Rip-off repair.

dawballz

My GF got a new car not too long ago, maybe 3 months.
We were going home one day and it was very wet and the roads were greasy.
There was traffic lights and a long line of traffic on a main road, and as we approahed, she went to brake, and the car skidded about 30Ft into the car ahead which was stopped at the lights, so we hit the back of it.
Thank god the car we hit had a hitch and it didn't get damaged, but the gf's car, a 96 Micra got:
2 broken lights
bonnet arced up in the middle
metal frame around the radiator was bent in a bit.
I actually should have taken pics but didnt think of it at the time.

Anyway, we brought it to a local mechanic/garage, and I think the GF's parents asked the mechanic how much would it cost(more than once) and he didn't give them an answer(kinda shrugged it off).

He told them what parts he needed so the gf's parents went off to get them.
What it needed was:
2 New Headlights ---- Brand new: 135EUR
New Bonnet

---

2nd Hand: 50EUR

So they went off and bought them from a car shop and breaker.

Gave the parts to the mechanic and about 3 days later, she had the car back(he told her it needed new tyres too).

So, what he did to the car was:
Put in new headlights,
Sanded/painted the new(kinda) bonnet,
touched up a small bit of a scratch on the rear left side of the car,
bent the frame mentioned above back out.

Labour Cost:

460 EUR !!
WTF?!
There couldn't have been more than 10 or 12 hours work in that could there?
Is this a ripoff?
I think the GF's parents paid the mechanic too, don;t know if they kicked up a fuss or not though(I know I would have).

Anyway, sorry about the rant, but I need opinions.

Also, 2 weeks before the incident, the gf did her NCT and passed, so her tyres were either overlooked, or weren't that bad, but since the mechanic mentioned above had nothing got to do with the tyres, I think he was right about the tyres.

1

dawballz wrote:

My GF got a new car not too long ago, maybe 3 months.
We were going home one day and it was very wet and the roads were greasy.
There was traffic lights and a long line of traffic on a main road, and as we approahed, she went to brake, and the car skidded about 30Ft into the car ahead which was stopped at the lights, so we hit the back of it.
Thank god the car we hit had a hitch and it didn't get damaged, but the gf's car, a 96 Micra got:
2 broken lights
bonnet arced up in the middle
metal frame around the radiator was bent in a bit.
I actually should have taken pics but didnt think of it at the time.

Anyway, we brought it to a local mechanic/garage, and I think the GF's parents asked the mechanic how much would it cost(more than once) and he didn't give them an answer(kinda shrugged it off).

He told them what parts he needed so the gf's parents went off to get them.
What it needed was:
2 New Headlights ---- Brand new: 135EUR
New Bonnet

---

2nd Hand: 50EUR

So they went off and bought them from a car shop and breaker.

Gave the parts to the mechanic and about 3 days later, she had the car back(he told her it needed new tyres too).

So, what he did to the car was:
Put in new headlights,
Sanded/painted the new(kinda) bonnet,
touched up a small bit of a scratch on the rear left side of the car,
bent the frame mentioned above back out.

Labour Cost:

460 EUR !!
WTF?!
There couldn't have been more than 10 or 12 hours work in that could there?
Is this a ripoff?
I think the GF's parents paid the mechanic too, don;t know if they kicked up a fuss or not though(I know I would have).

Anyway, sorry about the rant, but I need opinions.

Also, 2 weeks before the incident, the gf did her NCT and passed, so her tyres were either overlooked, or weren't that bad, but since the mechanic mentioned above had nothing got to do with the tyres, I think he was right about the tyres.

Thats cheap.

Its about 60-87 euro an hour by a franchised dealer. And thats not the badged franchises.

It is cheap by the way. Labour cost in ireland vis the motor trade are sky high. A good technican can get up to 38,000 a year.

You do the math.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

Thats not a bad price, considering what he did, not even the amount of time it took him. Ususally any kinda dint removal with a piant touch-up is expensive.

fightin irish

They charge €70 an hour where i work. You/They were deffo charged a dealer price, I know its not easy but try to find a friend of a friend etc who is in the trade....not always easy to do i know..................

dawballz

Hmm..
How many hours work do you think would have been in it?
In total, it all cost her ~745 EUR, but that includes price of tyres.
745 is half the price of the car.

fightin irish

If i think of it i'll ask our bodyshop in work and see what they say.

unkel

dawballz wrote:

Labour Cost:

460 EUR !!
WTF?!

Doesn't sound excessive to me tbh...

dawballz

Cheers fightin irish..

unkel; seems a bit much to me.
Actually thinkking more about it, I couldn't see how there even about 5 hours work in that..

unkel

dawballz wrote:

I couldn't see how there even about 5 hours work in that..

12 hours or 5 hours makes a bit of a difference!

John R

1 wrote:

Thats cheap.

Its about 60-87 euro an hour by a franchised dealer. And thats not the badged franchises.

It is cheap by the way. Labour cost in ireland vis the motor trade are sky high. A good technican can get up to 38,000 a year.

You do the math.

€38,000 a year works out at about €20-22 per hour.

