Not sure where you are in the country but........
i can come to you, collect your car, take you to where you want to go, fit the new exhaust, wait around and collect you and promise a slightly smaller bill than that for you sir !!!! ;-)
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Can we assume you weren't a respondent in the German ADAC customer satisfaction survey?
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Let's be honest, we all know that franchise dealer servicing is a rip-off.
Service departments are located next to the showroom, which is on some mega-expensive prime retail site. So dealers are paying top-dollar for each square metre of workshop. Then all the 'branding' etc has to be paid for - then the receptionist, the 'Service Advisor' (i.e. would-be technician who can't make the grade). The end result is that your £7/hour technician is charged out at £80/hour and the service manager is under tremendous pressure to 'upsell' and there is no money for proper training (these days a technician can reach 'Master Technician' in a year from a standing start!).
If the NHS was as inefficient as the retail motor trade there would be a 10 year waiting list for maternity beds.
What we need is workshops on industrial estates. Most modern service jobs are straightforward fluid/filters/pads and are designed to be done by anyone with basic training and basic tools. You need one or two really bright blokes for electronics and more complex mechanical jobs - and pay them well.
If its any consolation the dealers are suffering from their own labour rates! Because work is scarce in the service dept the service managers often 'bulk up' prep work on incoming p/x's and overcharge the showroom (the blokes in the showroom won't know a thrust washer from a dishwasher, so its easy to get away with) and so the p/x ends up on the forecourt at an inflated price and doesn't sell.....
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I have to disagree with the above. I've just had SWMBO's RAV4 serviced at a main dealer and I reckon it was competitive compared to what a decent independent would charge round here (Berks).
Cost was £260 all in for a major "B service" and that included a small discount for older cars. B service included oil, oil filter, gearbox oil, diff oil, ATF change, air filter, fuel filter, spark plugs and the usual "visual checks". I reckon that was particularly good value. I didn't get any advisory notes.
I would have to agree that Toyota parts and accesories are expensive however.
Regarding the exhaust quote, I personally would never use a main dealer for consumables anyway (ie tyres, brakes and exhausts) Although having said that, certain people reckon OE exhausts last a lot longer than aftermarket.
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yes marc i agree £45 of bits and a bit of labour seems reasonable at £260
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Id be happy to collect and service your car too sir !
Will be done for your return !
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It all depends where you are. You find a reputable garage (ie not under the arches) in this part of the country who'll do all that cheaper. Main dealer cost was comparable with a trusted independent I use for MOTs.
If you're happy to service your own car(s) yourself that obviously works for you. For me it doesn't.
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i live in yorkshire marc,it wasnt really a slag honest, more an observation,im still realing from paying my factor £6.32 for a wheel cylinder delivered to work today as it was 4 pence dearer than last week
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No offence was meant from me either!
But 3 hours labour at a main dealer is expensive and thats what I guess they would be charging for or around that anyway.
Depends on what you call a good independant but if they are charging that much they are either very good or have very expensive rates etc . or both !
i'm northants and would love to be able to charge at those rates
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None taken. I always shop around for quotes beforehand and it's never a case of just dumping the car at the main dealer and paying whatever they demand.
I've just checked the invoice - it was 2 hours labour for which they charged £117. The rest was for parts and VAT.
I guess that labour rate is expensive but no more so than the Ford and Vauxhall franchises I've used down here, or when I got an independent to service the Volvo we used to own.
If we owned a Land Rover or Jeep model you could easily double or triple that amount. That would be excessive IMO.
Just to a clarify, all I was trying to say is that in my experience Toyota dealers are fairly/reasonably priced in the market for main dealer servicing. Obviously I realise not everyone goes for main dealer servicing for various reasons.
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Audi labour rate in Aylesbury - £98/hour.
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Audi labour rate in Aylesbury - £98/hour.
