What's a fair labor rate?

[Geeesammy]

So I work at a pretty small indy shop currently, west of cbus in a small town. By small i mean its literally me, one other tech and the owners brother kind of plays service advisor/second set of hands as needed. The same company has another shop 10 minutes north of us, but thats somewhat irrelevant

 

We constantly get people trying to beat us up about pricing, we charge $80/hr which is insanely cheap in my eyes. This isn't about what our labor rate is, and whether it is fair or not, but more rather, what do you feel is fair to have a competent, experienced and respectful technician perform work on your car and get a longish (say 2 years, 24k miles) warranty on your car with reliable parts? This is basically for all cars/trucks and any repair, maybe say bump it up 15% or so on the hour for unique/Euro stuff (think old cars with harder to find parts, newer Euro stuff many wont touch, etc.)

 

So in your eyes, whats fair to just dump your entire car problems onto another guy to figure out and fix without hassle?

[KillJoy]

IMO, a dollar a minute.

 

 

KillJoy

[Not Brian]

I'm ignorant with all of this but I feel like it should be dynamic depending on the job. I feel changing fluids and filters should charge a cheaper hourly rate than swapping an engine or something relatively difficult. However, in reality, having a tech add up all those times for a list of jobs on one single car could get hazy so I don't know. I suppose to answer your question, I feel 90-100/hr for an good shop to do a job and do it right the first time seems fair to me.

[Geeesammy]

I'm ignorant with all of this but I feel like it should be dynamic depending on the job. I feel changing fluids and filters should charge a cheaper hourly rate than swapping an engine or something relatively difficult. However, in reality, having a tech add up all those times for a list of jobs on one single car could get hazy so I don't know. I suppose to answer your question, I feel 90-100/hr for an good shop to do a job and do it right the first time seems fair to me.

 

I get what you're saying. Basically say your truck needs a trans fluid/filter change and diff fluid swapped out, it should be a fixed rate since it's simple, right?

 

 

But if you need an engine done its more labor intensive and needs more skills/tools so obviously it requires more money, right?

 

Thats kind of how we do it, we have a "base" price for stuff like brake jobs, fluid, filters, etc. then it goes up and down based on labor times or part prices.

 

Like brakes start at $100/axle i think, and go up from there depending on if we can cut the rotors or if you need new ones. Same with trans fluid, if we can just drain the fluid without dropping the pan i want to say it's like $100 including fluid, unless it needs like 8 qts (most are 2-4qts), then it goes up obviously, or if we have to drop the pan.

 

 

Clearly engines are a bitch to do, I wrapped one up on a 2008 Ridgeline with close to 300k today, it wasn't easy, but it was a $7500 job. He also got a killer warranty on it (3 yr, unlimited miles) for like $1500 in labor (18ish hours) which basically included reman/renewed everything on the engine aside from accessories.

[Cordell]

Despite what anyone says when it comes right down to it people want to feel like they are getting a deal. For most who don’t understand the automotive repair business nothing sounds like a good deal especially when they have never been a repeat customer anywhere so they have never found someone to trust. Then you throw in the abundance of fuckwit parts hangers ruining most people’s trust in finding someone who can fix their car at all, and I don’t think it has to do with money at all. It’s all about having a good business relationship with your customers. If you can fix their issues and show them how you’re being fair with them everybody wins. If they’re trying to be as cheap as possible they’re doomed from the moment they walk in with that attitude.

 

The Service Advisor makes or breaks the whole shop when it comes to automotive repair. They get good information out of the customer so the tech can have a good shot at fixing the car correctly. They discuss options with the customer honestly and don’t make them feel taken advantage of, but most importantly (to me) they do what’s fair for the technician so he can keep his sanity and not worry about how he’s getting fucked.

 

It’s also worth mentioning that the technician needs to be fair in return. This is where most guys get lost. I watch every day when one of my coworkers doesn’t get an extra 2 tenths of an hour, or they think they deserve 2 or 3 hours of diag time because it took them over an hour to isolate a wiring issue. I don’t care about these things. If you can’t focus on fixing the car and trust that you’re going get paid then find another shop. If you’re constantly asking for extra diag time then you need to work on your skills. Basically all I do every day is diagnose driveablilty and electrical problems and it’s rare that it takes longer then an hour, and when it does take longer after that first hour I can tell my advisor where in the car the issue is and what it will take to isolate it. I have little respect for most other technician’s skills, and they have no idea why, they won’t train, they won’t acquire the right tools for the job, and they generally don’t take the job serious, thus making those who do look bad. It’s sad that there is such a shortage of mechanics that these people are almost guaranteed a job even though they suck, add in an inexperienced service advisor who buys into one of these so called technician’s bullshit and a customer walking into that shop is doomed no matter what.

 

I’m not perfect, far from it, but I take the job seriously. I was one of these idiots 10 years ago, I thought I was good then and looking back I was fucking clueless. All I know know is that I don’t know everything but I know how to figure it out.

 

/rant

[aussiek2000]

$80-125/hr depending on location. If you go too cheap, you attract all the cheap customers and junk cars.

