Average Repair Bill at a shop

That's almost exactly what my mech quoted me for my Lucerne.

$100 to resurface, $200 for ceramic pads and 2 hours labor, $430

Two hours for labor, can one mech do a brake job in 2 hours?
If you do a very very good job (e.g. blasting the brackets, cleaning the hubs extremely well, checking rotor runout, indexing the rotor if necessary), I can see it taking 2 hours.

Reality is that most brake jobs are sloppily done and are not worthy of their labor charge.
 


Guy in the video manages a repair shop that works on fairly late-model vehicles. Judging by the jobs he has open, it seems like the average work order is well over $1K, probably over $1500 in that video.

I am curious how that compares to what others are seeing in the field.

I work at BMW. $1000 does not get you very much. 5 digit estimates are pretty common.
 
I figure I'm going to drop at least grand every time I go to the shop. $115.00 labor rate and parts don't come cheap. Adds up pretty quick!
Wow thats a good labor rate. When I managed a chain "repair" shop our labor rate was$135/ hr and some aftermarker car "warranty" companies had a negotiated rate of $75/hr. I'm in Non union Texas so $115/hr is good.
 
If you do a very very good job (e.g. blasting the brackets, cleaning the hubs extremely well, checking rotor runout, indexing the rotor if necessary), I can see it taking 2 hours.

Reality is that most brake jobs are sloppily done and are not worthy of their labor charge.
I can do a quality brake job in abot 2.5 hour at home without a lift with only 1 arm. Just remember "book" time is completely different than actual time spent on a job so the book time is the max labor the job will pay, if a tech can do it in half the time he can make twice as much, which to me is an incentive to cut corners and do sloppy repairs.
 
I can do a quality brake job in abot 2.5 hour at home without a lift with only 1 arm. Just remember "book" time is completely different than actual time spent on a job so the book time is the max labor the job will pay, if a tech can do it in half the time he can make twice as much, which to me is an incentive to cut corners and do sloppy repairs.
Well, it also makes up for the lousy warranty times which can make up 60-70% of a dealer tech's workflow nowadays.
 
To think I toss and turn at night over a vehicle repair bill that's $600-800 Thankfully I've had very little of those over the past 20+ years because I don't keep my vehicles that long. An HVAC bill alone can be in the $1000s.

We tend to berate people here for spending ~$3K on an extended warranty contract. These days I can see the value in them if you keep your vehicle ~6+yrs and it takes you that long to get to 100K miles or so.
 
To think I toss and turn at night over a vehicle repair bill that's $600-800 Thankfully I've had very little of those over the past 20+ years because I don't keep my vehicles that long. An HVAC bill alone can be in the $1000s.

We tend to berate people here for spending ~$3K on an extended warranty contract. These days I can see the value in them if you keep your vehicle ~6+yrs and it takes you that long to get to 100K miles or so.
Maybe. You really need to read the exclusions, or whats not covered BEFORE you get one.
 
Your VW hasn't needed any repairs in 80K miles? That can't be! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Hehe...

My VW made it to 100k before the bills hit, then it was a kilobuck a year it seemed. Granted I drove >30k/year so not your average driver. Great car though, sometimes I think about getting it back. Got rid of it as I didn't have an indie near by, got tired of driving hours to get a known good mechanic.

Anyhow. I own cheap cars. I'm happy when the bill stays under a grand. Nothing lasts forever. But I know it costs money to fix things properly, so I just pay the bill without arguing.
 
Just had a car in this morning. “Balance all four wheels, vibration on highway” on an X5.

Vibration caused by a flat tire, unrepairable due to puncture too close to sidewall, all tires at 4mm, so needs four new tires. Also see rt fr upper shock mount cracked, spring broken and both front shocks leaking heavily.

$6000 to fix. Didn’t even open the hood.

Edit: Add another $1100, rt rr spring is broken as well.
 
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So here’s a good sample. Wife spent $680 Dealer on 80k service for Tiguan which included slew of items including transmission fluid, brake fluid, filters , plugs , oil change.

The sell up (declined) was the worn brakes for $680 x 2 for rotors / pads front and back. I am hoping for 1/2 to 2/3 at our independent. They made a video to show them at 2mm - 3mm pads.
 
So here’s a good sample. Wife spent $680 Dealer on 80k service for Tiguan which included slew of items including transmission fluid, brake fluid, filters , plugs , oil change.

The sell up (declined) was the worn brakes for $680 x 2 for rotors / pads front and back. I am hoping for 1/2 to 2/3 at our independent. They made a video to show them at 2mm - 3mm pads.
$680 for pads and resurface rotors for front and rear is not a bad price. Indy may save you 25% at most otherwise they are probably using lower quality parts.
 
Most places near me won’t resurface.
new rotors.
Most of the dealers around here resurface. A lot of it has to do with the climate and whether the platform supports resurfacing. Many manufacturers do. VW and BMW recently started approving resurface. Ultimately it is to a technician’s advantage to sell additional labor.
 
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