MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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I know things cost money etc etc but wasn't sure on the cost of labour, I only get paid £6.50 an hour but if £40-60 is industry standard then I have nothing to moan about and the price seems fair to me! The mechanic who did the work might only get paid £6.50 an hour as well. But his boss has got to pay rent, utilities, business rates, insurance etc. etc. ;-) Indeed a friend of mine was telling me what his break-even point was for his garage the other day, scary stuff.
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Mot is non-vat but still a reasonable price,about £70 plus vat for parts and labour is pretty damn cheap. It's,or at least should be,all done on autodata,so you'll type the chassis number in etc and it works the rest out for you. It can be overcome but it's generally fair,like if your changing say a spring on the rear of a car,it may give you 1/2hr,shock on it's own also 1/2hr but combined job only 40 minutes as it rightly assumes you changed both at the same time hence the springs pretty much labour free then as the work to remove the shock has already been done.
Well worth getting a copy of it to see where you stand with repairs.
It's not a bible,but pretty good.
Although it grossly underestimated an alternator change on a Ka sport when I did it,you've got to get the front bumpers,headlights etc off just to gain access!!!!
Took about twice as long but I still had to charge the customer the same.
Although Ka rear wheel bearings I could do in literally 5 minutes,yet they gave an hour,swings and roundabouts.
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prey
Part of things
Posts: 856
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Jan 26, 2012 13:00:22 GMT
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I wouldn't call being charged the standard price 'royally bummed'. The cost of MOTs at the place I go is £27.50, but I assume that it's a loss leader. Ie. Take car in, get cheap test, fail, pay their labour rate to get it fixed. As above, I reckon the price sounds about right. An hour's labour at the place I mentioned above is £45 plus vat. i would lol. the garage i use charges £26 for the test and they don't do repair work (unless they know you) as it's mostly modification stuff they do so no dodgy fails on the basis of getting work. i've seen nowhere round here that charges more than 45 for a test when i've been out and about.
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Jan 26, 2012 15:01:13 GMT
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ICME book time to replace the spring (guessing a few details on the van) is 1.2hrs (1 hour 12 mins as all vehicle repair time is decimal). Even at trade rate I still pay £42 for an MOT so you guys getting twenty something are doing well.
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Jan 26, 2012 16:27:01 GMT
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Everyone seems to be assuming it's a 1 hour job so it works out about £40/hour labour. If I could change a spring at my mates garage (using his tools & ramps) in an hour I'd be well chuffed with myself. If they've hit a snag it could be 2 hours, so £20/hour labour. All sounds fair to me but depends on what's normal where you are. Add in their 2 trips to the MOT place and it all mounts up Interesting, did see a post very recently - someone was looking at using a "not worth getting out of bed for £50" minimum charge for "quick 5 minute jobs" (to allow for faffing around, extra prep you find when you get started, and any siezed bits you need to un-sieze before you can begin work) - food for thought ? I thought springs should always be replaced in pairs This came to mind for me too, I have older stuff so always change in pairs to make sure they're matched. No sure if it gets less important on newer stuff?? End result, £150 for another years motoring sounds like a bargain
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MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Jan 26, 2012 17:03:23 GMT
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Interesting, did see a post very recently - someone was looking at using a "not worth getting out of bed for £50" minimum charge for "quick 5 minute jobs" (to allow for faffing around, extra prep you find when you get started, and any siezed bits you need to un-sieze before you can begin work) - food for thought ? I'm not in this trade but I'm self employed and do this.
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morns
Part of things
Posts: 222
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Jan 26, 2012 22:49:39 GMT
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Wow some really interesting points.
I'm glad to see i have picked the right brains. The misses said she thought it was expensive, that was my first mistake, what does she know about cars, i should have been straight on here instead! Schoolboy!
Didnt get an itemised bill, just some scribbles, but all in all like has been mentoned, £150 to stay road legal for a year is pretty good, seeing the van only cost me £325 to start with! (runs away and hides....)
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Doesn't sound massively overpriced for most garages.
I would have expected them to give your van a look over before taking it for test though, so they should have spotted the spring and fixed it first. Then it would have only needed one trip to the MOT place
I always have a look over cars before taking them for test, saves it failing for little things, and requiring a 2nd trip and another hour of time.
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Jan 27, 2012 10:26:43 GMT
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Interesting, did see a post very recently - someone was looking at using a "not worth getting out of bed for £50" minimum charge for "quick 5 minute jobs" (to allow for faffing around, extra prep you find when you get started, and any siezed bits you need to un-sieze before you can begin work) - food for thought ? I'm not in this trade but I'm self employed and do this. Pretty much same here. I'm in IT and you always get the customer going "While you're here...."
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Mad Max
North West
May contain beard...
Posts: 497
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Jan 27, 2012 20:57:38 GMT
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The mechanic who did the work might only get paid £6.50 an hour as well. But his boss has got to pay rent, utilities, business rates, insurance etc. etc. ;-) ^^^This is me! My boss has been sneaking bills up a fair whack recently, making our long-standing customers think twice about coming to us. If I do say so myself the quality of work is excellent though!! If I could afford it Id set up on my own and start fixing real cars instead of the hateful modern curse word electric tat.
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billy
Part of things
Posts: 279
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Jan 27, 2012 21:09:30 GMT
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being a spanner monkey at an mot station I'll agree that not bad if I remember rightly the leg on your van is a pain of a job spliting the bottom balljoint before you can get the strut out of the hub now if it was a corsa its a 15 minute job
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Jan 28, 2012 19:08:17 GMT
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When you own a 28 year old car, £150 MOTs are the things dreams are made of.
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dungbug
Posted a lot
'Ooligan!
Posts: 2,852
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Jan 28, 2012 22:14:04 GMT
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I don't know how old your van is but if it cost less than £400 to buy then getting a new MOT for £150 doesn't sound bad to me, not what you need after Xmas I'll admit but you've got another year, £150 over 365 days is around 41p per day........Not too bad I'd say. It's done, you didn't have to get the tools out, get the part, skin your knuckles removing crusty bolts, arranging and getting to a re-test the following weekend etc, all uses your time/money so I think you don't need to worry about getting ripped.
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Past: 13 VW Beetles from 1967 - 1974 Bay Window Campers (1973 & 1974) Mini's (1992 Cooper lookalike & 1984 '25 Anniversary) MK2 Polo Coupe S (1984 & 1986) MK2 Polo Breadvan (1981 & 1984) MK4 Escort (1989) MK2 Granada Based Hearse (seriously) Fiat Uno 60S (1986) Punto 60S (1998) Cinq (1997) 1998 Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat 2003 Ford KA
Current: 2004 Ford Focus (barely alive)
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