SHE is without doubt the best service writer I’ve worked with in 30+ years in this business.
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I’d love to have her working for me. How does she feel about the east coast?
I just did a search for drivenbystyle.com and kajunim0 and found a number of similar recent posts advertising that site by kajunim0. Given kajunim0 just joined this site in the last few hours and then posted a link to this website, it’s definitely suspicious.
If you want to see a page full of “less than complimentary” one star reviews for Driven By Style, do a search for “revdex.com driven-by-style-llc”.
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This has been going on since 2009. Bottom line is it doesn’t matter how they figure your bill. The bottom line is what you will be charged and what you will pay. I didn’t ask the Doc his hourly rate or if he was on the flat rate system and if it would help if I brought my own net.
@bing I once asked a dentist who played tuba in the same band I played in about a dental problem. I was not a patient of this dentist. I had a bridge that had come loose on one end and I asked this dentist if he could recommend a non toxic glue that I could use to hold the bridge in place. I was just joking about doing the work myself and I thought he knew that. He said it took a special glue that wasn’t available in the hardware department at Walmart. However, he called me at home that night and was worried that I was serious. He said I needed to go see my dentist.
I did see my dentist and have the bridge re-cemented in place. A couple of years later, my tuba playing colleague became my regular dentist.
i think so you have to search on google according to this (the auto parts markup) question.
I Think so that u have to search on google according to the question(Auto Parts Marksup?).
That is so dependent on where you are.
Being entitled to profit and entitled to 100% mark up while charging $185/hr or more for labor is simply pathetic. There are many costs involved in operating a shop. Nobody denies that. However, those that gouge people with the excuse of barely getting by deserve the bad word of mouth they get. Why should a shop charge me $31 per spark plug that they paid $7 for? They compound that by charging $291 to screw them in. Remanufactured fuel injectors that they paid $49 for, they charge me 93.55 each. Ofcourse that is in addition to an additional labor charge of approx $185/hr for 2.4 hours. If they wanted to be dentists, they should have applied to dental school.
Make model year engine? $185/hr could be typical depending on location. The mechanic takes home a small fraction of that.
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Hey there. Thanks for the reply. I’ve been so busy I haven’t logged in here in awhile until I saw the email so it’s nice to see the old place again. 
I don’t like high prices either. I wouldn’t want to pay some mechanic that much per spark plug. That’s why I change my own spark plugs.
In other words, no one is forcing you to use that mechanic’s services. Do it yourself or find a cheaper mechanic. The bottom line in a capitalist economy is that the mechanic is punished for not making as much as they possibly can on every transaction.
That mechanic has to not only worry about day to day expenses (have you seen the price of eggs lately?) and shop overhead, but also has to fully fund a retirement that could last 30+ years and involve long term care needs that could easily top $10,000 per month if they need a nursing home.
And because uniquely in the first world we have almost no real social safety net for the elderly, if they fail to save enough for when they have to stop working, they’re, often quite literally, out in the cold.
If I could get that much for changing your spark plugs, I’d do it too. Our society is structured such that being overly generous can and often will come back to haunt you.
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+1
And don’t forget the fortune a professional mechanic has in tools, and that is just his personal tools… Most diagnostic techs scanners are in the 5-10K price range, not the cheap AZ ones… Tools you use everyday are normally bought off a tool truck and, well us old guys anyway, not much else to buy back then that would hold up not having to stop on the way home everyday to warranty a bunch of your tools cause they can’t handle the stress of daily use…
you know that alignment rack you take for granted, well I signed for one back in 2005ish that was $65,000 for the rack and alignment machine, yes it was top of the line… Technology has brought the prices down in the years since, but still not cheap… Oh yeah, don’t forget all the updates you have to keep paying for every time something changes… Garage liability, don’t forget that, your torque wrench fails and the guy using it doesn’t realize something feels different and the customer leaves and has a wheel off, someone gets hurt or worse and you get lawsuit… The list goes on and on and on… Oh and that really big building, it’s not free nor is the electric, gas or water…
I always love to hear people complain about the price of auto repair but don’t think twice paying 300% mark up on cloths from anywhere… My brother was a manager at a Gap distribution center that shipped to the stores, back in 2000 the cost of a pair of pants was under $6 when it hit the distribution center, but the price you would pay was $100 or more at the store…
Another friend of mine when still at ford (left around 2010) did inventory on the shops transmission specialty tools and it was $25,000… That is just for one brands trans tools, and that was before all the 8+ speed auto transmissions came out… (don’t know what and if they require anything more special)
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And unfortunately, there’s a large portion of the population who’s counting ONLY on SSN to retire one. Thus, the influx of older workers in the workplace like WalMart to supplement their income.
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Why do you think your auto shop owner should make less of a living than your dentist?
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Yep. It’s a huge problem that will become an unmitigated disaster if we don’t… Erm… Mitigate it.
SS is designed to cover about 40% of your retirement, with at least 30% coming from your pension and the remainder from retirement accounts like 401(k)s. Only we ditched pensions in pursuit of corporate profits so now in most cases the retirement saver has to fund around 60% of 30 years worth of living expenses. That will increase if nothing is done to shore up the Social Security trust fund; when that dies benefits will be reduced to somewhere in the 70% of owed range.
Saving that much is a tall order and when looked at from that perspective, it’s a miracle the mechanic doesn’t want a grand just to change the wiper blades.
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Or the lack of outflux of older workers, as they need to continue working to fund their golden years. I fully expect to be working into my mid-70’s to afford the lifestyle I want. My father retired in 2004, at the age of 74, so I figure I’ve got to go at least that long.
I’m retiring at end of this year when this one project I’m heading up is finished. I’ll be 70. I can retire now if I wanted to. I won’t need any other income for my retirement and keep my current lifestyle. Wife and I both maxed out our contributions to 401K and IRA’s for decades. Mortgage is all paid for. No car payments. We have more than enough cash to buy use new cars when we need to. Have the money for supplemental Medicare parts. If SSN is a bonus.
I understand auto parts markup. It takes time to look up a part, order a part, and often go after the part. This takes time and time is valuable. If the shop guarantees its work and the part is defective, the shop has to pay the technician the labour to change out the part.
If the tech makes more than I earned as a college professor, so be it. My degree is in research design and statistics. I turned down a job in industry which paid twice as I earned as a professor because I enjoyed teaching. I turned down an administrative position that.paid much more because I don’t like administrative work and I didn’t want to spend my time in committee meetings.
I.hsd a choice between publishing research and paying a shop to maintain my vehicles or do my own vehicle maintenance. I’ll.pay the labour and parts markup to free up.my time even though the tech maintaining my vehicle may earn more than I earn.
In my earlier years I did my own oil changes. I replaced the spark plugs, replaced water and fuel pumps, did the oil changes. When my salary was increased, I let a trusted shop.do the work. If a shop can repair my car, I am going to let them do the job.