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Author: Subject: How long to change oil (garage labour charge question)
dhutch

posted on 13/2/12 at 03:22 PM Reply With Quote
How long to change oil (garage labour charge question)

If you supply the oil and filter, how much do you recon it should cost to have a garage change the oil for you.
- Its a bit of a sod to get to the filter but you dont need to take anything off to access and otherwise its a simple job.


I ask as having had a number of jobs to be done on the tintop I have ended up with a garage bill thats considerably more than I expected with zero breakdown and before I go round for a breakdown tonight want to have a rough idea whats a reasonable price.


Also, would you be expected to pay £30+vat for a fault code read ontop of normal labour as part of fairly standard diagnostics?
- I would understand a £30 charge if i had them read the codes for me to then work on the car, but not as part of me asking them to fix it? No faults found, i didnt ask for a fault read, and although they mention they would proberbly do one, no mention of cost beforehand.


Garage has always been good to me before, but this bill is about twice what I was expection to be asked for!



Daniel

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AndyW

posted on 13/2/12 at 03:29 PM Reply With Quote
what make of car? main dealer? without that info its a bit hard to say what they would or should charge.
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britishtrident

posted on 13/2/12 at 03:36 PM Reply With Quote
£30+ vat is the norm for a code read remember high tech equipment cost money pro-level diagnostic equipment starts at £1500 and has to be updated yearly and becomes obsolete very quickly.

If you want to read basic power train codes buy a cheap scanner yourself but if you need to read and clear anything more or run calibration test the equipment costs alot more.





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scudderfish

posted on 13/2/12 at 04:10 PM Reply With Quote
But it is just one of their tools. Do they charge extra for spanners? Do you get an extra charge on the MOT for emissions testing?
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dhutch

posted on 13/2/12 at 04:28 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by AndyW
what make of car? main dealer? without that info its a bit hard to say what they would or should charge.

Peugoet 306 1.8, local garage. As said, I supplied oil+filter, they just need to drop the oil (+dispose i guess) swap filter, refill.

quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
But it is just one of their tools. Do they charge extra for spanners? Do you get an extra charge on the MOT for emissions testing?
Yes, well this was my thoughts on it. If I had gone to them and asked them if they could code read it for me to then go away and do the work myself £30 sounds fair, but for me asking them to diagnose the fault and to fix it, I would have expected it to be in the labour charge along with the other overheads. Like the four post lift, which also costs a lot and needs annual maintainance, etc.

Daniel

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dhutch

posted on 13/2/12 at 04:33 PM Reply With Quote
More details and a bit of a Vent

Having booked it in the week before for a poor idle, they hadnt started working on the car at three when I rang to ask how they where getting on. As I needed the car back that night, I had to collect it and was planning to return it for further work. I was happy to pay them for the work to that point, or leave it to the end. But wasnt expecting a invoice for very nearly £100 for sub two hours work during which bar the oil change all they have told told me is.
- Your idle gets better when its warm. (which i had told them myself)
- If you replace the whole throtalbody whichs inc, icv, maf, map, etc it might fix it, but it will be expensive considering what the cars work. (no mention of a price).


Daniel

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coyoteboy

posted on 13/2/12 at 05:24 PM Reply With Quote
Your mistake is trusting work on your car to someone else. It's rarely a good idea.
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Macbeast

posted on 13/2/12 at 05:36 PM Reply With Quote
You pissed them off by supplying the oil and filter, thereby depriving them of their profit





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speedyxjs

posted on 13/2/12 at 05:44 PM Reply With Quote
Not really much profit in the parts. We charge 30+ vat if oil and filter are supplied.

Code reading we charge 19.95

[Edited on 13-2-12 by speedyxjs]





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mad-butcher

posted on 13/2/12 at 06:06 PM Reply With Quote
Wife paid £45 for code read on Pajero, money well spent symptoms were pointing to turbo problems turned out to be a water temp sender, pain really cos it wasn't the cheap one it was the £150 Mitsi only part
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owelly

posted on 13/2/12 at 06:33 PM Reply With Quote
The local Renault garage up the road from me have a minimum one hour labour charge of £85. Therefore they wanted £85 to read the codes on my Laguna. I took it to the Ford dealer next door who charge £40 for the diag read. As the Ford kit gave a few faults but couldn't identify the exact fault, they gave me the print-out to google, and an invoice for 'no charge'.
Then I bought my own kit.........