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When I was able to check the Ford prices online, a couple of years ago, my local main dealer was the most expensive Ford site for standard servicing , that I could find,
Their labour charges were £80 plus vat.
I will enquire about their current rates.
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>>Let's be honest, we all know that franchise dealer servicing is a rip-off.>>
Not always, we have had good service in recent years from Renault and Ford dealers
Renault:
Our Clio is now 8 years old and 43,000 miles, we have had it from 4,000 miles, yes the Renault dealer tried to sell us a complete new exhaust at a rather high price saying (as the per the OP) "it will be difficult to seperate the sections", I had a new middle section fitted elsewhere, though they were right to highlight that it needed attention. However on another occasion I had bought from their parts dept a power steering pressure switch and fitted it myself, the original was leaking slightly, the only non wear and tear issue we have had with the Clio (otherwise only exhaust and battery have been replaced). About nine months later the replacement started to also weep fluid, rather than simply exchange the part the dealer insisted that they fit the second replacement themselves at no cost to us.
Additionally we had a cambelt change done (full kit) plus an oil and filter change for under £200 at Renault Minute.
Ford:
On the one occasion I had a fault that required an injector to be reprogrammed the dealer waived the IRO £50 cost even though the car was well out of warranty because I was a regular customer.
The two rear doors were effected by a white oxidation where the sealer had come away, the sealer on these doors was very hard to touch where as on the front doors, hatch etc it was soft to the extent that you could make an indentation in it with your finger nail, the car was nearly four years old and had done 102000 miles, so it was a year and 42000 miles out of it's warranty, yes it has a 12 year perforation warranty though was certainly not perforated, so Ford held no liability to me at all in respect of this problem however, no quibble, they acknowledged that the sealer was faulty, the dealer fitted two new rear doors and gave me brand new C-Max to drive while they did it. Ok, it is better to not have the problem in the first place though 10/10 to Ford and the dealer for taking it seriously and sorting it out.
Also I have started to do some jobs myself, the dealer highlighted that the front discs would soon need replacing, when I said that I was planning on doing the brakes myself though would continue to have scheduled services done by them the service dept called the parts dept and arranged a 25% discount off the parts for me.
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.......... £6.32 for a wheel cylinder delivered to work today .........
How much for the part and how much for delivery?
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L\'escargot.
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>>certain people reckon OE exhausts last a lot longer than aftermarket.>>
It's more a fact that an assumption in the majority of cases - same for batteries.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Let's be honest, we all know that franchise dealer servicing is a rip-off. Service departments are located next to the showroom, which is on some mega-expensive prime retail site. So dealers are paying top-dollar for each square metre of workshop. Then all the 'branding' etc has to be paid for - then the receptionist, the 'Service Advisor' (i.e. would-be technician who can't make the grade). The end result is that your £7/hour technician is charged out at £80/hour and the service manager is under tremendous pressure to 'upsell' ...
A friiend of mine, who is involved on the managment accountancy side of the business at a local Peugept dealer, told me that the standard way your typical dealership is financed, is that *all* the fixed costs (rent, electric etc etc) of the site are covered by the service department. They make a small amount of money on parts, and there's very little money in new & used car sales (for the 'mainstream' manufacturers). This came up because he was having sleepless nights as one of their ramps had been out of action for several weeks (due to it being occupied by a car in bits waiting for a new auto box).
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I was going to also say that a friend has had issues with cost and customer service standards at the Toyota dealer, she will not go back there with her Yaris.
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A friiend of mine ........................ was having sleepless nights as one of their ramps had been out of action for several weeks (due to it being occupied by a car in bits waiting for a new auto box).
Sounds like a tall story to me. Why didn't they just take the car off the ramp and put it to one side?
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L\'escargot.
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Sounds like a tall story to me. Why didn't they just take the car off the ramp and put it to one side? --
There'd be no reason for him to make it up - I presume the level of dismantling involved made it difficult? Or perhaps they just couldn't be bothered.
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