Is this expensive?

Ollygolf

The local lad who services my car moved away so I got a friends dad to service my car. He just asked me did it need a full service and I said ya. It cost 180 and I'm trying to work out is this expensive as he done it from home so I've no docket or details about what's been done as my friend dropped back car. It's an 08,1.9 diesel golf.

George Dalton

€180 cash presumably? No receipt for history. No details of what was done. No book stamped I presume?

Yes I would say that was expensive.

Henry Ford III

Without knowing exactly what was done your question is pretty tough.

Ollygolf

George Dalton wrote: »

€180 cash presumably? No receipt for history. No details of what was done. No book stamped I presume?

Yes I would say that was expensive.

I actually gave 200 cash because it was a good friend so I presumed the labour was cheaper but after looking back on old service dockets I never used to pay that much to a genuine garage unless I needed a new tyre etc.

George Dalton

An average price in a decent garage would be €180-200. That includes VAT.

Paying the same money cash in hand to some fella doing a nixer is pointless.

Atlantic Dawn

Was it just an oil change or what did he do?

George Dalton

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Was it just an oil change or what did he do?

I am assuming that for €180 they did the whole lot:

Oil and filter
Air filter
Fuel filter
Cabin filter

Plus a thorough inspection

That's what you get for your €180 in a decent garage.

TherapyBoy

Ollygolf wrote: »

..I've no docket or details about what's been done..

Ask him.

mickdw

George Dalton wrote: »

I am assuming that for €180 they did the whole lot:

Oil and filter
Air filter
Fuel filter
Cabin filter

Plus a thorough inspection

That's what you get for your €180 in a decent garage.

I'd be willing to bet that 180 that the cabin filter was not changed.

JohnBoy26

George Dalton wrote: »

€180 cash presumably? No receipt for history. No details of what was done. No book stamped I presume?

Yes I would say that was expensive.

Say everything has been changed and genuine parts were used. How much would the parts cost?

George Dalton

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Say everything has been changed and genuine parts were used. How much would the parts cost?

That depends on who is buying them

To break down the cost of the job on average. Our prices would be approximately:

Oil filter (VW) €6
4 litres of Fuchs 507.00 oil €32
Sump stud (VW) €3
Air filter (VW) €15
Fuel filter (Mahle) €18
Cabin filter (VW) €10
1.5 hours labour €75

That comes to €159 + 13.5% VAT = €180

The Sidewards Man

The sales pitch is out in force tonight ^

George Dalton

The Sidewards Man wrote: »

The sales pitch is out in force tonight ^

I'm not trying to sell anything. Just trying to provide some real world info for people. There is a serious lack of transparency in the prices a lot of garages charge. It's a pet hate of mine.

La Fenetre

George Dalton wrote: »

That depends on who is buying them

To break down the cost of the job on average. Our prices would be approximately:

1.5 hours labour €75 ex VAT

Given that the mechanic is paid about €15 per hour, if he's lucky, can you break this one down for us as well ?

ba_barabus

George Dalton wrote: »

That depends on who is buying them

To break down the cost of the job on average. Our prices would be approximately:

Oil filter (VW) €6
4 litres of Fuchs 507.00 oil €32
Sump stud (VW) €3
Air filter (VW) €15
Fuel filter (Mahle) €18
Cabin filter (VW) €10
1.5 hours labour €75

That comes to €159 + 13.5% VAT = €180

I'm assuming from what you've outlined above that they are genuine parts.

I need to check my last service invoice.

ba_barabus

The Sidewards Man wrote: »

The sales pitch is out in force tonight ^

Not really. Ask most people to tell you what a full service entails and they'll fall over their words trying to tell you and still be wrong

George Dalton

La Fenetre wrote: »

Given that the mechanic is paid about €15 per hour, if he's lucky, can you break this one down for us as well ?

Sure. The remaining €35 is comprised of:
1. Overheads
2. Profit

CiniO

George Dalton wrote: »

I am assuming that for €180 they did the whole lot:

Oil and filter
Air filter
Fuel filter
Cabin filter

Plus a thorough inspection

That's what you get for your €180 in a decent garage.

I service my car myself, and to be honest, €180 won't be enough just for a genuine parts to do all above, so I'd be worried if garage did service for €180.
And it's just regular civic 2.2 diesel.

George Dalton

CiniO wrote: »

I service my car myself, and to be honest, €180 won't be enough just for a genuine parts to do all above, so I'd be worried if garage did service for €180.
And it's just regular civic 2.2 diesel.

