Even if they do, the dealer charges more per hour. And AFAIK, no indy is requied to us any flat rate manual. They can issue a quote that says " $300 to fix xyz", or " 2 hours labor, plue $50 for part" that's just based on their opinion, unless state law says otherwise.
Agree, I've seen the same thing, the one's I've seen have been from dealerships.
About two minutes. I told him what the problem was, and exactly where it burned out. just wanted to know how much to replace it. They took it upon themselves if they "diagnosed" it. Turns out they don't replace the element, but the whole seat bottom. For $672 I did without. In addition, the warranty was 3 year 36000 and it failed in 2 years and
38000 so GM said tough crap. No problem, I bought 5 non-GM cars since including the G80 I bought 6 weeks ago..
I think you're right on all this. A lot of their success is probabably based on how affable they are. A lot of customers, including me, like people who smile, have a friendly, comfortable way of talking, and other stuff not really related to how much they know about cars or how well they can work. I try to ignore that.
The place I had the second car inspected, also affable, is only a tenth of a mile farther away from me, 2 miles, and it's in the woods, pretty much. Last time I waited for the brakes it had been raining, but next time I might be able to sit and read, or nap, in the woods, and that's an advantage.
yeah.
It was 4500 for a used engine and 6500 for a rebuilt one. Not worth it, and he knew it.
Just to add a little perspective to this topic, 1953 to 1970 I was a practicing Auto mechanic.
1960 to 1970 I owned my own business in a 2 car service station/garage. Our labor rates were $6.50 per hour, Increased to $7.00 an hour in 1965 much to the crying and hollering of our customers. I ran a strictly honest place and had an abundance of loyal customers. Imperial Oil sold the property in 1970 and I left the auto trade. Back then I could do a 4 wheel brake job (no extras or complications} for the sum of $24.00 Shoes and labor On GM, Ford, Dodge or Plymouth. I moved into the field of power Engineering till I retired in year 2000Rene
Things have not changed all that much. You can get 4 wheels none now for as low as $500.
I'm telling you all, it was not worth it and he knew it. And he said from his pov, it wasn't worth it. It didn't depend on anything he didn't know. It's not a 20,000 car, it was a $2800 car and a used engine would have all the same chance of breaking that the first engine did. He said the rebuilt engines were rebuilt with better parts than the original, but it's still 6500. So it wasn't worth it and he knew it.
It's not a manual per say. It's the cost/quote/job bids/expected billable hours modules present in atleast two software packages I know of that provide automechanics intimate details on your car/truck/suv so that they can make repairs the right way. The software database information is provided by the various manufacturers of your ride, so that the repairs are proper and right for your make/model.
I have alldata and Mitchell myself; which is what most of the shops use (one or both) to work on your car and properly diagnose issues. It also tells them how much time each job they need to perform on your car should take. Billable hours, that is.
Some shops will go ahead and charge you the market value for the repairs based on the full amount of hours the software told them it should take, even if they were able to do it a couple of hours faster. Others do not.
The software tells them how long a job should take from start to finish, yes. it's upto the shop itself though if they want to go ahead and bill you for the full amount of hours or not.
The same places the autoshops who make use of the software can, but, expect to pay some serious money for the software and have plenty of storage space available to contain the database. Or, you can opt for the online version that's subscription based. You can access it from anywhere you have an internet connection and compatible browser.
If you feel that you're being cheated, and, it sounds like you feel that way, I'd suggest taking your vehicle to another repair shop and see how they treat you in so far as billable time goes for the repairs you request/need performed.
A flatrate amount most likely isn't in paper manuals, but the time it should take a qualified mechanic to do the repair is. As the repair cost varies from shop to shop and location to location. The shop owner sets the hourly rate, but, the software tells them how many hours this or that job should take to complete.
It doesn't provide a flat rate, it provides the time it should take a qualified mechanic to do the repair. The shop sets the price they charge per hour.
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