[Green Bastard]

I think around Columbus the average chain shop charges just over $100\hr. At $80\hr you are charging less than a lot of places. Best way to handle it imo would be to have the service advisor invite them to shop around for a better deal with a similar or better warranty.

[Cordell]

Most dealerships are on a “matrix” rate. Say the first hour is $107 (what they advertise) and goes up from there, second hour $130 something, third hour is higher still. Capitalizing on people’s inability to do math or pay attention. Biggest ripoff going.

[2 Sweet]

I'm no mechanic and I've never worked at a shop, so take my opinion for whatever that's worth, but $80 is surprisingly cheap IMO. I just assumed that most shops in central Ohio were $100 or higher. I think location has a lot to do with it. A small shop in London charging $80 while a similar shop in Upper Arlington charges $110 wouldn't shock me at all. A buddy from work always uses a mechanic in Circleville for all his stuff, Jim's Transmission or something like that, and apparently the guy will swap an engine for $500ish labor. It might take him a while to get to it but that's crazy cheap regardless, and my buddy isn't the type that would BS about stuff like that so I believe him. He's had his Eclipse, his Ram, and a couple other cars swapped there. But there are so many variables involved so comparing labor rates between shops is rarely apples to apples, which is kind of my point I guess.

 

From a customer's standpoint, I honestly don't care about how much I'm being charged per hour for quality work, as long as it's a fairly reasonable estimate for the situation. It's really annoying when a shop quotes you $1100 for a heater core replacement or $2200 to replace some drum brake hardware. If a goof like me who has never done the repair before can get it done in a couple hours, why am I being quoted so high? I know why, it's usually because the shop is busy and doesn't wanna fuss with it unless I'm dumb enough to actually pay that price. One of my idiot friends really paid $1800 to replace the cat converter on his Pontiac G6. The guy told him "Pontiacs aren't made anymore so the part is really expensive" and he was dumb enough to believe him. "A fool and his money..."

[HotCarl]

Most dealerships are on a “matrix” rate. Say the first hour is $107 (what they advertise) and goes up from there, second hour $130 something, third hour is higher still. Capitalizing on people’s inability to do math or pay attention. Biggest ripoff going.

 

Holy shit I didn't even know that was a thing. So basically the more time consuming the job the higher the cost per hour for every hour. Fuck that.

 

To the original post, I'm find with calling your labor our a standard rate. Lets say $100, but if you're going to charge me 1 hour for diag you better be actually diagnosing the problem not just charging the hour after making up your mind you're going to throw parts at it. That is by far my biggest pet peeve. Diagnose the issue. i don't want to come back, you don't want me to come back so just make sure you know what's wrong and aren't just throwing new parts at the car hoping one of them fixes the problem.

 

I think $80/hour is fine. But, like what Brian said, I don't want to be charged an hour to flush some fluids, make small simple jobs like that a flat rate.

[Otis Nice]

...you don't want me to come back ...

 

The vast majority of shops would disagree with this and that's where the distrust comes in to play. Look around YT at all of the hidden cam vids on oil change shops alone. They want to lie to you then and make sure you come back later.

[Forrest Gump 9]

$80-125/hr depending on location. If you go too cheap, you attract all the cheap customers and junk cars.

 

This is true

 

But there are a lot of factors go into how much a shop can charge. Experience, location, and clientele are some of the main factors on how much you can charge.

[Rocky31186]

80 is cheap. I think 100/hr is common.

[Dammit Charlie]

IMO, you get what you pay for. My thoughts on labor in HD diesel shops:

 

PM / LOF / A-B-C service- fixed prices

Brake work-$80-$100 HR

Suspension/ Steering - $100-$110 HR, $80-100 diag

Engine Diag- $120-$130 HR, $250 diag min

Electrical Diag- $130-$150 HR, $250 diag min

 

Same can be applied in regular automotive, just tweek the numbers.

[99StockGT]

Hmmm not sure how much I want to weigh on in this but some high level conversation about this...

 

Charge a fair price for your skill set, tool/equipment set, and customer base and make sure to clear your Labor costs and Rent/Equipment costs. If you are set up and skilled to do basic maintenance and repairs, great be that and be fair with pricing. If you are set up and skilled to do more intensive or specialty work, great be that and be fair with pricing.

 

As many have mentioned also, the $80 rate is definitely cheap for the Columbus market IF you are churning out quality work. Your average shop rate in the area is $105-$125 per hour so you may be selling yourselves short. As in retail, when cutting prices to get people in the door you often times find yourself serving a customer base that's only looking for cheap deals and scab fixes. It's like running $10 oil change coupons... you'll do a whole lot of oil changes and NOTHING else, and few if any of those people will become customers looking for more services.

 

As Cordell points out... there are a LOT of steps to making a shop successful from the guy answering the phones and talking to customer, to the guys getting greasy if there isn't communication and honesty you're in a slow boiling shit stew. We pride ourselves on being on of the best Independent shops in the region and work hard for that reputation, but even WE screw up on communication on a somewhat regular basis. Be honest with your customers, try to keep an open line of communication, and do your best to be fair in pricing while not slitting your own throat to "get the job".