Mechanic's parts guy too expensive?

[NMBurb02]

Originally Posted By: Shelbybob
He quoted you a price of four hundred dollars. And four hundred dollars it was. Honestly, what's the problem? What do you think he should have charged you out the door for his time and labor and parts and one day service and ........

He gave me a rough quote without looking up any parts prices or labor times. Normally he is high on his initial estimates, which I thought might be the case this time, as I know that the hubs go for about $150 locally.

 

[mechanicx]

Makes sense. He quoted you the price and used a decent brand of part. You could negotiate with the shop next time, on price and what brand of part's used. They probably would've done it for a little less. Of course it'd help to have some idea of what the part costs and labor time is.

 

[AlienBug]

Shops can't win. He did a good job same day with a name brand part but his price was too high.

Had he used a cheaper part to get the cost down he'd get slammed for using cheapo parts.

 

[bruno]

Was AZ selling reputable brands or China junk ?

 

[LeakySeals]

The short answer is its too late to go looking up parts prices after the job is done.

Went to a local mechanic the other day for an estimate on a common problem in my year Camry - replacement of both lower control arm bushings. A harder job than normal on this car. Need to disconnect the motor mounts and lift the engine up a couple of inches to gain access to the control arm hardware. He looked up the parts and commented how high they were. $40 per bushing. I responded that I could get them for 1/3 of that price, could get a whole new arm for $60. He said he makes money on the parts, and he wants to use his parts to warranty the work. It was a good pitch, but after watching him adjust the labor quote, even show me the part on his screen, I was comfortable with what he was doing. Good communication. For $300 total both sides its an incredibly cheap price even with the parts markup.

That being said, looks like a fair labor quote. The parts markup should be 20%, never more than 50% IMO. He could have knocked down the price of the parts, but charge you another hours labor to end up paying the same. Just like buying a car. They drop the price of the car, but they also drop the price of your trade to make up the difference. You don't feel like your getting fleeced but you still are.

Be happy its over and move on.

 

[Trav]

If i were to do that job for someone (i only do for family and friends now) i would get parts from Rock and charge them $100 for the labor, family i make nothing.

Timken $89 SKF $107 They get the 12/12K warranty on the parts not on the labor.
I don't mark up the parts i don't care if they bring them as long as they are good parts, at a 100 bucks labor i'm making out okay, it takes me 45 min max for a w body hub.

 

[LeakySeals]

Trav, thats cheap work. How much more would your standard prices be?

 

[Trav]

If i were still doing it about $225 for the Timken inc labor and $250 for the SKF.
I can knock these out quick on most GM cars.
I mean how much is fair for 45 min work? Even if i doubled the price on the Timken its $190 and another $100 for labor $290 is a lot of money for this job.

No i'm not ginning up work, i don't need/want it. I do the injectors thats as much as i want to do. LOL

 

[Donald]

I bring in my own parts. Often of better quality than they are going to get quickly from NAPA. And I do my homework so they have the proper part. While they do not make the markup, they can complete the job without waiting for a parts delivery. And I have more choices. Maybe I want Akebono brake pads rather than NAPA. Maybe I want a greasable U-joint than whatever NAPA has. And I had a reman engine delivered to them.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
Is my mechanic (and by extension me) getting screwed by his parts guy, or is that a normal markup for a same day delivered part?

It's unlikely, but it is possible. One of my shops had a supplier that was charging him a fortune for parts. I introduced him to one of my suppliers, and he's saved about 50% on his parts, and that's the same brands and everything.

 

[NMBurb02]

Originally Posted By: AlienBug
Shops can't win. He did a good job same day with a name brand part but his price was too high.

Had he used a cheaper part to get the cost down he'd get slammed for using cheapo parts.

I wasn't asking if he used too expenive of a part, but if I got overcharged for the part that was used, hence my reference to how much I could get the part (same manufacturer and part number) elsewhere. If such a markup is normal, then I will try that much harder to do parts-intensive work myself and use the mechanic for labor-intensive work that is beyond my experience level, takes more time than I have, or requires specialized equipment I cannot justify buying and can't loan through a local parts store. I want to use my mechanic for his labor and expertise, not his parts, seeing as he can't/won't give me a deal on parts.

And I've tried negotiating. When I had him do a LIM, transmission flush and pan gasket, power steering and brake flushes, and maybe another thing or two, I was able to talk him down maybe $40 on $1,400 of work. They're busy enough that they don't need my business and I have seen them let a potential customer walk out because they wouldn't budge on a brake job.

Also, this is a very professional shop with maybe six mechanics, which I'm sure plays into the markups and unwillingness to negotiate.

 

[Virtuoso]

That mark up seems about right from my personal experiences with honest mechanics too.

I don't *like* paying that much more for parts, but when I can't do the job myself.. I will pay appropriately.

And sometimes paying a little extra for that "labor warranty" pays off in the end.

 

[antiqueshell]

My suggestion is start looking for another shop.

It does seem like they are taking advantage of the fact that you have grown to trust them and now are trying to cash in on that, thinking that inertia will keep you from going elsewhere. Many places do this.

