I was just wondering how stealerships decided on their pricing. I'm under the impression that each shop has an hourly labor charge. Thus, the pricing would be the parts plus labor. Yet, a cabin filter change is $40 in parts, and 5-10 minutes of labor. That will never add up to the $100 that most dealerships charge.

Valve adjustments take about 1 hour for an experienced mech. Let's say it takes the dealership 2 hours. How can the dealership try to charge me $600 for a valve adjustment.

Can they just charge whatever they want without justifying their prices via hours?

/confused

 

theres customer pay time and warranty pay times. warranty times are more realistic, whereas customer pay times can me fudged a little bit. at my dealer, most of the times for customer pay hours we use mitchell.....some techs do try to add on another .1 or .2 of work, but its the advisors job to correct it or let it by.

we charge .3 which is 34.50+bulb for a headlight or a peanut bulb...sometimes if its a lil harder to take off a tail light, we charge .5, which is around 60 bucks..

pretty shitty they charged u labor for a cabin filter, we dont charge for air filters or cabin filters

valve adjust is not an hour, its going to be more. id check mitchell but im not at work

 

there are labor time guides, or a shop can use actual time if thats longer
different guides will have different times on the same job

there is no way you do a good job on cabin filter in 5 minutes, especially the first time
Extra cutting (12 seconds) and cleaning- a few minutes with the shop vac and a damp towel..
iirc the book gives an hour or more on the TL!

valve adjust takes time to get to the valves, the actual work goes fast
plus a good job would add: clean EGR system in manifold and service TB.. while its apart

 

This pertty much covers it...Although I;d say 45 minutes for a first time cabin filter changer....20 minutes max for an experienced tech.

 

but some jobs you do have trouble making "book" time though

as far as cabin air filter, LMFAO you have not experienced some other car brands, and there shitty access to it, some of them can take like 0.5 or more to do, and that's WITH knowing what to do too;
and then there are others that take a minute to do cause they have a special little access door to the filter, that you just have to pop out (early 2000's Lexus RX300)

or air filters also because they can take 10 minutes just to change out, because they are buried some (late 90's dodge caravans come to mind)(the best ones are the toyota's with the 3.4 V6's in the 4runner and tacoma, litially takes 2 seconds to pop out [03 pathfinder is the same basically too], pop two clips, slide back, and lift out the filter and the "tray"

 

I learned not to trust dealerships when a salesman who saw me eying the 2010 TL told me it won numerous design awards.

 

Not a stealership considering your buying their knowledge, experience, and factory training.

 

knowledge of the engineers, and training of how to replace parts in a said order

 

Dealerships= more training, more knowledge, and more resources, (ie: special tools, buying power etc)

 

there are reasons to let the dealer work on your car in certain cases

and there are as many reasons NOT to trust ANY auto repair shop~

Thats from someone with decades of experience in the industry

be educated thru this forum-- and you are not subject to the extra stupid charge added to many bills

some jobs the tech makes good money over the actual time spent--
other times a car eats his lunch money with its stubborn bolts

 

dont get me wrong, i love my acura dealer for the parts dept. ( they treat me awesome )

but i knew a 20 year old who worked at an acura dealership... they let him "practice" on people's daily drivers..
working at a dealership doesnt mean jack other than you applied for a job there and got it.

i have mechanics in the family that are far more skilled and resourceful than my local honda dealer...




there are SOME dealer mechanics that have been there for a while, thus giving them an edge when it comes to the car models that company offers...
mechanics often come from other brands as well... ie: dodge guys moving to acura...

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all dealerships are superior to other shops. I work at a Ford dealership and 85% of the techs here are master certified. And the rest are giong to Ford school to become certified. That's why I say they have more training. I work in parts and I have to be a certified parts counterman just to stay employed here. I have to take online Ford classes all the time. Not all techs at a dealership are trying to rip you off and not all techs at an independent shop are not trying to rip you off. It's all who you know.

 

it also varies among dealers... ownership comes to mind.

 

Very true.