Service and repair Cost

agentgreen

Hi,

I got my Golf serviced there during the week. I went back to the VW dealers where I bought the car to get it done. The night before it was serviced a wire went in the drivers door, so a lot of the electronics went, i.e. the central locking and the petrol flap. Anyway I brought the car to be serviced and repaired the next day.

The cost they came back with after the car was repaired was €299. Does this seem very high? The service was €149, which is grand, because it had to be done anyway, but the €150 to replace a wire seems very high. Does it not?

I asked for a breakdown and all I got was "133 plus vat for the wiring that includes labour and all necessary connectors and insulators to complete the repair."

What are peoples opinions on this please? Does it seem very high?

Thanks.

robtri

agentgreen wrote: »

Hi,

I got my Golf serviced there during the week. I went back to the VW dealers where I bought the car to get it done. The night before it was serviced a wire went in the drivers door, so a lot of the electronics went, i.e. the central locking and the petrol flap. Anyway I brought the car to be serviced and repaired the next day.

The cost they came back with after the car was repaired was €299. Does this seem very high? The service was €149, which is grand, because it had to be done anyway, but the €150 to replace a wire seems very high. Does it not?

I asked for a breakdown and all I got was "133 plus vat for the wiring that includes labour and all necessary connectors and insulators to complete the repair."

What are peoples opinions on this please? Does it seem very high?

Thanks.

well i assume that the price includes the labour... how much per hour was the labour?
depending on the wire and more importanly try to find out why it went and fix that so it doesnt happen again..

agentgreen

They said it was more or less wear and tear. The car is only an 04.

I asked for a labour breakdown, but I wasn't given it.

Does that price seem reasonable? I was a little taken back by how much it was, but if someone in the know says it's right, then it is what it is.

robtri

agentgreen wrote: »

They said it was more or less wear and tear. The car is only an 04.

I asked for a labour breakdown, but I wasn't given it.

Does that price seem reasonable? I was a little taken back by how much it was, but if someone in the know says it's right, then it is what it is.

Without the labour costs its hard to tell..
it may seem like a wire, but it probably 10 mins off with the door cards, 10 mins back on with the door card, if it wiring, technically he should take the battery out of the circuit, 5 mins,
then find the wire, ( if its wear and tear) cut out the damaged section, put in new wire, solder and heat shrink wrap it up.. 20 mins or so
thats 45 mins I count for the job going easy enough..

Nissan doctor

The main cost would have been for stripping the door and finding the fault. Not replacing a wire.

agentgreen

Nissan doctor wrote: »

The main cost would have been for stripping the door and finding the fault. Not replacing a wire.

Thanks.
For the service and repair they charged €200 labour and €64 for the components plus vat. Does this seem reasonable?

Cill Dara Abu

agentgreen wrote: »

Thanks.
For the service and repair they charged €200 labour and €64 for the components plus vat. Does this seem reasonable?

Why did you bring it to a main dealer they are total rip-off merchants, have a look around for a good and reasonably priced independent mechanic.

agentgreen

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

agentgreen wrote: »

Thanks.
For the service and repair they charged €200 labour and €64 for the components plus vat. Does this seem reasonable?

Why did you bring it to a main dealer they are total rip-off merchants, have a look around for a good and reasonably priced independent mechanic.

Because I wanted the keep the full vw service history.

bazz26

agentgreen wrote: »

Because I wanted the keep the full vw service history.

Well high labour costs are one of the previlages of getting work done and the service book stamped by a main dealer.

Cill Dara Abu

agentgreen wrote: »

Because I wanted the keep the full vw service history.

What use is that to you exactly?

agentgreen

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

agentgreen wrote: »

Because I wanted the keep the full vw service history.

What use is that to you exactly?

A lot of people like it at resale.

Sobanek

I remember that joke.
A man's car is misfiring, he took it to a mechanic.
Mechanic had a brief look at it, took a hammer and struck the engine.
The car didn't misfire anymore.
- That'll be 200 euro - he said
- 200 euro just for this?
- 1 euro for the hit, 199 for knowing where to hit

Atlantic Dawn

agentgreen wrote: »

A lot of people like it at resale.

On a nearly 8 year old car it might add €250 to the price at resale if very lucky and cost you €1000 extra in labour costs over your ownership.

mickdw

The garage I presume had to actually diagnose what the problem was. It wassnt jsut a matter of looking at a wire, chopping some out and sticking a new piece in.

Some garages might have sold you a new door control unit for €250 plus €150 labour for fitting when arriving with the problem you had.

I dont think 150 was bad for that job.

Nissan doctor

agentgreen wrote: »

Thanks.
For the service and repair they charged €200 labour and €64 for the components plus vat. Does this seem reasonable?

As has been said, without knowing how many hours they are charging you for its difficult to say if its expensive or not. Its not ringing any ripoff alarm bells for what could have been involved though.

With regards to the service history, A full recorded service history can be an advantage when selling but as cars get older, paying a premium to have a VW stamp on the book as opposed to a reputable independant garage stamp is simply false economy as you would never make the extra you have paid back when selling.

bucketybuck

Former dealership service advisor/warranty guru/manager here.

I wouldnt be at all shocked to hear that the job took two hours. Two hours to confirm the fault, strip the door, trace all wiring and clean connections, identify and repair the fault, then rebuild as required.

Electrical faults are horrible for dealerships, they always take longer than the customer expects. "It was just a wire". Yeah, but which one?

A couple of hours doesnt sound excessive to me, so it all boils down to the hourly rate at the particular garage.

One other thing, in cases like this the labour breakdown isnt much use to you. What do you want them to say? There was a wiring fault. They traced and repaired the wiring fault. I have written thousands of labour stories on invoices, they say just what I want them to say at any particular time, and are worth just about the paper they are written on.

-Chris-

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

Why did you bring it to a main dealer they are total rip-off merchants, have a look around for a good and reasonably priced independent mechanic.

I don't think €150 is a particularly high invoice for a VW main dealer service to be honest. Seems pretty competitive to me (yes, not as cheap as Atlas/Advance/indy, but definitely cheaper than it used to be).

I'd be happy paying that for a main dealer service.