micky wrote:
On Tue, 23 Jun 2015 11:47:07 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 6/23/2015 5:42 AM, Vic Smith wrote:


Most people don't expect to get screwed on parts prices nowadays.
The parts costs are readily available, and they're not in the dark.
Labor cost is take it or leave it.
Car parts prices have been available for many years, and so has part
costs on the final bill.
Why go where you're going to get gouged on parts?
Even 50 years ago a good mechanic working for my cousin took me aside
and told me in a whisper I needed ignition wires. "Get them at the
parts store down the street and do it yourself. Mike is gonna charge
you twice what he pays for them."
Even he didn't like that practice.
That's what got me started doing most of my own repairs.




I used to do my own work. Just had brakes done and I saw what I was
charged for the pads. I know I could have gotten them cheaper, but I
don't get down on the ground so easy any more so I paid to have them put
in.

I also understand the shop had to either stock them or go get them etc.
He has to get a markup, he has to make a profit. What is the
difference if I pay $50 for pads and $50 for labor or if I pay $25 for
pads and $75 for labor? End of the day, the shop has to bring in a
certain amount of money to exist.

That's right. These guys are not getting rich, or Clare would still be
doing that. The mechanics make a good middle income living, I hope,
and the owner makes an upper middle income income, but he has lots of
money invested in the franchise and/or the building, the land, the
inventory, the tools that the mechanics don't bring, the commitment to
pay salaries, etc.

I don't feel that way about dealers, however.

Good mechanics working in flat rate shop make pretty good money.