It takes more like half an hour - write up the ticket. Talk with customer. Move the car. Position the lift. Raise the car. Do the change. Lower the car. Reposition the lift. Move the car. Talk with the customer.
That's just laughable. Set up a video camera the next time you do an oil change starting from when you drive the car into your workspace until you drive it out. It will be 20+ minutes easily.
The one I use was $60 but raised theirs to $80 in the past 1-2 years. Outside of big cities, I suspect most non-specialty indy shops are under $100/hour.
Exactly. Maybe you missed my point. Which was to say no shop is doing cheap oil changes to make money. They do it to bring in more service from the issues they can find.
You must live in a small town. Haven't seen under $100/hour labor rates around here for years.
There's a substantial difference between most of the country and the metro DC area (and other large cities or metro areas). Metro DC has 6 million plus people while the metro area I live in has close to a million (and in the future, it's expected to be combined with a metro area with 2.5 million people). I do live in a small suburb "town" so it may influence the labor rate a little bit.
I live out in the country, away from big cities, on purpose. I know most people in my town, especially the ones I spend money with. I’m on a first-name basis with my mechanic, my doc, and the cute lady that works at NAPA. Around here, it’s about treating people right and being honest; they know with a local economy you can’t lie and cheat people… for long. Even the Ford dealer in town is reasonably priced even though I only use them for warranty/recall work.
You don't suppose the mech gave him a good deal to get him to come back for his next repair/oil change?
$225/hr at the last two dealerships I recently dealt with.
Since my guy is reasonable and they always do stellar work, I always “tip” on the labor. For example, he did both front CV axles on my ‘06 Odyssey for $120, I gave them $140 because I felt that was still worth more than my time & effort. Valve cover gaskets & spark plug seals on the Subie was $170, I gave them $200. I take care of the people who take care of me!
Yeah, he reeled me in and landed me like a big, flopping Marlin.
I thought Berkeley indies were high: $170.00 and $200.00 ... of course, I'd expect the dealerships to be higher.
None of those people at the shop I went to, just the owner and his assistant. Also, he has no waiting room, coffee service, TV to watch, and so on. And, unlike the Berkeley shops, I can hang around and watch him work should I choose to do so. As noted elsewhere, when he wanted to explain what he found that needed attention, he put the car on the lift, we both got underneath, and he pointed out what he had discovered.
So $20 to rotate the tires? Better to get tires at places that do free tire rotations as part of the tire services. Or get your own impact gun, very cheap these days, in the $100-$200 range.