Yes but the OP drives a Golf not a Civic. A Civic costs considerably more than a Golf to service. The filters are more expensive, the engine holds more oil, the oil is more expensive and the job is more labour intensive.

bigroad

140 is plenty for what he done.

CiniO

Also worth mentioning, that unless you intentionally ask for it, most garages wouldn't do anything more than list above.
Plenty cars need changing of braking fluid probably every 3 years.
Change of coolant every 5 years or 100,000km or something.
Change of manual transmission oil every 120,000km...
Timing belt every 100,000km or more often.
These are all service items, but if you go to most garages and ask them to do service, they won't bother even asking about doing the above.

bigroad

CiniO wrote: »

Also worth mentioning, that unless you intentionally ask for it, most garages wouldn't do anything more than list above.
Plenty cars need changing of braking fluid probably every 3 years.
Change of coolant every 5 years or 100,000km or something.
Change of manual transmission oil every 120,000km...
Timing belt every 100,000km or more often.
These are all service items, but if you go to most garages and ask them to do service, they won't bother even asking about doing the above.

I like your style Cino ,when I was at the game there was a lot more checks.
Too many back street guys doing oil and filter.

mickdw

La Fenetre wrote: »

Given that the mechanic is paid about €15 per hour, if he's lucky, can you break this one down for us as well ?

Idiotic post. Why do some people assume that a garage owner should provide a workshop, equipment insurance etc all for the hourly rate that they actually pay out to junior staff?
The running costs are frightening for a garage workshop I would assume.

JohnBoy26

bigroad wrote: »

140 is plenty for what he done.

What did he do though?

La Fenetre

mickdw wrote: »

Idiotic post. Why do some people assume that a garage owner should provide a workshop, equipment insurance etc all for the hourly rate that they actually pay out to junior staff?
The running costs are frightening for a garage workshop I would assume.

I asked a simple question, and didn't say any of that, in case anyone's fooled.
The assumptions are all your own.

bigroad

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

What did he do though?

That's the real question. He charged garage price for doing a nixer.

mickdw

La Fenetre wrote: »

I asked a simple question, the assumptions are all you're own.

You asked what you thought was a smart arse question.

La Fenetre

mickdw wrote: »

You asked what you thought was a smart arse question.

Or rather you jumped on a high horse assumption and thought you had posted a smart arse answer to a question that never existed.

JohnBoy26

bigroad wrote: »

That's the real question. He charged garage price for doing a nixer.

You don't know that though. The op hasn't really provided enough info to determine what was done and what parts were used.

mickdw

La Fenetre wrote: »

Or rather you thought you had posted a smart arse answer to a question that never existed.

Whatever. I've seen it all before on here.
...... the bad garage man charged me 70 quid per hour and my cousins brothers uncle works there and they only pay him 5 quid an hour ....... and and and he tells me that they never service the cars just hoover and wash them.

punisher5112

Flux capacitor anyone????

bigroad

A full service is an nct check and a change of oil.fuel.air filters,new oil,plugs,check and adjust brakes ,tyres,lights,fluids,and more to do it right.

bigroad

mickdw wrote: »

Whatever. I've seen it all before on here.
...... the bad garage man charged me 70 quid per hour and my cousins brothers uncle works there and they only pay him 5 quid an hour ....... and and and he tells me that they never service the cars just hoover and wash them.

If he is paying him 5 an hour you should report the garage owner asap.

colm_mcm

Yeah but he gets to bring customers cars home so doesn't need a car. It all balances out.

bigroad

If he has free power ,so be it.

La Fenetre

mickdw wrote: »

Whatever. I've seen it all before on here.
...... the bad garage man charged me 70 quid per hour and my cousins brothers uncle works there and they only pay him 5 quid an hour ....... and and and he tells me that they never service the cars just hoover and wash them.

Ok . . . we'll leave you to your imaginary conversations with your imaginary posters.

bigroad

A question for all that know .How much is a good mechanic.
I would say a good weeks work 700euro I know most pay about 6 what do you think.

nd

CiniO wrote: »

Also worth mentioning, that unless you intentionally ask for it, most garages wouldn't do anything more than list above.
Plenty cars need changing of braking fluid probably every 3 years.
Change of coolant every 5 years or 100,000km or something.
Change of manual transmission oil every 120,000km...
Timing belt every 100,000km or more often.
These are all service items, but if you go to most garages and ask them to do service, they won't bother even asking about doing the above.

