Would you pay £193

[AM94]

I think the actual art and skills of being a car mechanic are dying. The approach now simply seems to be to replace any and every component - regardless of whether it is a quick and easy fix.

This sums it up nicely and become rapidly apparent to anyone who owns a classic car.

The reason that main dealers call their workshop staff technicians is because the majority aren’t true mechanics; they can plug a vehicle into the diagnostic computer, which tells them what part needs to be replaced and they then replace said part.

To answer the OPs question, I wouldn’t pay the quoted hourly figure for a main dealer technician BUT I have paid a decent hourly rate for a professional mechanic to work on a classic car. I am both happy to use someone who has excellent skills and knowledge, thereby reducing the need to replace parts and the time it takes to do a job, as well as supporting small business with a rapidly decreasing skill set.

[anz3001]

No the extended warranty bit.

I’ve personally never tested it in court and never buy extended warranties so haven’t checked any wording. On two separate occasions I’ve spoken to Porsche UK. One because we fitted a Bosch battery to a Porsche Boxster and because it wasn’t their branding the customer kicked up a fuss come service time. The second was not fitting ‘N’ rated tyres to a Cayenne. Under block excemption these are non issues but both times I was told it would affect extended warranty.

Here’s one article which backs the theory up.

https://www.whatcar.com/advice/ownin...2016-what-car/

It’s important to check the policy contract for clauses that state or restrict where you can have the car serviced. Unlike manufacturer-provided new car warranties, extended warranties, both aftermarket and manufacturer-supplied ones, can legally stipulate that the car must be serviced by a franchised dealership. In practice, however, most providers are happy as long as the service centre is registered for VAT. Check with the warranty provider before having the car serviced if you are unsure.

[Rob Leeds]

Jesus! Who do they think they are, plumbers?

I wouldn't get out of bed for that.

[number2]

Nevermind we're heading off back into the past soon anyway.

[anz3001]

Additionally, Porsche’s own website says it’s an insurance product.

https://www.porsche.com/uk/accessori...rrantyperiods/

The Porsche Approved Warranty is an insurance product which provides comprehensive cover comparable with the Porsche New Car Guarantee. The Porsche Approved Warranty can be purchased from any Porsche Centre for any Porsche that meets the eligibility criteria; to extend an existing Porsche Approved Warranty or the Porsche New Car Guarantee, or where a car does not have any existing cover.

Unless purchased during the first 12 months of the Porsche New Car Guarantee, a Porsche Approved Warranty can only be purchased subject to your vehicle satisfying a 111 point check at a Porsche Centre (charge applies)

[Rodder]

Surely the big problem isn’t the £193 per hour.

This issue is how much can they do in an hour.

I’ll explaine, the first time they do a job, they have a set time and pull every part off bit by bit, we’ve all done it, but once they’ve done a few times they work out all of the shortcuts and significantly reduce the time taken. Using a main dealer should end up being cheaper as they do the same job over and over again, they know the tools required and all of the pitfalls. This is the con, they always charge the customer as it’s the first time. That’s why they want your car all day, so you don’t see how long the actual job takes. They will argue that job scheduling isn’t a an art, but it is. Of course the employees are under pressure to do the job as fast as possible. I have read that the huge dealer chains make more profits from servicing and repairs than from the sale of new Cars.

Not if their staff turnover is high.

I wonder how many 'apprentice mechanics' are now employed and what's being charged an hour for their time.

[Groundrush]

Surely the big problem isn’t the £193 per hour.

This issue is how much can they do in an hour.

I’ll explaine, the first time they do a job, they have a set time and pull every part off bit by bit, we’ve all done it, but once they’ve done a few times they work out all of the shortcuts and significantly reduce the time taken. Using a main dealer should end up being cheaper as they do the same job over and over again, they know the tools required and all of the pitfalls. This is the con, they always charge the customer as it’s the first time. That’s why they want your car all day, so you don’t see how long the actual job takes. They will argue that job scheduling isn’t a an art, but it is. Of course the employees are under pressure to do the job as fast as possible. I have read that the huge dealer chains make more profits from servicing and repairs than from the sale of new Cars.

Autodata publish times for almost all jobs. These times are based on a trained mechanic doing the job twice. The first time is practice, the second job is timed and that is deemed to be how long the job officially takes. So for any given job, LR at £193/hour should charge for exactly the same amount of time as an independent at £60/hour would.

I spent 10 years working as a mechanic and words cannot express how thoroughly ecstatic I am not to have to do it any more. It's an under-valued, filthy, painful, difficult, under-paid, disrespected, nightmare of a shit job. I don't take my car to a garage often but on the occasions I do, I always bring a big bag of donuts for the lads because no other bugger ever gives them a second thought.

[Michael 38]

I am allways dubious of taking a car in warranty to anyone other than the main dealer cos if something expensive goes wrong and the dealer starts getting awkward no matter what the law says about where you can get work done unless you want to take them to court you are relying on them to treat you fairly

[adrianw]

Autodata publish times for almost all jobs. These times are based on a trained mechanic doing the job twice. The first time is practice, the second job is timed and that is deemed to be how long the job officially takes. So for any given job, LR at £193/hour should charge for exactly the same amount of time as an independent at £60/hour would.

