Cost of labour

debs+kate · Post by **debs+kate** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:00 pm

Hi there i have had a few things done on my bongo and wondered if someone could say what a reasonable labour cost would be.

These were all from mot failing points:

The axel oil had leaked over the brakes, so new seals had to be put on -just one side. The axel had to be refilled with oil as it empty

The handbrake had to be completely readjusted as it had not been engaging at all.

the brakes had to be bled (something to do with the first point)

The rear fog light had not been working, the mechanic found i to be a bad earth wire and fixed it.

How much would you say was reasonable for all this work? not including the seals or oil or any bits bought, just labour?

Post by **francophile1947** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:46 pm

Depends where you had it done - a main dealer can charge over £60 an hour (inc VAT).

debs+kate · Post by **debs+kate** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:49 pm

realllyyy? well it was a neighbour of mine doing it for me, hes a mechanic, i'm just making sure that he's not overcharged, because he says he underquotes garages. We don't know anything about how much stuff costs! he charged 80 quid. is that good?

Post by **francophile1947** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:51 pm

I would be more than happy with £80 quid for that.

daveblueozzie · Post by **daveblueozzie** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:56 pm

at them prices they'l be queing down the road for him to fix bongos

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:56 pm

Me too...I recon about £25 per hour is reasonable

debs+kate · Post by **debs+kate** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:16 am

brilliant, i just wanted confirmation really, and i got it! i didn't think he'd do me over lol. I feel bad now for thinking it! looks like mechanics is the way to go for earning a buck!

dandywarhol · Post by **dandywarhol** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:04 am

Hope he fitted new brake pads if they're soaked in axle oil - NOTHING will remove it properly.................

neil/di · Post by **neil/di** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:26 am

BARGAIN

ebygum32 · Post by **ebygum32** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:54 am

I had the same problem with the rear axel oil seal on the near side took me about 2-3 hours to strip it down clean and fit new seals then refit it all, to check/change the diff oil about 20-30 mins total,

the handbreak could be adjusted whilst the rear disc is off

bleeding brakes not that long and fog light 30mins tops

so yeh if you did it all your self poss 5-6 hours work so £80 good if you don't wanna get your hands dirty

debs+kate · Post by **debs+kate** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:03 am

He fitted our new brakes recently, i'm sure he'd have made sure their still ok. I had to buy a centre exhaust as the last part for the MOT pass, i bought it yesterday from a company on ebay at 4pm, and it arrived at 8.45am this morning, all the way from kent to manchester. All in, delivery and vat for 102.50. cheapest i could find, and very pleased with the delivery! My neighbouris going to pop it on today for a fee (how much is reasonable for removing the old one and fitting the new one?) and it'll be bongo re-test a go-go! She'll be in tip top form hooray!

Post by **francophile1947** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:57 am

debs+kate wrote:(how much is reasonable for removing the old one and fitting the new one?)

Hmm, how long is a piece of string? I've taken (not on a Bongo) anything from 10 minutes to 2.5 hours. Fitting new one is easy, but getting the old one off can be a nightmare.

Post by **aitch** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:01 pm

I had work done a few weeks ago at a local garage and was charged £50 per hour including VAT so your quote sounds very good.

moonshine · Post by **moonshine** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:43 pm

The Mercedes dealership in Hertford were charging over £90 an hour 3 years ago. On a top-of-the-range luxury saloon car? No, on my Smart!!

Post by **Ian** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:06 am

If you have a few moments, let me tell you how the "per hour" charge is worked out. All is not what it seems. And I know this because, in a previous life, my job was to work out the "chargeable rate".

This is a simple scenario but will illustrate the point. Get your maths head on.

Let's take the example of a medium sized, family run garage where they have 6 mechanics (at £25,000 pa), a manager (at £35,000), a supervising mechanic (£25,000), receptionist (£15,000), & admin assistant (£15,000). The premises cost £10,000 pa, advertising costs £10,000 pa, and utilities cost £5,000. Plus business rates of £5,000. Total costs, before any work done, of £250,000.

PLUS, if it is a PLC with dividend payments etc, or perhaps repayment of start up costs, will bring it up to £300,000.

So, we have 6.5 mechanics. BUT, after leave and sickness are built in to the equation, each mechanic works 215 days per year, not 365.

So the total amount of hours worked by the firm are (6.5 mechanics x 215 days x 7 hours) = 9,783

And as the costs for running the business are £300,000, divided by the number of hours available, the per hour charge is £30.67p.

So for a large dealership, the costs will be higher.