You people should move to New England. Mechanics here buy their parts at fairly discounted prices…then mark them up to near retail prices.
Many places sell both. Pep-Boys…Firestone…There are also some NAPA repair facilities.
I know several places that will install the parts you bring them. However they won’t guarantee the parts. And some parts they won’t install because the quality is so poor.
Good mechanics around here buy from quality parts companies…The parts are delivered to them. I know of no good mechanic who buys from places like ADAP or Pep-Boys.
In fairness, it’s not a tip. It’s a markup on parts because you’re buying the parts from the installer. Which I’m fine with, to a certain degree. If the alternator is $25 bucks more than I could’ve gotten the same part for, no big deal. It covers the cost of them sourcing the part, etc. When the markup is several hundred bucks, (like the catalytic converter I mentioned), it doesn’t seem right… I’m not sure why I should pay $900 vs $600 for the Toyota part, just because the Toyota dealer (who most likely gets it for even less than $600) is installing it, for example. What am I getting for the extra $300? The privilege of paying them to install it?
No issue with asemaster or his shop. It sounds like a high end shop (with shuttle service, snacks, coffee, etc) that does quality work. If the markup is to cover the overhead for those services, I’d rather just be charged separately for the shuttle service. Maybe I wouldn’t need it. And I don’t drink coffee.
Now if the shop provides free beer, mark the parts up all you want!
Yeah. It’s a percentage markup. Which is great when you’re getting an oil change, unless you’d like the mechanic to charge you $50 for the filter because he has a cost+$45 flat fee for parts.
On that, I’m not sure why you’re going to the Toyota dealer for a non-warranty repair unless there are special circumstances. Of course the dealership is going to charge you more. Go to a local independent.
All that aside, at the end of the day the mechanic is going to want to make X profit per job. I don’t particularly care what the breakdown looks like. If he wants to charge me $1,000 for the alternator and $1 for the labor, or $900 for the alternator and $101 for the labor, it makes no difference to me or my wallet. Shoot, if he wants to charge me $1 for the part, $1 for the labor, and $999 for mandatory admission to his waiting room, it’s all the same to me.
I’ll use resources like Repairpal to get a ballpark for what I should expect to pay, and if the mechanic is charging a significant difference from that ballpark, high or low, I’m likely to take my business elsewhere. But how the mechanic arrives at what he charges, I could care less.
I wasn’t certain if it was warranty or not at the time. Emissions warranty was 80k miles, I believe. I think we had just over 80k. It doesn’t really matter if I took it to a dealer or an independent. Parts markup is parts markup, it’s irrelevant where the markup on the parts was.
The reason I care how they arrive at the price is because they list parts and labor hours and a labor rate. If they just listed the total for the job without the breakdown, I probably wouldn’t even notice on a relatively inexpensive part. But if you list x hours at $y dollars/hour plus z for parts, I see no reason the parts price shouldn’t be reasonably close to what I could buy the exact same part for. Trust me, the dealership didn’t charge less for labor because they had a high markup on the parts. And I doubt a shop will either. I don’t think that’s how it works.
Like I said, if they mark the parts up a few bucks to cover the cost of sourcing the parts (which they could easily avoid by tacking on an additional labor charge) I really don’t care. When you start replacing cat converters, or something really expensive like an engine or transmission, I don’t want to pay several hundred dollars more than I can buy the exact same thing for. If a shop doesn’t want to install customer supplied parts because they’re inferior parts or incorrect parts, I understand that. If they don’t want to install them just because they won’t get their markup (and it’s substantial), personally I’d go elsewhere.
I couldn’t close this thread until I posted this story, my sister was building her dream house and wanted everything just as she planned. The final trip by the plumbers was to install and connect all the faucets, etc and as scheduled the plumbers arrived a7 7:00 and after waiting half an hour with no one arriving with the fixtures they jumped in the truck and pulled out the ‘contractor’s special’ pieces that were the usual choice on such jobs and went to work. Sometime after 9:00 my sister arrived with a box full of fixtures that she insisted on using and felt insulted when told that she would be paying the labor for all work already done plus uninstallation added to the installation of the special fixtures. In the end she paid it all but felt cheated. But then if she had arrived at 9:00 and found the men sitting outside smoking while on her payroll waiting for the correct pieces I’m sure she would have also felt cheated.
I can understand why someone would feel cheated if they were charged “parts and labor” with a parts markup to amount to anything. “This is what the parts cost”. No, it’s not. It’s what you’re charging for the parts over and above retail value. For unknown reasons.
I don’t think that’s how most shops operate in this area. I could be wrong, I rarely go to one any more.
