Is my local garage taking the piss!

[Sam9769]

Hi,

Brought my car into my local garage yesterday as a speed sensor needs to be replaced.
The speed sensor is £40 plus VAT but they are charging £90 plus VAT for labour which they say will be approximately and hour and a half.

When I queried the hourly rate the young girl behind the counter said that this was cheap and the "industry standard is £150 per hour!"

AIBU to think that £90 plus VAT per hour is excessive?

Not an expert but my hairdresser takes a lot longer to cut my hair than a barber does to cut DH's... and it costs him more than £10.

Or it did until I started cutting it during covid.

Well, jokes on you then because he charges men a fortune too 🤣

I couldn't care less if you think I am foolish. At least I have great hair

Friend's DH charges upwards of £75/hour. If you can get him to do the job that is. He is semi retired and picks and chooses what he does.

Jokes not on me.

There is a barber in my city that cuts mens hair for ten pounds. He will not cut womens hair.

The hairdressers in my city charge 80 pounds for a cut and blow dry for women

If you think that discrimination is okay, thats on you.

I work in an independent village garage, we are £80 per hr plus vat. Main dealers are £150-200 plus vat local to me. It’s the costs you don’t see that add up- tools, subscriptions for diagnostic equipment, wages, tax, NI, building rent/ running costs, council tax etc. My ex was a planning surveyor, we always laughed how his hourly charge was the same as ours at the time and his only costs were a car and laptop!!

So if hairdressers are charging £80 per hour then the mechanic charging £60 is surely very reasonable which was my original point

So in total it’s going to cost you £156 for parts and labour? That’s a good price

I think that's perfectly reasonable, especially as so many mumsnetters are happy to pay several hundred pounds for a couple of hours at a hair salon or getting botox and fillers in under an hour.

It's a fair price.
My SIL runs a service depot and sometimes I ask him if I think the charge from my local garage might be a bit high. He always says it is fine.
It is worth developing a good relationship with a local garage.
I do not think they are overcharging you. You are paying for their expertise and overheads.

No. I was saying that the hairdressers are also unreasonable

I think it's a decent price.
The mechanic doesn't actually get £60 an hour which is what the price is as you were quoted £90 for 1.5 hours. The woman who gave you the quote is right that the industry standard is much higher.
You're being charged £130 plus VAT to have speed sensors replaced. It's a reasonable price for that.

Just saw your other thread

🤣😂😅

You could always do it yourself… Or is it the case that actually the training, skills, and tools required - on top of the hour and a half of someone’s time - amounts to significantly more than the garage is charging?

I work in a garage…the proper diagnostic machines cost thousands and then you have to pay a monthly subscription to keep it up to date. I can guarantee you that the £8 one for Amazon does f**k all 😂

I work in a garage, we charge £90+VAT per hour labour. It is standard for a good quality garage. £60ph is cheap!

Very dependent on where it's located.

Reminds me of having to change the wiper motor in a Lotus.... you have to take the engine out.

They can be useful if you've got an old car and it's a simple fault like a wonky MAF or dead ignition coil. For anything built in the last 10-15 years, though, they're worthless.

Sounds really cheap lucky you finding them.

So change it yourself?

Their labour rate is more than reasonable.

Bingo. If it's a wheel speed sensor then for most cars you'll just need a metric socket set, maybe some additional internal/external torx bits, a torque wrench and a screwdriver or two plus a car jack, jack stands and some wheel chocks. Call it £200-£250 in tools if you're getting the cheap stuff. Plus parts of course. And maybe some anti-seize grease etc.

If it's a very modern car then you'll also need to calibrate the speed sensor after installation and for that you'll likely need specialist, manufacturer-specific diagnostic tool. That might run you £5K or more.

If it's a gearbox speed sensor then all bets are off because for some of them you'll need a proper lift to remove lots of bits of exhaust/suspension/subframe/etc so you can drop the engine and gearbox.

Exactly! Their price is a bargain!

I do most my own car basics stuff but there are some things I'd happily pay the garage to do, especially if I don't have the right equipment.

It's £90 plus VAT per hour.

Thanks for the advice.
My husband bought the sensor today from a Volvo garage for £40 and did the repair himself!

Apologies, I didn't explain this correctly.
It was £90 plus VAT per hour so just under £100 per hour for labour.

It was £99.45 for diagnostics which we paid and then it's £108 including VAT per hour and £45 for the sensor.