I got a guy that has done my transmission work since I first started driving. Still uses just a jack in the shop which is only big enough to have two vehicles in at once. Has more work than he can do has his son and now grand son all making their living working there. When I ask why he didn't have a bigger shop and a lift. Said he has all the business he can handle at fair price. Lift would just cost him more with insurance and have more OSHA type people with their nose in what he was doing.
My only problem with using him now is he is so booked out. Can't get any thing done quick and need to schedule even fluid filter change a month out. Excellent work fair price but if you want it tomorrow it's not happening.
I'm like Danny and end up doing lot of my work on the drive way. I have 4 different part houses within walking distance of my house. My biggest issue with most shops is trusting them. Even dealer shops where I've bought cars hard hard for me to trust.

Mac

Been trying to find one of those all my life...I'm still looking.

It helps to know what your vehicle needs ahead of taking it in. My dad got in a pinch needing some work done to his F150 before a road trip to Canada, so brought it to the Ford dealer to get it done quick. I forget what exactly he needed done, but when they were done they also gave him a quote of $3,700 to do some other work they "found". I think what they did was punch in the year and mileage and see what 'could' be done based on the wear. No way did they actually check the vehicle out, since one of the things they quoted for was all new spark plugs, which he had that same dealer replace less than 3 months earlier.

I wonder how many people they take advantage with that recommended maintenance.

YouTube is great for tutorials on how to do most jobs, but as cars get more electronic and parts get packed and "tetrised" into the engine compartment, it's getting tougher to work on them.

That's how they pay the bills like insurance, workman's comp, shop tools and supplies along with salaries I would rather be the mechanic then the business owner today. What gets me is say a guy leaves that Firestone shop to start his own business and wants the same repair rates without that same overhead!

Jerry if a hundred an hour truly isn't near enough why then is that the posted rate? a little honesty would go a long way.

My local repair place used to be a Chevrolet dealer. Until GM decided it didn't need all the smaller dealers.

Now he buts/sells cars he buys from the auction houses. Most are lease returned.

His hourly rate is $64.00/hr., by the repair book.

He can still get new cars through a larger dealer(6-8 car lots), that will work with him.

And the mechanic's are old school on the repairs.

I let them change my oil and filter (which I provide), at $10.16.

The first quote on upper control arms was high, but $400 was way way low.

I hope when you did those you checked the lower control arm bushings and bolts to confirm they move freely. They usually go bad before the upper. If you have gotten an alignment already, then they are good since those bolts set the castor and camber angles. If they are not good, you will have to pull it apart again and either replace the lower control arm bushings, or the lower control arms themselves. You should also check the lower control arms for any damage. If they aren't perfectly strait, the alignment will often not come out perfect. Close enough usually, but not perfect, which will kill the tire on that side.

I own a shop with a lift on my property. Once upon a time it was a full service shop and inspection station. Now its my personal shop, but I do work out of it often too. I bought this property because I build stuff and the lift is a bonus. I do everything myself except alignments on IFS vehicles. When I do IFS work I take it to a shop close by when I am finished that does the alignment with the machine for $100. Then I come back and punch the bolts and frame to mark exactly where they are. That way if I knock it out of alignment, I can just put it right back to where it was. If you drive dirt roads or rough trails the savings can add up quick.

If the shop has a few employees, and offers health insurance, the expenses to operate add up very quickly. When you consider the time they may spend empty, but still pay for employees, they need to cover that expense to stay in business. I know its obvious, but when you crunch the numbers, unless you are charging what seem like fairly high prices, it can be very difficult to turn a profit. I do work for people myself, which lets me charge more fair prices, but I learned pretty quickly to charge more than what I thought the work was worth. Often, when a job is done on a vehicle more that 5 years old, I feel I should have charged even more. These northern vehicles have so many hidden problems. Its better to charge a higher price you are certain will cover any problems you may run into, then call the client and tell them you need to raise the price. Upper control arm bolts arent usually too bad, but you do occasionally need to cut them out. Depending on the vehicle, that is easier said than done.

As for parts, all shops I know of besides myself mark up parts so they can charge less on labor. A lot of times if you get the parts and bring them back they will do the work, but not be happy honoring the original labor quote. The only reason I get away with being lower is that I am very picky with the work I take. I primarily only put my hands on Jeeps and Fords.

Even with a fully functional shop, I am building up my metal working business to do more custom iron work since I live in a city with a lot of that, and few people who still work steel by hand. Seems everyone and their brother has a shop or knows someone. Too much stress

One of the best things I got for the shop was a lift, it’s been paid for time and time again... best 3000 bucks spent

Shop labor is high for a reason. Light bill, rent, tools, supplies. I could go on for hours. The main reason I think it is high is to keep people from bringing junk in for repair. You also have to consider that if something breaks on a new part the shop will / should repair for free.

My 3/4 ton van starter need changed today. Orielly gave me mechanics price $63.71 + tax. 1/2 of a hour start to finish including tools away. I wonder what a shop would charge for part and labor? Plus I get the satisfaction of accomplishing that. I realize its an easy job but its something done by me anyway.