If a mechanic asked people in for a service if they wanted those things done though. Even if they are due, 99% of people would say no thanks and say the mechanic is trying to get extra money out of them :pac:

landmarkjohn

mickdw wrote: »

and and and he tells me that they never service the cars just hoover and wash them.

My Passat 1.8T was serviced at VW main dealer every 10K miles on the dot.

I had to get discs and pads replaced when they started grinding metal on metal whilst on UK trip.

The engine died at 100K miles... oil starvation... possibly known sump oil pickup issue which would be accentuated by.... lack of service?

But in fairness I always had new wipers fitted when I got the car back..... and it was usually washed.

Cee-Jay-Cee

bigroad wrote: »

140 is plenty for what he done.

But you have no idea what he done. He may have only changed the oil and oil filter in which case €140 is robbery.

All the childish bickering is ridiculous, this thread is complete nonsense unless the OP finds out what actual work was done, where the parts were bought etc

I would be willing to bet that all that was done was a simple oil and filter change but until OP confirms that everyone us just speculating.

pred racer

ba_barabus wrote: »

I'm assuming from what you've outlined above that they are genuine parts.

I need to check my last service invoice.

A fuel filter for a 159 is €80

galwaytt

La Fenetre wrote: »

Given that the mechanic is paid about €15 per hour, if he's lucky, can you break this one down for us as well ?

Care to give is a break down on your own income ?

La Fenetre

galwaytt wrote: »

Care to give is a break down on your own income ?

Tell us, why are customers supposed to give a breakdown of their own income when asking about a bill ?

galwaytt

La Fenetre wrote: »

Tell us, why are customers supposed to give a breakdown of their own income when asking about a bill ?

...what makes you think you're entitled to the garages breakdown then? The rate is €75 p.h. Don't like it? Go somewhere e lse.

La Fenetre

galwaytt wrote: »

...what makes you think you're entitled to the garages breakdown then? The rate is €75 p.h. Don't like it? Go somewhere e lse.

Because we're the paying customer and not the one trying to charge €75 + VAT per hour for somone elses labour.

slimjimmc

La Fenetre wrote: »

Because we're the paying customer and not the one trying to charge €75 + VAT per hour for somone elses labour.

Being the paying customer still does not entitle you to know how any business derives their hourly rate. As said, you either accept the quoted rate or go elsewhere.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

mickdw

La Fenetre wrote: »

Because we're the paying customer and not the one trying to charge €75 + VAT per hour for somone elses labour.

True colours are showing tonight. You previously deny that you were implying anything re the garage rates and we're simply asking a question. Tonight it is pretty clear that I was correct and you do in fact seem to think that there is nothing else involved in the transaction other than the garage having to pay the mechanic and you clearly think that you should get fully legit garage with warranty on their work, insurance etc all for 15 quid per hour cause after all, that's all the garage are paying the mechanic.
You couldn't back up your views last night and basically said I was reading into things that were not there.
Tonight it seems I'm not so crazy after all and had this right from the off.

La Fenetre

slimjimmc wrote: »

Being the paying customer still does not entitle you to know how any business derives their hourly rate. As said, you either accept the quoted rate or go elsewhere.

That depends if the rate is agreed in advance or afterwards, and where I go I pay nowhere near 75 per 1.5 hours plus VAT, that's why I'm asking how they came up with it (still no answers though, just a lot of weak diversion tactics and personal attacks so far), but you can if you want.

La Fenetre

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I think some garages think they are doing people a favor instead of treating them like customers. I'm all for profit, I'm not for gougers.

slimjimmc

La Fenetre wrote: »

That depends if the rate is agreed in advance or afterwards, and where I go I pay nowhere near 75 per hour plus VAT, that's why I'm asking how they came up with it (still no answers though, just a lot of weak diversion tactics and personal attacks so far), but you can if you want.

Nope, it doesn't. You're entitled to see an itemised invoice listing the costs of materials, labour and applicable VAT and you can dispute the bill (whether you agreed a rate in advance or not) and even try to negotiate a reduction but you're still not entitled to see how they determine their hourly rates. That's their business. All that's relevant to you is to know they charge €75/hr + VAT but not how much of that €75 goes towards wages, overheads, profit etc. One should always enquire/agree a rate or fixed price before hiring any service.