AMurphy

Well, that's labor for you. I think you got a good deal. If you really want a bad deal, change the crankshaft seal on the clutch side. Seal = $10, Labor = 8 hours.

Or consider yourself lucky, had your car had HID you'd have been billed $500~$1000 for the lamps. consider, BMW HID's @ $1200 per side.

AMurphy

John R wrote:

€38,000 a year works out at about €20-22 per hour.

Yes, that what the tech may get, however the garage may well charge double or triple that to cover overhead, insurance, mistakes, ads, holidays, bad debts, owners wages, tea & bikkies for the tech., etc.

lomb

thats exceptionally cheap. i had a golf repaired recently with frontal damage the same as u are describing except there was 1 more wing to paint. the total was 2800 euro and even that was cheap(belgard motors)

400 odd euro is buttons for labour. also paint costs money. rent costs money, and we all have to make a living, and theres vat as well if he pays any (unlikely at that price) u must pm me his details if i ever need body work

he definately undercharged u by about 400 euros roughly.

Seth Brundle

dawballz wrote:

Hmm..
How many hours work do you think would have been in it?
In total, it all cost her ~745 EUR, but that includes price of tyres.

Given that she skidded approx 30 feet, then her tyres must have been really bad!

dawballz wrote:

745 is half the price of the car.

irrelevant!

RedorDead

dawballz wrote:

Hmm..
How many hours work do you think would have been in it?
In total, it all cost her ~745 EUR, but that includes price of tyres.
745 is half the price of the car.

You maybe should have considered whether it was worth getting it even done in the first place.

For cars that old and worth that little sometimes its best off just leaving the damage as fixing it wouldnt even be worth it when it comes to resale time and most dealers would offer trade in on a pram to get a deal.

franksm

Don't know about the tyres - perhaps they were flat-spotted by the 30ft skid ? Dunno.

Anyway, the guy I use for paint/repair charges about €250 for panels such as doors and wings. For something like a bonnet, it's probably going to cost me about €350 for prep and painting.

With that in mind, €460 sounds pretty good considering the new tyres and paintwork.

Seth Brundle

franksm wrote:

Don't know about the tyres - perhaps they were flat-spotted by the 30ft skid ? Dunno.

Doubtful - its not F1 we are talking about here!

whippet

after a recent blunder in a car park I discovered that the minimum charge for anyone to paint a panel is €200 + VAT. A bonnet would cost more and that is quite a reasonable price.

€60-€80 an hour isn't expensive for a mechanics time, if they couldn't charge that they wouldn't be in business.

dawballz

franksm wrote:

Don't know about the tyres - perhaps they were flat-spotted by the 30ft skid ? Dunno.

Anyway, the guy I use for paint/repair charges about €250 for panels such as doors and wings. For something like a bonnet, it's probably going to cost me about €350 for prep and painting.

With that in mind, €460 sounds pretty good considering the new tyres and paintwork.

No, the new tyres were bought elsewhere.
The 460 is labour only.

whippet

that would work out at about 6-7 hours labour, about right i'd imagine

dawballz

Fooking hell, I think I'll become a mechanic so.
Screw studying medicine to be a doctor, car mechanic is the way forward lads.

whippet

i get the hint of sarcasam there .. remember a mechanic has many overheads .. .cost of equipment, insurance, rent/rates, ESB etc ...

lomb

very high overheads when u are a car mechanic/ bodyshop. apart from paying yourself u have to pay the vat man, the rent, the paint alone for your car would have been 80 euro odd. so it was 460 - vat say of 60 assuming he pays any. thats 400 less 80 paint, which is 320 euro. now it is at least 10 hours work, including panel beating the front panel which perhaps should have been replaced if it was as bad as u say. so he charged u under half the rate for a non main dealer!
so 32 euro an hour is under half the going rate. belgard motors and all main dealers charge 90 euro an hour, lesser dealers charge 60 or less.
at the end of the day the main dealer is held to a much higher standard. where the golf i had done was 2800, everything has been replaced with new galvanized parts, the paint finish is perfect, and the panel gaps are perfect. the car was returned fully valeted. the parts alone cost 1500 at retail prices so thats why i would regard 2800 inc 12.5% vat as 'cheap'

Seth Brundle

Just out of curiosity, did you gt a written or verbal quote of how much the work would cost?

1

dawballz wrote:

Fooking hell, I think I'll become a mechanic so.
Screw studying medicine to be a doctor, car mechanic is the way forward lads.

Indeed. You get to live off your nixers alone.

dawballz

kbannon wrote:

Just out of curiosity, did you gt a written or verbal quote of how much the work would cost?

Well it wasn't me, but the GF told me that her mother asked the mechanic 3 times how much it would cost, and he shrugged it off/ignored her/said he didn't know.

lomb

dawballz wrote:

Well it wasn't me, but the GF told me that her mother asked the mechanic 3 times how much it would cost, and he shrugged it off/ignored her/said he didn't know.

i think thats where the problem arose. if somebody quotes for it and they come back then thats a contract. if they sort of lead people thru people feel cheated even though in this case, unless its a total gunter job u actually cheated ur man. thats the strange thing