View Full Version : Get yer spanners out!
Car dealerships charging more than legal firms?
http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,,1711811,00.html
:shock:
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Flamin_Squirrel
17-02-06, 09:11 AM
Reading the Guardian? Shame on you!
Nice article. I'm not surprised.
Scary statistics! :shock:
I have to admit I was quite surprised when I asked my local Suzuki dealer what it would cost to do an 11,000 miles service on my bike. ~£200 said the oik on the service desk - what does that include I asked - his reply was "Oil and filter change, brake fluid change and general check over the bike" - £200!!! Maybe I am wrong, but that seemed rather steep!
This doesn'tsurprise me at all. The Renault main dealer here in S'bury quoted me £300 for the 36K mile service on my Clio. The local garage charged me £125.
I couldn't charge the sort of rates that the Renault dealership charges, I'd have no work. I've said it before - everyone thinks lawyers are hugely wealthy. Maybe so if you're a partner in a large corporate firm but not otherwise.
rictus01
17-02-06, 09:50 AM
Might be time to sort the old overall out then????????????
Na, this IT stuff is money for old rope :wink:
Cheers Mark.
Anonymous
17-02-06, 11:22 AM
I always used to service my bikes on my own - there is absolutely no point in taking a bike for a service just to collect the warrenty and dealers stamp - in case you are genuinely thinking of selling it on in the near future.
If you're gonna run it into the ground, or hang onto it, get a decent tool kit (i got a professional one from halfords with a lifetime warrenty for £150 2 years ago) i swear by it. Next get a Haynes manual -and get your fingers dirty, scrape a few nuckles on bolts and things, and learn how to do it yourself. Or better still - get yourself on a course like Cloggsy has done... worth its weight in gold if you ask me.
8)
Couple of things about the article.
The hourly rate the dealership charges is not what the mechanic/technician is paid, so not valid to say a mech is paid more than a barrister.
I'm not sure whether their comment about an independent has to be VAT registerd to maintain the warranty is correct, I thought they simply were required to be "competent" (a very wooly legal term used in all sorts of cases, such as Part-P electrical issues, open to wide interpretation).
Doesn't affect me, I'm a DIY believer (Damage It Yourself). :roll:
The hourly rate the dealership charges is not what the mechanic/technician is paid, so not valid to say a mech is paid more than a barrister.
I agree, I just wanted to be a little sensationalist :lol: . However it's certainly frightening how much some dealerships charge.
I'm not sure whether their comment about an independent has to be VAT registerd to maintain the warranty is correct, I thought they simply were required to be "competent" (a very wooly legal term used in all sorts of cases, such as Part-P electrical issues, open to wide interpretation).
Yes I thought this too. I cannot see how VAT registration is in any related. After all, with the threshhold now at £60k, it's quite possible for a lone mechanic to operate within that and still offer the same level of service and competency (if not better) than that of a largish dealership. I think the journo got it wrong.
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philipMac
17-02-06, 03:58 PM
Funny thing I noticed... when I lived in more developed countries in Europe I noticed that the gap in wages between skilled labourers and white collar workers decreased. This trend almost hit parrity in Norway (AFAIK). Also, the more our (say Ireland and UK) societies progress, the more this gap narrows.
(Maybe I am naive thinking that in the above case the guy who gets the money is the actual mechanic...)
But, I suppose I see nothing wrong with a car mechanic making a good wage. Or a coal miner, or whatever. Who says lawyers make so much money? We just agreed on that? Ok, so they need a lot of education. Compare the situation with Science. I am working with science people from Rockerfeller, NYU, Cornell and Harvard. They are very very educated, very smart, and almost all of them earn similar amounts of money as say subway drivers. (ie not that much...)
I can afford my SV and some other nice things. I like my job. Its unmercifully hard, but its alright. I prefer to do this than subway driving.
Generally I dont hear complaints from anyone here.
Well Oiled
17-02-06, 05:57 PM
Comparison with lawyers isn't exactly like-for-like. Modern garages need a lot of high tech tools, equipment and facilities so overheads are pretty high.
Having said that, had my car in for service last week - they asked if I wanted the battery replacing in my remote control for £12.70. I bought a battery, flipped open the battery compartment of the control and popped in the new battery. Battery cost £1.75 and it took less than a minute to do. Work the hourly rate out from that. :shock:
Cheers Keith
philipMac
17-02-06, 06:31 PM
Comparison with lawyers isn't exactly like-for-like. Modern garages need a lot of high tech tools, equipment and facilities so overheads are pretty high.
Having said that, had my car in for service last week - they asked if I wanted the battery replacing in my remote control for £12.70. I bought a battery, flipped open the battery compartment of the control and popped in the new battery. Battery cost £1.75 and it took less than a minute to do. Work the hourly rate out from that. :shock:
Cheers Keith
Yeah. Of course.
I suppose I am saying... say you are a guy/girl, and you work a day, how come one person gets paid 100 times the other. What is intrinsically less worthy about being a coal miner at the local pit, than a barrister? So what one person is more trained... I would rather be in law school than down the pit.
I am sure if most people could choose, most would be a barrister. Maybe it turns out only some peope can be the sort of person a barrister is. You need to be a lucky special person. And you go off and do lots of training.
In the mean time the miner is working away. And yet, its totally fine to pay them next to nothing compared to the barrister. :?
Biker Biggles
17-02-06, 06:53 PM
That sounds like communism to me.Senator McCarthy would turn in his grave.Bush won't be too pleased either.You could find yourself as a guest somewhere in Cuba talking like that in the land of the free. :)
philipMac
17-02-06, 07:24 PM
That sounds like communism to me.Senator McCarthy would turn in his grave.Bush won't be too pleased either.You could find yourself as a guest somewhere in Cuba talking like that in the land of the free. :)
:lol:
Well, I suppose I can ask the nice men running towards me who got out of the black Helicopters that just landed outside. They look like government types.
:roll:
Saint Matt
17-02-06, 07:35 PM
My Land rover dealer charge £85 an hour for Freelander work and approx £120-140 (not 100% but it's at least £120) for Range Rovers. Mechanics are paid sod all from that though, with the best techs in our dealer network earning about £15 an hour.
Ceri JC
18-02-06, 03:22 PM
Yes I thought this too. I cannot see how VAT registration is in any related. After all, with the threshhold now at £60k, it's quite possible for a lone mechanic to operate within that and still offer the same level of service and competency (if not better) than that of a largish dealership. I think the journo got it wrong.
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Agreed. Where I used to live, all the work on my car was done by a lone "man in a shed". He was a part time fireman who did mechanical work as a job on the side. The reason I used him, aside from the fact he was cheap, was that he had a genuine love of all things mechanical and really took pride in his work and did a good job. He was one of those rare garages that would actually attempt a repair first, before going for the more expensive (for you)/easier (for him) "replace" option that seems par for the course.
The idea that this chap was in any way less competent than a spotty youth with a spanner in a franchised dealership is ludicrous.
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