I spent 10 years working as a mechanic and words cannot express how thoroughly ecstatic I am not to have to do it any more. It's an under-valued, filthy, painful, difficult, under-paid, disrespected, nightmare of a shit job. I don't take my car to a garage often but on the occasions I do, I always bring a big bag of donuts for the lads because no other bugger ever gives them a second thought.

I agree that it is an under rated thankless job especially at large dealers, but on the other hand a small garage in the country with just enough business is quite idyllic.

In industry when establishing set times and standard work we do hand assembly ten times and with different operators.

[tobetobes]

I’ve had good service from my local Jag dealer.... but my warrantee runs out in 3 months and I am wondering what that will do to the yearly bills.

It’s spent 6 days in total in the garage having things fixed under warrantee.... I hope I’ve caught them all now!


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[Chris_in_the_UK]

Is that documented anywhere?

Yes, in the Porsche Extended Warranty T&C - because this is a separate insurance based product which is only available outside of the factory warranty period they (the insurance company) effectively call the shots.

[FK77]

I’ve had good service from my local Jag dealer.... but my warrantee runs out in 3 months and I am wondering what that will do to the yearly bills.

It’s spent 6 days in total in the garage having things fixed under warrantee.... I hope I’ve caught them all now!

Regardless of how many current issues have been caught, if planning on keeping a modern JLR product beyond 3 years, I wouldn’t be without a comprehensive extended warranty. I say this as an owner who has been generally very happy and has avoided any breakdowns or major issues. Bills easily run into thousands. I remember an invoice of £2,400+ (paid by extended warranty thankfully) for my first LR and it was mainly preventive maintenance (suspension components, electronic parking brake module etc.).

[reggie747]

...but my warranty runs out in 3 months and I am wondering whether or not to sell it on quicker than I can say "Jack Flash".....

Or have it spend a minimum 60 days or more in the garage having things fixed without any warranty and landing me with a negative equity situation 'cos the bills will outweigh the scrap value of the car.

FTFY

(Er, yeah, kiss that MOFO goodbye...)

[brigant]

It's all relative I guess. Ask a LR owner if they'd pay £500 to get a watch serviced and they might say it's extortionate.

If I had a LR would I want to pay £193per hour, no, but I would have to cough up, to keep the vehicle under warranty.

Getting a watch serviced is a bit more specialised than a car (although I appreciate high performance supercars are a different kettle of fish). I wouldn't pay more than £45 per hour for labour on a car and that's going some. I notice that a lot of main dealers also charge in 30 minute segments (even for a 5 minute job) so there's another nice little earner.

[j0hnbarker]

Getting a watch serviced is a bit more specialised than a car (although I appreciate high performance supercars are a different kettle of fish). I wouldn't pay more than £45 per hour for labour on a car and that's going some. I notice that a lot of main dealers also charge in 30 minute segments (even for a 5 minute job) so there's another nice little earner.

Out of interest, where are you based and when was the last time you had any work done on a car? £45/h seems way below the going rate I’ve encountered in Northern cities over the past 5 years at least.

My local garage is excellent but have been charging £60/h for several years now.

The main BMW dealer is something like £160/h which is ridiculous. Even the BMW independents are somewhere in between these figures.

[steptoe]

No impact on warranty if serviced/maintained by an independent VAT registered garage but just easier to sell and fetches slightly more with full franchised dealer service history.

It may fetch a slightly higher price with main dealer service history than an independent but the price difference the servicing has cost will more than wipe out any gain in price when selling.

[snowman]

Not from what I hear of LR dealers...

They seem on a par with the Vauxhall dealers I had the misfortune to deal with back in the early '90s!

M

[jaytip]

Out of interest, where are you based and when was the last time you had any work done on a car? £45/h seems way below the going rate I’ve encountered in Northern cities over the past 5 years at least.

My local garage is excellent but have been charging £60/h for several years now.

The main BMW dealer is something like £160/h which is ridiculous. Even the BMW independents are somewhere in between these figures.

I use a local VAT registered garage and he’s £40+VAT per hour.

[Complex]

Servicing at main dealers isn't supposed to represent 'value', at all. It's like expecting drinks at a gated festival to be cheap. As far as they are concerned they are leveraging their position in a captured market (through people's perception over maintaining warranties/a perfect service book history) to charge you as much as possible without it being SO stupid that you don't use them at all.

Over a range of marques across a variety of sectors from budget to luxury, I have found main dealer service to be, if not poor, then at least terrible value for the cost. Even when I was using Lexus, who gave exceptional service relative to other brands, I wouldn't use them by choice if it wasn't for the fact I didn't have a good Japanese specialist nearby.

Do a little bit of research into the renowned specialists for your respective manufacturer and you'll end up with better service and a lot of change in your pocket.

[tobetobes]

FTFY

(Er, yeah, kiss that MOFO goodbye...)

Man I wish that wasn’t so true..... He says from the comfort of his office chair after a phone call of “Hi sir, the diff pinion seal on your F type appears to be leaking.... we are taking it apart now....”

Maybe time to scarper indeed!


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