallest elements of the charge!

[gl20]

Overheads for an OPC will be a fair bit higher than for, say, a Ford dealer and overheads per unit sold higher still. So expect dealer services to be a % of car retail price to see if you are being charged 'reasonably' and factor in service interval differences too and you'll probably see it is par for the course

On a more practical level:
- as brake fluid is optional you could opt out
- be ready for them offering to service your aircon as yet another add on!

[ilduce]

mollytherocker said:

OPC's have HUGE overheads, both direct and indirect. The oil and the labour are probably the smallest elements of the charge!

Aww bless them, those shiny suits cost money you know!

[ORD]

mollytherocker said:

OPC's have HUGE overheads, both direct and indirect. The oil and the labour are probably the smallest elements of the charge!

Yep. But, in any remotely well-functioning market, you would expect this kind of thing to make a relatively small contribution to overheads. The guy who does the oil changes would only, if not doing them, be sitting on his hands, so it is all gravy once the direct costs are covered.