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bobinspain

posted on 13/2/12 at 07:36 PM Reply With Quote
They'll charge whatever they can get away with and work on the assumption that some 'clients' won't return.
11 years ago, Nelmes of Romford (Lotus, Maserati) charged a minimum of £75/hr labour. Lotus factory were charging £70/hr, but were an hour and a half's drive away.
Nelmes no longer exists.
Going rate here for a poxy Citroen dealer's is 50 euros/hr labour. Doesn't stack up, since minimum wage here is 400 euros/month.

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stevebubs

posted on 13/2/12 at 08:53 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dhutch
More details and a bit of a Vent

Having booked it in the week before for a poor idle, they hadnt started working on the car at three when I rang to ask how they where getting on. As I needed the car back that night, I had to collect it and was planning to return it for further work. I was happy to pay them for the work to that point, or leave it to the end. But wasnt expecting a invoice for very nearly £100 for sub two hours work during which bar the oil change all they have told told me is.
- Your idle gets better when its warm. (which i had told them myself)
- If you replace the whole throtalbody whichs inc, icv, maf, map, etc it might fix it, but it will be expensive considering what the cars work. (no mention of a price).


Daniel


Short answers
- if I'm paying for the fault code reading as a service, I don't expect to be paying for their labour on top....
- An hour would be pushing it for an oil change, unless you really need a cup of tea after every action....

[Edited on 13/2/12 by stevebubs]

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mad-butcher

posted on 14/2/12 at 09:48 AM Reply With Quote
don't forget they've got to cover their arses in the eventuality of your motor going pop due to their workmanship,

tony

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coyoteboy

posted on 14/2/12 at 11:30 AM Reply With Quote
Still, when averaged over a years man-hours, the additional cost of insuring that must be pence per hour, unless the place is useless.
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dhutch

posted on 17/2/12 at 09:23 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by stevebubsShort answers
- if I'm paying for the fault code reading as a service, I don't expect to be paying for their labour on top....
- An hour would be pushing it for an oil change, unless you really need a cup of tea after every action....

Yep.

Took it back and got a better breakdown

£15 + vat for new sparkplugs, I has assumed they had fitted the ones I had said where on the back seat along with the oil but apprently not.
£25 + vat for the code read which despight arguing it this way and that they did not budge
£32 + vat for labour (40/hour) which is proberbly the most reasonably thing there

£72 + vat is your £86.40

£100 for half an hours work and information I already had. Spent 20mins politely debating the point with them and they where very nice throughout all of it as was I but the out come is that im going to pay it. Heyho. They did atleast say there where happy give me to the end fo the month (im paid on the 24th) so thats something. They know I live round the corner and i haved used them for MOTs a fair bit. That said, im going to use one of the other garages next time I need something doing.

Just feedback


Daniel

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plentywahalla

posted on 17/2/12 at 10:12 AM Reply With Quote
Where do you keep getting this £100 from?

Looks to me like your bill from the garage is £72. There is VAT, but that goes to Mr Osbourne to pay for all those nice people on the Jeremy Kyle show.

Seems quite resaonable to me as they did a lot more than just the oil change that you question implied.





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cliftyhanger

posted on 17/2/12 at 10:36 AM Reply With Quote
I am looking at this, and they have charged you for about 48mins of labour (change plugs, change oil) and that figure will be from the book of "how long jobs take", not how long it actually took them.
I guess you could argue the fault code charge, but if you wanted a problem investigated, there is no other way that the garages will use. Thinking isn't allowed on elf grounds.

I think you haven't done too bad out of it all things considered. I believe main dealers are £60 plus for code reading.

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ReMan

posted on 17/2/12 at 01:01 PM Reply With Quote
I dont't think it's too bad either, particularly as mentioned you pissed them by supplying your own oil and filter





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coyoteboy

posted on 17/2/12 at 01:41 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
I dont't think it's too bad either, particularly as mentioned you pissed them by supplying your own oil and filter


Getting upset because someone supplied parts for work is childish at best. If they were upset by that I wouldn't want to employ them.

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dhutch

posted on 17/2/12 at 06:06 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by cliftyhanger
I am looking at this, and they have charged you for about 48mins of labour (change plugs, change oil) and that figure will be from the book of "how long jobs take", not how long it actually took them.
I guess you could argue the fault code charge, but if you wanted a problem investigated, there is no other way that the garages will use. Thinking isn't allowed on elf grounds.
Yeah, i think it was just quite a surprise as the time. I dont use garages much and I think in the main ive just remembered why!

The intention was certainly not to wee them off by suppling the oil, its was quite honestly bought with the intention of fitting myself until having bought a house I now dont have the time, which I said to them at the time. I also said if they didnt want to fit it they could leave it and i would do it.


Daniel

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