Of course, and you should make the decision that’s right for you. But it works both ways. When you’re standing at the counter asking questions to see if this is the right shop for you, the people behind the counter are also seeing if you are the right customer for this shop.
I wouldn’t call it a feeling, unless we’re also saying the employees feel they need a paycheck, or the landlord feels she needs a rent check, or the electric company feels they need their bill paid.
I don’t care what published retail prices are, or what you can pay online for something, and we don’t make 40% across the board on everything. What a 40% margin means is that in the long run, over months and years, we achieve approximately 40% gross profit on all our parts purchases. Small dollar items we make much more, large dollar items we make much less.
Absolutely. Sometimes you want a fine prime rib dinner. Sometimes you want Mcnuggets. Most restaurants offer one or the other.
The shuttle service and loaner cars are nice, but it’s the attention to detail and the quality of work that makes it a premier shop. If you saw what a “simple” brake inspection entailed you would think it’s a bargain at $55. Or maybe not. If you don’t see the value in it, that’s fine too.
Repair shops have always charged retail price for parts.
What has changed is, in the 40s and 50s, if you went to an auto parts store or a dealer and bought your own parts, you paid the same retail price that your mechanic charged you.
Cracks appeared in that arrangement when some less than stellar parts stores started selling “discounted” parts to do it your selfers. They were poor quality parts and real mechanics didn’t buy from them. Forrest City Auto Parts was one of those in our area. If you called them for a price, it depended on who answered the phone and when you got yo the store you had better remember who you talked to and the price. Then the dance started. did you want the 30, 60 , 90 day, 6 month , one year ,3 year, or lifetime warrantied part. The lifetime part cost more than twice as much as the 30 day but no matter what you paid for it was the same piece of junk in a box with only a number on it.
To compete, real parts stores started offering discounts no non commercial buyers and the internet has really erased the difference between retail and wholesale. However junk still abounds in the marketplace. I have read estimates as high as 70% of auto parts sold on the internet are counterfeit.
When you call an appliance repair service or a plumber they mark up the parts and charge you a service call and an hourly rate if the job takes longer than the service call allows. Why do you expect your mechanic to be different.
When I call my mechanic and ask him for a price for say a wheel bearing on my car he does not discuss the hourly rate or price of the part, he just tells me what it will cost and it never goes over that cost. There is a breakdown on the bill, but why do I care how he arrives at it. If he charged me less for the part or more for the labor, would I be happier?
If a part furnished by the repair shop turns out to be defective, the shop is out its time to remove the part, secure a replacement part, and install the replacement part. I would rather the shop take the risk than for me to supply the part, have the part be defective, then be out the time of returning the part and paying a double labor charge.
I was installing a new toilet in a restroom at my church. I get it installed, turn on the water and it leaks between the tank and the bowl. I went back to the store where I bought the toilet and was given a kit to install between the tank and bowl. It still leaks. I finally returned the toilet and exchanged it for a different brand. I also had to replace the wax ring again. What should have been a job that should have taken less than an hour took three hours. I can imagine the frustration the mechanic at the shop experiences if a part such as a water pump proves defective and the mechanic has to do the job over on his own time.
When I did my own work, I obviously bought and replaced the part. If I have a shop do the work, it’s the shop’s responsibility to install the correct part that is not defective.
As I said we generally don’t tell people how to run their business and just decide whether we like it or not and do business or don’t do business with them. So whether we like the parts mark-up or not, it really doesn’t matter. A guy is free to do things the way them sees fit. No law yet.
I liked what the Sheriff said once when a family was concerned about the disappearance of a member. The Sheriff found him and reported back to the family that he was OK but that a guy has a right to not be found if he doesn’t want to be. That was a wise ole Sheriff well schooled in the law. So we don’t care if a guy charges a 200% mark-up on parts if it works for him as long as we can choose to go elsewhere.
Heh heh heh, speaking of the law, I read in MT or Car and Driver or one of those that practice of chalking tires for parking violations was being challenged in Michigan. The appeals court agreed that it was akin to a warrant-less search of a vehicle. I just don’t like them marking up my clean tires.
It’s a free market. I was interested in learning why a service center would turn away a potential client. I did, and I am not particularly impressed by the answers, especially as I feel the game has changed. Almost every garage I have ever been to or dealer talks about how they don’t use cheap ‘‘jobber’’ parts, and dealer depts like to pretend that Honda, for example, makes its own parts rather than subcontracts to companies such as Denso, Hitachi, Tokico, KYB, etc. Nissan dealers now even carry a ‘‘value-line’’ of cheaper parts they warranty for 6 months. As in any field, there are differences in knowledge and skill among different professionals, and in some cases, an amateur will be more accomplished than certain so-called pros.
