Cost of fitting a battery

[Gas1883]

It’s a long story , me the other end of the country , car wouldn’t start & wife sorted it herself ( I
Appreciate her doing that ) but the above battery cost £240 fitted ( gulp ) , is that the going rate for breakdown companies to fit a battery , £140 .
It’s done now but I’ve told her I’m very appreciative of what she did , sorting the problem herself , but in future leave the car on the drive , get a taxi & I’ll sort it out when I get home .

[Evanivitch]

Yes, that's going rate for an "emergency" battery fitment.

A mobile mechanic or if she'd gotten to a garage it's 0.5 hour labour maybe

[miniman]

I’d imagine the fitting charge wasn’t that much, they will have charged top whack for the battery itself.

[paddy1970]

Look at the bright side, image what would be the cost if it was a tyre...she would have been better off hiring a private jet...

[johnsmith222]

Sounds about right to be honest.

[Truckosaurus]

Also, some cars need the battery coding to the car so you'll can't just DIY unless you have a half decent OBD tool.

[Miserablegit]

1. It’s an emergency call out
2. They’ve had to travel from their base, collect a battery and then travel to your home to fit it.
No idea where you live but say that’s 90 mins round trip for them plus fitting time= about 2 hours work so it’s not a huge amount considering.
I’d expect a dealer would charge similar even if you took the car to them.
As for taxis, taxi to and from a station might be £100 so add cost of battery and you’re at near enough the same amount.

[KungFuPanda]

Why are you comparing the price of a battery ordered from an online motor factors to the price of a battery fitted in an emergency on the roadside? There is no comparison.

GSF are competing on price with every other single online seller and are dealing with customers who have the luxury of not needing a battery in an emergency hence why they’re browsing the internet.

The roadside price takes into account the fact that somebody needs that battery fitting at a couple of hours notice at the roadside.

I bet you also bemoan the cost of a steak at a restaurant when compared to the cost of one at a supermarket.

[Lester H]

That’s one big battery, isn’t it? To put things into perspective, a friend found that his Up ( extremely basic) wouldn’t start on a frosty morning. Rang a local equally basic garage run by a drinking pal. A half mile away from his house where the Up was parked in the drive, safe suburban location, cold dry day.Don’t know if it was a premium name like Yuasa, but….£180 all in.

[valiant]

You’re not comparing apples with apples.

That’s not a bad price for an emergency call out with supply and fitment.

[dave_s13]

Battery on my Ford Galaxy died week before last. To replace it needs the air box removing and it's tucked right under the bulkhead. It's not hard by any stretch but a bit of a fiddle. I paid £135 from gsf for a 75ah stop/start version of the one you posted I'd expect that to have been a £180-200 job at a garage maybe.....so you've paid for the privilege of a home visit, but not been fleeced by the sound of it.

Ps...I put my old battery on a conditioning cycle with the ctek charger and managed to sell in on fb marketplace for £30! Which I wasn't expecting.

[Panamax]

...which is why a "precautionary battery change" courtesy of Tayna's online shop is cheaper in the long run than waiting for your old battery to die in action.

[dave_s13]

Panamax said:

...which is why a "precautionary battery change" courtesy of Tayna's online shop is cheaper in the long run than waiting for your old battery to die in action.

They look to have very decent prices.....I was in a level of distress though so had to use GSF as it was local and in stock.

It's hard to judge how long to eek it out. Mine was 4yrs old....early signs are the stop/start stops working, as does the heated front screen. I was ignoring that and hoping it would go away. Then it just failed to start shortly after.

[InitialDave]

That's not awful, to be honest. Maybe phone a local garage and ask for a price for a replacement battery including fitting, and then you'll have a better picture of what the increase in cost was for it being an emergency callout.

It's probably not a massive amount.

[ATG]

Depends where you are and who you call. I had a half-shredded tyre last week that left my car stranded a few miles from home. Tyre is about £100 on line. Local tyre shop drove out to the stranded car, removed the wheel, took it back to their shop, changed the tyre, drove back, fitted it and charged by £160 all in. Small, super-efficient local business.

[MitchT]

Can't comment accurately without knowing the car and whether it has stop/start, but I was eyeing a BMW 440i for sale a while back and it had been sat an awfully long time, so I priced replacing the battery in case I bought the car and it was something that needed doing imminently. £450.

[stevemcs]

We charge somewhere between 30-60 minutes labour at the minute depending on the car including coding.

Unless it’s a Honda Jazz, in which case it’s 15 minutes. On average something like a Mini F56 battery is around £300 fitted.

[Mr Tidy]

My 2006 E91 BMW needed a new battery in December 2018.

Thankfully I had Home Start cover and the RAC charged me £125.99 for a Varta replacement that didn't need coding.

My 2007 BMW 123d needed a new AGM battery in March 2022 that had to be coded as it had stop/start. A local BMW Indy charged just over £250 - Sytner had quoted just over £300.

So what car it is for may make a big difference.

[ATG]

Why does start/stop require a new battery to be coded? What's the benefit?

[soad]

ATG said:

Why does start/stop require a new battery to be coded? What's the benefit?

Charge management, system doesn’t know it’s a new battery.