How much for car service?

physioman

Got my wifes car serviced. Bought all the components myself i.e. Oil; oil, fuel and air filter. He did the service and checked all components? He charged me 80 euro. I thought it was a bit steep seeing as i bought all the parts. Am i wrong?

zarquon

physioman wrote: »

Got my wifes car serviced. Bought all the components myself i.e. Oil; oil, fuel and air filter. He did the service and checked all components? He charged me 80 euro. I thought it was a bit steep seeing as i bought all the parts. Am i wrong?

Very steep, no more than an hours work involved. €50 would have been fairer imo although mechanics make margin from the supplies also and generally don't want people supplying the parts.

physioman

zarquon wrote: »

Very steep, no more than an hours work involved. €50 would have been fairer imo although mechanics make margin from the supplies also and generally don't want people supplying the parts.

Yeah that's what i thought. Say it will be the last visit

bazz26

How long was he working on the car?

It might have been cheaper if you had let the mechanic buy and fit the parts as most mechanics will get a trade discount from a motor factors as they buy regularly. Buying them yourself means that he would have to increase the price of labour to make it worth his while. The alternative is to service your own car.

physioman

bazz26 wrote: »

How long was he working on the car?

It might have been cheaper if you had let the mechanic buy and fit the parts as most mechanics will get a trade discount from a motor factors as they buy regularly. Buying them yourself means that he would have to increase the price of labour to make it worth his while. The alternative is to service your own car.

Yeah would have done it myself only couldn't get cap off the oil filter. I got all the components for 50 quid so thought service would have been round 50 euro

swarlb

physioman wrote: »

Got my wifes car serviced. Bought all the components myself i.e. Oil; oil, fuel and air filter. He did the service and checked all components? He charged me 80 euro. I thought it was a bit steep seeing as i bought all the parts. Am i wrong?

Did you ask him to quote before you got the job done ?

physioman

swarlb wrote: »

Did you ask him to quote before you got the job done ?

Normally not that dear. Know for again

DanWall

I would prefer to buy my own oil so you know you are not getting any cheap trash that will eventually ruin your engine.

Yawns

physioman wrote: »

Yeah would have done it myself only couldn't get cap off the oil filter.

:eek:

djimi

Was it a garage or a mate doing a nixer? I dont consider €80 for an hour (probably more) to be a lot for labour; especially if it was a garage and not someone operating out of their back yard.

oldyouth

Serviced, replaced 2 indicator bulbs, oil filters, wheels aligned....€80 this week

Yawns

djimi wrote: »

Was it a garage or a mate doing a nixer? I dont consider €80 for an hour (probably more) to be a lot for labour; especially if it was a garage and not someone operating out of their back yard.

In a main dealer I would expect €50 per hour for labour as normal not €80. The mechanic clearly wasn't happy about parts being supplied as he couldn't make a profit margin on the parts, so lumped it into the service itsself.

Unless there's something amiss and he spent 3 - 4 hours doing it or an hour and a half in a main dealer, then it's too expensive imo.

OP - There used to be a sticky around here giving a good detail into how to service your own car if you want to learn for future use. I'll see if I can find it. You're already able to source your own parts and will be able to keep an eye out for special deals on oil etc and stock up for a future service. Spend a bit now on tools that you might need but will save you money in the long run.

Get a good socket ratchet set.
Oil filter wrench.
A brake wind back kit.
Drain pan for draining oil or life hack it with an old oil drum.
Good jack.
Axle stands
Gloves

optional - Oil vacuum pump if you want. There's pros and cons to that tho. If you do get a oil vacuum I'd alternate with using it and removing the sump nut. Some people only use the sump, others use only the vacuum and others use both.

Yawns

Here's the link from years ago. Fairly straight forward and with pictures!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57962221

physioman

Yawns wrote: »

In a main dealer I would expect €50 per hour for labour as normal not €80. The mechanic clearly wasn't happy about parts being supplied as he couldn't make a profit margin on the parts, so lumped it into the service itsself.

Unless there's something amiss and he spent 3 - 4 hours doing it or an hour and a half in a main dealer, then it's too expensive imo.

OP - There used to be a sticky around here giving a good detail into how to service your own car if you want to learn for future use. I'll see if I can find it. You're already able to source your own parts and will be able to keep an eye out for special deals on oil etc and stock up for a future service. Spend a bit now on tools that you might need but will save you money in the long run.

Get a good socket ratchet set.
Oil filter wrench.
A brake wind back kit.
Drain pan for draining oil or life hack it with an old oil drum.
Good jack.
Axle stands
Gloves

optional - Oil vacuum pump if you want. There's pros and cons to that tho. If you do get a oil vacuum I'd alternate with using it and removing the sump nut. Some people only use the sump, others use only the vacuum and others use both.