I will say that a 40% markup by a parts reseller is arbitrary and I think excessive. Keep in mind the part store they buy from and that delivers to them operates on the typical retail markups of 100 to 200% of the supplier price. By the sounds of things, your shop charges more on average than a good dealership. I guess you have a great location and good past reputation. Power to you, but I would take my business elsewhere.
Stuff happens. Not up to them to create their own work. They should have tried to reach her or waited for her arrival. I don’t know if you would say she was cheated but she was bulldozed. Why would she have felt cheated if the men were idle while waiting for her? The point is, that is what they should have done
Regardless how some people think the world doesn’t operate around them. When left hanging some will decide to take the most common option and move on while others will sit down and do nothing while their pay continues. Those who want the world to operate around them would be unhappy with either alternative when it costs them their money and time and not vice versa.
Yeah I dunno but building a house is a cooperative project. We’ve done three now where we did a substantial amount of work. The thing of prime importance is making sure your work is completed so that it does not slow down or hinder subs or carpenters. It’s a tread mill working to 1 or 2 in the morning to make sure the carpenters coming in at 7 would not be held up. I don’t have another one in me. Too much work.
So an issue for both. Showing up at 9 would not be acceptable but the plumbers should have just waited on the clock or left to return later. Picking your own fixtures would not be a smart option for a non-spec house. I’m talking faucets, sinks, etc., not pipe and valves, although I’d want to choose copper or Pex.
Repair shops get a break in prices from salvage yards. I wanted individual front seats in my 1965 Rambler. The best price I could get at the salvage yard was $50. I was telling the mechanic at the shop where I was a customer about wanting the seat, but I.thought the price was high. He called a salvage yard and got a price of $25. He then said over the phone “I’ll send Bud over to pick them up”. He then handed me a jacket that had Bud embroidered on the front and a big Sunoco insignia on the back. I took the service truck and told the person at the salvage yard that I was from Westside Sunoco. Two employees loaded the seats into the truck while I paid the bill. I enjoyed the change in profession from university professor to parts boy–especially when I saved $25.
Having been on both sides of the equation, the truth is somewhere in between.
I’ve seen garages purchase at a discount and then mark it up to “retail”, which I consider totally appropriate and others purchase at a discount then bill at Retail plus a markup, which I consider unethical but I’ve never seen a garage purchase at a discount and bill at a discount, which is just plain foolish.
Which brings us to customers bringing in their own parts and I say “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”.
Being very picky about the quality of the parts that go into my vehicles (OEM or Better) I sometimes supply my own parts but being aware that I’m cutting into his revenue I also tell him that “I expect to see a charge for supplying my own parts.”
The garage is happy because it saves them the cost and cash outlay of getting the quality parts I expect and I’m happy because I’m getting quality instead of “Chineseium” so the surcharge is typically very reasonable.
The moral is,“It’s always the cheapskate who ends up paying the most”…
@bing. I got along better with the service staff at the university where I was on the faculty than many of my colleagues. I guess that must be “the country boy” in me.
I don’t have the skills that some do who work with their hands. I admire people that have these skills. Earlier in my life, I had to do as much as I could for myself. It took me three times as long, for instance, to replace a water pump on a car as a good mechanic. However, having to do things for myself gave me an appreciation for people with technical skills.
I think all students in junior high school should take a shop class. It might help kids without these skills to appreciate kids who have these skills but aren’t academically talented.
Chasing down auto parts takes time, even if it is to look up a part number for a specific model, place the call, and have it delivered. This takes time and I understand the mark-up for a part.
Me too. I was in school during the era of “anyone who has to work with their hands for a living must be a moron,” and so shop was heavily discouraged in favor of anything that a college might be more impressed by… Which at the time was considered to be just about anything but shop. So with the exception of 8th grade Industrial Technology, which was still required, but was taught for the entire semester by a substitute who had obviously never seen the inside of a shop before because the regular teacher was being investigated for misconduct, I never took a shop class.
I came to regret that pretty quickly once in college when, broke, I needed car repairs done and had no idea how to go about doing them. Over $1,000 that I couldn’t afford later spent at a shop that never fixed the problem, I quickly decided I needed to know how to do this stuff myself if I didn’t want to be bankrupt by the time I was a sophomore.
My only saving grace was that my dad knew how to work on cars, and I had a CRX, which at the time enjoyed being the focus of a national car club from which I got lots of help. But it was a lot harder than if I’d taken an auto shop class to learn the basics back in high school or jr. high.