I would NOT say anything to them about your interest in looking elsewhere. Shop around. Test a few places. Make sure you let these other places know you are looking for a new shop to handle your car service.

 

[Vikas]

If I can get the OEM factory part cheaper than my mechanic, I will get it and give it to him. Otherwise, I let him buy the part and let him make is markup. Buying a lower quality and cheaper aftermarket part myself and handing it to my mechanic does not seem right to me.

 

[TireDude]

Originally Posted By: Trav
If i were still doing it about $225 for the Timken inc labor and $250 for the SKF.
I can knock these out quick on most GM cars.
I mean how much is fair for 45 min work? Even if i doubled the price on the Timken its $190 and another $100 for labor $290 is a lot of money for this job.

No i'm not ginning up work, i don't need/want it. I do the injectors thats as much as i want to do. LOL


That sounds about right, price wise. I source almost all of my stuff exclusively through CarQuest. Recently we had a mother of two come in needing a rear wheel bearing on the back of her Vue.

This poor lady can't win. Two years ago, her husband was killed when a load of drilling rig pipe some how rolled off the trailer of a semi and crushed him to death. Last year her youngest daughter had cancer of the eye and they had to remove the daughters right eye.

She tries her [censored] to hold on to her ranch. This means she goes through a lot of tires and gets lots of flats. No joke, one day she had some cattle in a trailer to take to the auction barn. She was getting a flat on the way into to town. She got to the shop and we fixed the tire on the trailer. She literally went around the block to the post office to send off some boxes and got a flat on her truck. Later that day she was on her way back from the auction and caught another flat on the truck.

So with that wheel bearing, I couldn't believe it. I gave her the part at my cost and didn't charge labor. Somedays, when its raining and pouring on others, you just have to give them some shelter.

But $417 for that job? That's high, brother.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: HWEaton
Somedays, when its raining and pouring on others, you just have to give them some shelter

It all comes out in the wash.

 

[KrisZ]

People saying to ditch this mechanic need to see a doctor. This mechanic said to OP what the repair will roughly cost up front and OP agreed to this price. The final bill came to $17 over the original estimate. The mechanic held up his end of the deal and was compensated as such. Why is it so important to dissect what was his charging structure? If OP wasn’t happy with $400 quote he should've shopped around instead of complaining here after the fact.

This mechanic is running a business and to any customer the final price should matter, not how the mechanic decides to break it down. Maybe there is an incentive for him to charge more for the part instead of labor? Who are we do decide that for his own business?

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
This mechanic is running a business and to any customer the final price should matter, not how the mechanic decides to break it down. Maybe there is an incentive for him to charge more for the part instead of labor? Who are we do decide that for his own business?


This is a great point. Maybe he underbilled the OP for labor, and overbilled for the part, perhaps in an attempt to keep his books in line for insurance purposes or state tax purposes or other business-related issue. If the part was charged to the customer at $265, and the total bill was $417, that leaves only $152 for the shop to cover: labor, supplies, overhead, taxes, etc. That's not much.

 

[exranger06]

If you buy parts at a Napa store, you'll see two prices on the receipt: there's "list" price and there's "net" price. Net price is the price you pay in the store. You'll see that list price is considerably higher than net. Nobody ever pays list price...except the people who go to a shop. The shop buys parts at the net price, marks them up to list price, and pockets the difference. And they usually get a discount too, so their net price is lower than some guy who walks into the store, making the difference between net and list even bigger.

I once took my Explorer to a shop for an alignment. The shop said they couldn't do it because I had a bad ball joint and bad drag link. (Turns out, they were right, they weren't just selling unnecessary stuff) they quoted me a price of $753 to replace just the one ball joint, drag link, and do the alignment.

They gave a written quote that had all charges itemized. I thought the parts prices were high, so I checked them at Napa. Sure enough, their prices matched Napa's list price, right down to the penny.
I ended up buying the parts and fixed it myself, then brought it back to the shop again for an alignment. I replaced all four ball joints (that would have been well over $1300 at the shop), and the drag link. I also repacked the wheel bearings (ended up replacing them on one side), and got new wheel seals. Grand total with alignment: under $400. (Granted, I get a significant employee discount at Napa) To save money, you just can't beat fixing things yourself.

 

[otis24]

The way I see it, it is not a question of overbilling. The dealership that I work at uses a lot of parts from NAPA. We buy them wholesale and charge retail. A "cash" customer gets a discount from the auto parts store and therefore, can buy them cheaper than what we charge for the same part.

I have a customer that wants every repair broken down in detail to know the cost. He will call NAPA and get a price, then wants to call us to do the job, thinking that we will sell him the parts for the same price NAPA quoted him. We don't. Once, he and I were both pricing parts on his vehicle. The clerk at NAPA caught on to what he was doing. The clerk told the customer "this is the cash price. If xxxx Ford is doing the work, they are going to charge you more. This is not the price they will charge you".
When we do oil changes, we charge $1 per quart over cost on the oil and make about $4 on a filter. No labor is charged, meaning we actually lose money on an oil change. We have some chintzy customers who bring their own oil and filter. We charge them $15 labor. In the end, they wind up spending more money than they would if they got their oil and filter from us.