I was out by Casper WY a few years ago on a Saturday morning and my pickup started sputtering. 7 hrs from home. Started looking for a mechanic shop and everywhere was booked 2 weeks out. Finally found a shop that would look at it.
He showed me burned plugs, plugged air filter, cracked distributor cap, etc. I knew better because I took care of a fleet of garbage trucks, and my own vehicles.......but he had me over a barrel. It was probly a cracked distributor cap but I'm certain he sold me stuff I didn't need. Anyway, $400 later I was up and running and was glad to pay it.

Are you going yo sue yourself when your parts or repair fails? What about when that ebay part quits 1 month after your"warranty" is up? My employees take home more than I do some weeks. Listen, if you want to save a few bucks and do the repair Yourself, by all means feel free. But if you want the job done right, by a professional, who is accountable in the event things don't go the way they should, for reasonable rate, then bring your vehicle to me. What they quoted you was more than what we would charge, but they are franchise. They have more overhead than we do. I know that sometimes it feels like mechanics are out there just to make a buck, and are showing you things that you could probably get another 20,000 miles out of, but if we do a repair and you go home, and your car breaks down for another reason, you aren't going to say oh it's not the mechanics fault. You're going to bad-mouth my business and me up one side and down the other because you had a part that was failing and we didn't tell you. I think it is ridiculous to ask mechanics to only charge enough to break even. Don't you DARE make a profit and FORGET about retirement. That's all I have to say on this subject.

LIL bIT if your talking about me how dare you imply all kinds of drivel I never wrote

Sometimes I wish I had an interest in fixing my own vehicles. Just had my water pump done, ended up dropping 5bills for the whole job parts and labor. There's a reason why I flap so many details, makes handing over the cash a little easier.

Just got back from getting my oil changed by my trusted mechanic. Had him look at the front end because I was told that it needed some work by the place that put on my tires, they said it would cost over 1000$ to fix. He said he could do it for 150$. The reason I got my tires some place else was because he told me I could get them cheaper at the other place. I'm sure glad that he is much younger than me, I don't think I could find another like him.

Years ago when my Tahoe had around 75,000 miles on it I had it in for an oil change at a Chevy dealership. The service manager comes in and tells me I need a new serpentine belt. The Tahoe is close to 150,000 miles on it now with that same old belt.

Whenever I get my vehicles serviced they always want to change my air filter even though the little air filter sensor is still in the green.

On another note my wife had a flat tire yesterday in town. The repair shop came out right after the lunch hour and put some air in the tire. My wife then drove it to repair shop where mechanic proceeded to take off and fix leaking tire. She was back on the road by 1:25. Only cost her $58. $30 service charge and $25 tire repair.

My 2 cents.

My buddy has a shop and his rate is $95/hr gas vehicles & $110/hr diesel vehicles. He has 2 top shelf mechanics that he pays $35/hr plus bennys. He also has an office girl. He handles the estimates and towing and the scheduling of the major repairs. He paid $100k for his used tow truck. He has a 6 bay shop since he needs to wait for parts and then the mechanic can get an oil change,inspection and other minor jobs done. With the alignment rack,test equipment,heat lights,taxes and bennys plus salaries coming out of that $100/hr there is not wiggle room IMO. There may be some pride working for yourself but I would not work for myself unless I was grossing $125k after business expenses. Heck you are suppose to take out 15% ss out of your self employed salary.And what about some kind of retirement fund unless you plan on working until you die. I will gladly take my 5 wks vacation,10 paid holidays,2 wks sick leave plus 5% match on 401k and my retirement anyday over working for myself.

that was supposed to be the shop rate at firestone. 100 an hour. they doubled the time it would take and doubled the parts cost. there just no getting around it

Because THIS ^

I own the building, existing blank sign post, tools, lift, etc. I would have to give up a chuck of personal space, but would have a fully functional shop with mechanics I pay if I wanted to open a shop as fast as I could clean my space and hire people. Its not worth it to me. It is a life style. Mechanics are a pain, clients are a pain, liability is a pain, and its not easy work. Cars change every year. Keeping up with the stealerships is not easy or free. I do metal work and different specialized work I can do myself and pass off to the next guy instead. Thats what I try to stick with anyway. I build stuff, then sell it. Got to love the internet!

To me personally, I would swap a water pump for a friend who supplied the parts for a 12 pack of beer. $50 if they didnt want to hang out, because thats what it is worth to me. Takes me 1 hour at most for a rear wheel drive vehicle or 4x4. If I am working on someone else's vehicle, $300-$500. If anything goes wrong, if they crash, doesn't matter who's fault it is. My assumption is the last person to touch their vehicle gets blamed. The high cost of labor eliminating junk cars is not an accident. It helps cover the butts of the guys working on them. If I put a water pump in a $500 car, chances are that car may not make it to another mechanic.

At the same time, if there werent a ton of competitors where I live, this would be a 5 man shop. There are more than 5 shops within 1 mile of me though. Probably closer to 10.

so why lie about time? why not just charge a higher per hour rate? or just quote whatever price the shop feels appropriate for the job? whats with charging more for parts than the parts store? every shop out there pays about 75% of retail to the same stores. im pretty sure everyone reading this understands overhead. what I don't understand is being mislead. if the cost is legitimate why all the deception?????????????????????????????????????