Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 15:57:28 -0400 From: Kent Lester <klesternopsamica.net> Subject: Re: High repair costs
The last time I checked, the price of LABOR was designed to cover all the wonderful training, tools, and effort on the mechanic's part. The cost of the part was supposed to reflect its manufacturing cost and a FAIR markup. When Saab charges $70 for the same thermostat that NAPA sells for $5, then that's gouging! I assure you, NAPA is making a profit off of their parts. And as for labor costs, how come it takes an "authorized" Saab mechanic 2-3 times as long to repair my car than an independent? The labor costs are 3 times higher. Is the Saab mechanic trained to just work slower? Is the Saab mechanic three times more skilled than a Saturn mechanic? I laughed at your comment about the $100 thermostat paying for honesty and quality! Give me a break. Is it honest to mark up the price of a part to cover hidden costs somewhere else? Why not just tell us the truth and charge us the true labor costs? THAT'S honesty. You chose a mechanic's trade for a career. Welcome to the world YOU created. chc wrote: > > I recently read an article here about high repair costs. > > My response?... welcome to the world you created. > > I have run a shop of my own for 19 years and been in the industry 28 years. How > anyone can buy a $30,000.00 or so car and complain about the costs of repairs is > beyond me! (Don’t give me that used car speech!... the car is still expensive > for repairs relate to the cars new car value!!) These are educated people > making these remarks I ask myself? Have they no grasp of reality? The > complexity of my business is beyond MANY, MANY of your capabilities. I dare you > all... I double dare you all to try it!! > > We take offense at your unthinking comments like these! Sure a "part X" can be > bought by you at a parts store for Y$s. But what does that have to do with > anything! It has nothing to do with the huge cost of being here to diagnose and > put it in! > > We deal with 12,000,000 pages of repair information. 100s of thousands of > parts. Hydraulics, electrical, mechanical, AC, Heating, computers, upholstery, > body systems. We have to know human nature and that’s the toughest of all! We > have to know business, buy 1,000s and 1,000’s dollars of tools sometimes each > year! Each of our techs must buy a least $35,000.00 plus in hand tools. Do you > provide the desk tools where you work? > > And being a tech... you folks would never make it! It's back breaking, finger > burning, greasy bloody work! And many times thankless. They have to know a > huge pile of information in a Non-exact business. They do it because they want > to for many times could earn a lot more elsewhere in a much nicer business. > > Does a thermostat cost $100.00?... NO... it costs you that much for honesty and > quality. It costs you that much for us to be here to put it on and know that’s > what it needs. > > Folks... you buy them... that’s the bottom line. We just fix em and that is an > truly amazing feat! Hold on for my industry is just becoming a true profession > and the prices will go thru the roof. You have been getting a bargin
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