Garage hourly rate

[jamoor]

keirik said:

BMW motorrad (bikes) in Chester is £97 per hour.

Makes the BMW extended warranty worth every penny.

Oh jesus!

Bike mechanics should be on alot less than a car mechanic surely?

[The Mad Monk]

WJNB said:

just down the road an independent Mercedes specialist of international renown would only charge me £90 per hr + VAT for the same work using genuine Mercedes parts ordered direct from the factory.

Where is this?

[G600]

jamoor said:

Oh jesus!

Bike mechanics should be on alot less than a car mechanic surely?

I don't see why the rate would be lower but I'd expect most jobs to take less time.

[Sa Calobra]

caelite said:

£48 is good with VAT. I find if your a good customer & it's a backstreet garage most places will waive the VAT as a 'cash discount'. Never ask for a discount, but always offer to pay in cash, the lads I use round to a nice even £40, cash in hand.

And they dodge tax.

[Red 4]

jamoor said:

keirik said:

BMW motorrad (bikes) in Chester is £97 per hour.

Makes the BMW extended warranty worth every penny.

Oh jesus!

Bike mechanics should be on alot less than a car mechanic surely?

There's a bike shop near me that charges £160 to service your push bike.

I've never used their services (unsurprisingly).

[skyrover]

Sa Calobra said:

caelite said:

£48 is good with VAT. I find if your a good customer & it's a backstreet garage most places will waive the VAT as a 'cash discount'. Never ask for a discount, but always offer to pay in cash, the lads I use round to a nice even £40, cash in hand.

And they dodge tax.

Find me an independent who does not.

Almost every garage in the area around here does fiddle work after hours.

[helmutlaang]

G600 said:

I don't see why the rate would be lower but I'd expect most jobs to take less time.

Most jobs take longer and you have to be a lot more careful.
Accessing a car engine takes seconds. On a bike all of that shiny bodywork is intertwined and takes ages.
Wheels can be a PITA
You have to take the tank off to access 99% of air filters-careful not to chip the paint!
And so on.

[Jasandjules]

I'd be happy if that was the rate charged to me.

[Gareth79]

Countdown said:

As others have said the hourly rate may be cheap but it depends on how many hours they take. For example my mate used to look at the recommended hours for a Job and tell me he would be able to do it quicker (and ergo charge less), but if your garage is taking longer to do jobs then you might be paying a lot more, even if their hourly rate is lower.

And a good independent may do a job quicker than a main dealer *and* charge less per hour. Likewise, a good independent may know more about a car than the dealer, especially if it's an older model. I imagine main dealers may have a higher staff turnover, so there will be a certain loss of knowledge of quirks and former common-faults.

[rambo19]

My dad was a mechanic.
He used to say;
'not only is the customer paying for my time, they are also paying for my knowledge'.

[rayyan171]

crossie said:

Just had the girlfriend car in a local garage near her work and the hourly rate was £48

Is this about normal ??

Malton North Yorkshire

Edited by crossie on Thursday 18th April 09:51

Amazing price. Audi want £60 for 30 minutes. BMW around that much too.

[Countdown]

rambo19 said:

My dad was a mechanic.
He used to say;
'not only is the customer paying for my time, they are also paying for my knowledge'.

If it wasn't for his knowledge why would they bother paying him for his time? Fairly indivisible I would assume

[crossie]

rambo19 said:

My dad was a mechanic.
He used to say;
'not only is the customer paying for my time, they are also paying for my knowledge'.

Interestingly - the garage didn't fix the problem it went in for! - this is what really pissed be off!

[TIGA84]

Just had the painful experience of having to pay BMW main dealer prices due to particularly knotty problem that my local indies couldn't diagnose on my X5.

£198 per hour..........

[Shoukie]

£21/hr inc vat for the indie I use in North Yorkshire. He was charging £18/hr when I first started going to him about 5 years ago, and apparently not long prior to that he was charging £12/hr!

[Little Pete]

Shoukie said:

£21/hr inc vat for the indie I use in North Yorkshire. He was charging £18/hr when I first started going to him about 5 years ago, and apparently not long prior to that he was charging £12/hr!

Bloody hell he must sell some hours to hit the VAT threshold!

[Roger Irrelevant]

The Subaru specialist indie I use (who really know their stuff) are £40p.h. That's in North Yorkshire too, not a million miles from Malton. Probably helps that they're based on their family farm so no rent to cover.

[mmm-five]

Local BMW dealer = £120/hour+vat (when I last checked 3 years ago)

Local BMW indy = £78/hour inc. VAT

Not-so-local BMW specialist (at mate's rates) = £50/hour

Local Alfa guy working from lock-up = £25/hour cash

[jamoor]

TIGA84 said:

Just had the painful experience of having to pay BMW main dealer prices due to particularly knotty problem that my local indies couldn't diagnose on my X5.

£198 per hour..........

Where was that?

That's not even reasonable.

[Byker28i]

jamoor said:

TIGA84 said:

Just had the painful experience of having to pay BMW main dealer prices due to particularly knotty problem that my local indies couldn't diagnose on my X5.

£198 per hour..........

Where was that?

That's not even reasonable.

£120/hour at local Mazda dealer