Irish garages

king_of_inismac

Hey guys,

Want to replace the ARB bushings on my 156.

This involves either dropping the subframe, so not a job I'd really want to do myself.

Took a look under the car and said I might as well do the wishbones on one side too.

I rang up an alfa garage today (non-main dealer) for a quote.

For parts alone (and ex vat)
The ARB was 275
The Bottom wishbone was 228
The top wishbone was 80
Track rod end was 78.

Now I do a bit with the car myself, so have bought parts from the UK in the past. I can get the same parts online for the following delivered:
ARB £58
bottomw wishbone £68
Top wishbone £38
Track rod end £12 (all plus vat at 15%)

I wanted to give the business to the garage (nice guys and good work) but cant really justify it. Just going to order the parts and do the work myself.

So basically, why are these garages charging so much?

smash

Did you call Gerry in TI Autos?

king_of_inismac

Nope, not based in Dublin.
These guys are usually pretty resaonable

Ferris

To be fair local mechanics don't have the time to trawl the internet and to wait for parts to be sent over from the UK so mostly they just go to a parts dept of the dealership and pay those prices. Also they have to cover themselves if the part is faulty etc.

Thats their only excuse, otherwise servicing costs in Ireland are scandalous. My da had a stand up row in an well known Audi dealership because they tried to charge him VAT twice on parts. The invoice listed the cost of the parts incl. VAT and then charged VAT on the total bill. With tricks like this is it any wonder that garages are not trusted in this country.

Midnight_EG

Recession man!

furtzy

Main dealers here have a mark up on everything. My local main dealer where I bought the car recently were asking for a 70% mark up on the cost of a wheel bearing....I've posted about it before. Priced the same job in the north for comparision and they had no mark up on the part. The days of people getting blindly ripped off at main dealers seems to be coming to an end if my local indy is anything to go by. He's flat out with work especially routine service work

reverandkenjami

furtzy wrote: »

Main dealers here have a mark up on everything. My local main dealer where I bought the car recently were asking for a 70% mark up on the cost of a wheel bearing....I've posted about it before. Priced the same job in the north for comparision and they had no mark up on the part. The days of people getting blindly ripped off at main dealers seems to be coming to an end if my local indy is anything to go by. He's flat out with work especially routine service work

He said it wasn't a main dealer he rang

king_of_inismac

Recession is the time to drop prices & increase value, not the other way around.

I understand there has to be a mark up on parts, but not this level of mark up.

I don't buy the fact that these guys can't trawl the internet. They are buying the same parts in bulk. There isn't that much of a difference. The guys I'm buying the parts from are still making a profit, so the garage prices are still crazy!

furtzy

reverandkenjami wrote: »

He said it wasn't a main dealer he rang

Apologies. But it does illustrate the ridiculous mark-up on parts in this country which seems to be the case with the OP's quotes as well

Vote with your feet and source the parts yourself and use a recommended indy

Ferris

king_of_inismac wrote: »

The guys I'm buying the parts from are still making a profit, so the garage prices are still crazy!

I suppose that the guys you're buying from dont have a glass palace on in Ballsbridge to pay for. They're just trying to grab money from anywhere to try to stay afloat.

You are right however, I buy my parts off the internet and get a decent indy to fit them if I can't. I even buy my oil from the uk.

king_of_inismac

Let me clear this up. This isn't a glasses paneled main dealer. It's a small/medium sized independent garage.

I'd expect it in a main dealer, but I was really surprised with this garages price.

JMcCR

Did the wishbones myself on my 156 only a few weeks ago. Handy enough job. Your right to do the lot while you have everything apart. Better and dismantling it all again in 6 months!!

I also sourced the parts myself from the UK and saved a small fortune. I didn't do the ARB bushed though. Looked OK and I didn't fancy dropping the sub-frame. I'd be interested to know how you get on though so keep us posted!

Many garages indies included will not fit parts that you give them, it eats into their profit margin. If you buy a part in a factors you get charged retail, the garage gets charged trade, charges you retail, they male money off everthing they fit as well as the labour. Now some garages don't mind but a lot do.

When I worked in the trade it was frowned upon.

Jonny C

its not just because it eats into their profits,its because the parts you supply them with most likely wont be geniune,so there is no guarantee with them,i.e no comeback to the garage if something goes wrong.Also,ive done some nixers where the customer supplied the parts,half way through the job i realised the parts are not the right ones-nightmare,charged the customer more money for wasting my time.

furtzy

My local indy was delighted I had the parts. Meant he could do the job straight away. The last time he supplied the parts and just charged the wholesale price for them