He is working out of his own garage at the side of the house. I have the equipment to do my own Toyota but the oil filter on the vw golf mk iv you need a special cap to get it off. I tried with a chain wrench but couldn't get it off. Thanks for extra tips

George Dalton

€80 is a very fair price in my opinion. We would certainly want more than that if the customer was supplying the parts. At least €100.

You either want the job done right, or you want it done cheap. To get both is very rare.

bazz26

Yawns wrote: »

In a main dealer I would expect €50 per hour for labour as normal not €80.

I have yet to find a main dealer who charges only €50 an hour in labour. Most will charge €70/€80 an hour and premium brands can charge €100 or more.

Stheno

I actually think it's not a bad price at all to be honest, assuming it was
change the oil, change the filters and check all components?

It's the last part that does it for me, what does check all components mean?

I've just put my car through a full service, and check all components meant a check of the shocks, the suspension, what was under the bonnet etc, which certainly would have taken my mechanic more than an hour, and he found two small issues to be dealt with.

I have a weird relationship with my mechanic in that unless it's a consumable part like filters, I buy the part, and he buys the consumable parts

dar83

Was just about to say that myself. A main dealer charging €50 an hour?! I'm not sure there's any in the country that charge that.

George Dalton

dar83 wrote: »

Was just about to say that myself. A main dealer charging €50 an hour?! I'm not sure there's any in the country that charge that.

Exactly. Because it wouldn't be a viable business model.

Yawns

Seriously? Last time I was in the local main dealer looking for a part, I was told it's €50 an hour just for the labour. Now that was about a year or 2 now being honest as I usually go to an indie if I can't do it myself and I will admit, the main dealer is gone now. So maybe it was his last ditch to try get ppl in for services and other work.

djimi

I would consider €50 an hour for an indy to be cheap. €50 an hour for a main dealer sounds borderline dodgy!

Yawns

Shows how out of the loop I am.

I normally service the car myself and do what I can myself. When bringing the car to a mechanic, I generally negotiate the cost of the job up front rather than ask for his hourly rate.

toyotaavensis

Lads to be honest when you say a dealer charges €X in labour it is important to realise that is not going into his pocket.
If he is genuine
13.5% of that is VAT and some parts such as tyres are charged at 23% VAT (a lot of garages mistakenly charge 13.5 for this though)
The garage has to pay overheads such as light and heat. They need somewhere to do the work. They need insurance. They need tools.
Part of your labour charge goes on these things so at the end of the day a lot of the €X disapears. What the mechanic gets himself is then subject to income tax.

dar83

toyotaavensis wrote: »

Lads to be honest when you say a dealer charges €X in labour it is important to realise that is not going into his pocket.
If he is genuine
13.5% of that is VAT and some parts such as tyres are charged at 23% VAT (a lot of garages mistakenly charge 13.5 for this though)
The garage has to pay overheads such as light and heat. They need somewhere to do the work. They need insurance. They need tools.
Part of your labour charge goes on these things so at the end of the day a lot of the €X disapears. What the mechanic gets himself is then subject to income tax.

That is what most of us are inferring when we say €50 an hour is unheard of for a main dealer...

chimmy chonga

My wife's car is a year old and there is less than 10,000km on the clock. The manufacturer says it must be serviced to comply with the warranty.
How can I be sure that the garage does what they say they'll do in a service?

djimi

chimmy chonga wrote: »

My wife's car is a year old and there is less than 10,000km on the clock. The manufacturer says it must be serviced to comply with the warranty.
How can I be sure that the garage does what they say they'll do in a service?

Get receipts for the parts they use and an invoice detailing all the work carried out.

Check the warrenty fully; you might need to use OEM parts to comply with the terms of the warranty.

chimmy chonga

djimi wrote: »

Get receipts for the parts they use and an invoice detailing all the work carried out.

Check the warrenty fully; you might need to use OEM parts to comply with the terms of the warranty.

Thanks for that. It will be a main dealer that will be carrying out the service, but my gut feeling is that they will not replace the oil filter for instance as it has such low mileage, and still charge me for it. I've had bad experiences over the years with servicing so I am very sceptical. I hope I'm wrong but I might ask the AA to look over the car after the service is carried out. I just hate being ripped-off!

djimi

Theres not much that you can do in that instance really; it doesnt make much sense to spend more money getting someone like the AA to check over a mechanics work on the off chance that they might be dodgy. If youre not happy with the dealer that you are using then ask around and get some recommendations for local indy mechanics who people are happy to use. To comply with the warranty, the work might not necessarily have to be carried out by a main dealer; it may be that the mechanic just has to use OEM parts for example.

Henry Ford III

chimmy chonga wrote: »

Thanks for that. It will be a main dealer that will be carrying out the service, but my gut feeling is that they will not replace the oil filter for instance as it has such low mileage, and still charge me for it. I've had bad experiences over the years with servicing so I am very sceptical. I hope I'm wrong but I might ask the AA to look over the car after the service is carried out. I just hate being ripped-off!

Mark the oil filter.