Garage charged 3-10x parts markup - advice?

goldspanners

op, your online prices are for the parts alone i assume.
your kwik fit prices are including labour. they didn't just magic themselves on now did they?

im not one usually to stick up for kwik fit or any other chain out there,but thier prices seem not too bad for kwik fit prices.

your alternative the next time is to invest in a full set of tools and a garage with a 4 post ramp and carry out all the work yourself,your sure to save a forune with those online prices you've got there.

i don't understand why you took both cars there though. you must have taken them both in at the same time,other wise you would have seen the first bill and then shat yourself and found another garage.

bigstevex

If your using a garage you need to get one recommended by others in my opinion! Stay away from slow fit!!!! Dropped my car off a jack once while i was stood there..... that was after waiting for an hour!

newbie007_2

Well you live and learn. Others have raise this issue, were all the work needed to be done, thats the question. With the wheel bearing, you can hear a knocking noise whilst driving, it becomes louder when the bearing gets worse.

psdie

Thanks for some useful feedback folks: sounds like the Kwik Fit bill was reasonable overrall, when take into account that the parts prices appear to include fitting (I wasn't sure if some of this was covered by the service fee, but guess not). The other garage (for the BMW) was a non Kwik Fit garage, hence different pricing structure.

Interesting tip RE taking to an MOT-only garage/council centre, as advocated by Martin himself recently. I was put off this as normally a vehicle will fail on various minor points and then you'd have to take to a full garage anyway. But I suppose you can then go along with a checklist of what needs doing, then go back to the test centre for a (hopefully?) free re-test.

I don't agree though with the viewpoint that "garages have to eat, so they can charge what they like!". That's not a very Money Saving attitude, is it?! When banks slap excessive charges on our accounts, I don't hear many cries of "banks have to eat!". Some garage will try to charge excessive fees for work/goods and we need the ability to spot and counter this.

Hammyman points out that the Kwik Fit wheelbearings price is pretty cheap including labour. That's the problem here: us mere mortals haven't the foggiest what repairs should cost! How long should a widget take to fit? When is it necessary to replace it? How much markup is typical and reasonable for the industry?

I'm also not sure I agree that it's a "free economy" / "don't like it, go somewhere else" situation. Typically you *don't* get a proper quote until the vehicle is up on the ramp and strip down has begun. This isn't really the fault of the garage - they can't see what needs doing until they've inspected properly. But the end result is that the full cost isn't known until the work has at least partially begun, at which point there would surely be labour charges if one decided to take to another garage. And then of course there's working out whether the quote is reasonable and the work necessary or not in the first place.

What would be fantastic would be a site/thread with cost guidelines for common repairs: roughly how much the part should cost from a garage (or bracketed costs by vehicle type, if major variation) and roughly how long it should take to fit (again, bracketed if need be). Obviously complications could make the job take a bit longer and part prices will vary according to manufacturer, car type, fluctuations, etc .. but even just rough guidelines would help spot situations where a garage is blatantly taking the Michael!

To compile this list, we'd ideally need input from someone honest from the trade, or perhaps we can work back from typical online prices with a fixed mark-up applied, plus timings derived from averaging past quotes.

So back to my original question: what is a *reasonable* mark-up percentage on parts? I.e., typical parts mark-up for non-dealer garages, assuming that labour is billed separately (unlike the Kwit Fit bill). 20%? 40% (which I read somewhere is fairly typical in the US)? 100% / 2x (per some of the prices for my BMW)? 200% (4x)?!

Would welcome feedback on what people consider to be a typical, reasonable mark-up level.

Many thanks, Ben

goldspanners

psdie wrote: »

I'm also not sure I agree that it's a "free economy" / "don't like it, go somewhere else" situation. Typically you *don't* get a proper quote until the vehicle is up on the ramp and strip down has begun. This isn't really the fault of the garage - they can't see what needs doing until they've inspected properly. But the end result is that the full cost isn't known until the work has at least partially begun, at which point there would surely be labour charges if one decided to take to another garage. And then of course there's working out whether the quote is reasonable and the work necessary or not in the first place.

What would be fantastic would be a site/thread with cost guidelines for common repairs: roughly how much the part should cost from a garage (or bracketed costs by vehicle type, if major variation) and roughly how long it should take to fit (again, bracketed if need be). Obviously complications could make the job take a bit longer and part prices will vary according to manufacturer, car type, fluctuations, etc .. but even just rough guidelines would help spot situations where a garage is blatantly taking the Michael!

To compile this list, we'd ideally need input from someone honest from the trade, or perhaps we can work back from typical online prices with a fixed mark-up applied, plus timings derived from averaging past quotes.

So back to my original question: what is a *reasonable* mark-up percentage on parts? I.e., typical parts mark-up for non-dealer garages, assuming that labour is billed separately (unlike the Kwit Fit bill). 20%? 40% (which I read somewhere is fairly typical in the US)? 100% / 2x (per some of the prices for my BMW)? 200% (4x)?!

Would welcome feedback on what people consider to be a typical, reasonable mark-up level.

garages aren't like banks. everyone needs a bank, not everyone needs a garage,driving is a luxury in this modern age.

if you frequent these or similar forums a bit more often you will start to become aware of reasonable prices for certain jobs,join a car specific forum perhaps and ask what users think a job should cost or how much parts are and if its could be an easy DIY job.

as for mark up, there isn't always a strict percentage, it depends on the part your buying. fast moving high volume parts usually sell cheaper to dealers or motor factors,what looks like it might be expensive and does an important job could be much cheaper than you expect so you could make a good profit on selling this part,easily doubling or trebling the price you buy at. other parts could be stupidly expensive and the customer wouldn't pay massive mark up on it so the money you make on this part will be minimal.

consider an ECU, the garage to buy it might be £700,to fit to a car thats maybe only worth £2 or £3k,the customer isn't going to be willing to give you £1000 plus fitting easily,so your mark up is reduced if you want the job.

but for a water pump that costs you under £10 you could easily sell this on at 3 or 4 times its purchase price. swings and roundabouts really. most main dealers will have strict rules on mark up,but smaller guys will sell it for what its worth.

Inactive

Strider590 wrote: »

The Micra exhaust back box was at least 2 or 3 times the actuall value. Need I say more?

Consider contacting trading standards too.

Who will ask you to close the door as you leave, utter nonsense, the OP agreed to the price.

Strider590

^^ So trading standards don't care as long as you agree'd to be ripped off? I don't think it works that way.

Heliflyguy

goldspanners wrote: »

driving is a luxury in this modern age.

:rotfl:

Its unfortunately a necessity in this modern age for most.

Judas

Strider590 wrote: »

^^ So trading standards don't care as long as you agree'd to be ripped off? I don't think it works that way.

Not in cases where the OP describes. Trading standards would only be interested if there was fraud/deception; dangerous practices or breaches of regulation/legislation.

eschaton

Strider590 wrote: »

^^ So trading standards don't care as long as you agree'd to be ripped off? I don't think it works that way.

Just give up the now. You are effectively saying that OP can expect to get back box supplied and fitted for under £30.

OP has not been ripped off and has no understanding of car repairs.

They seem to think they can pay for a cheap service and this will include all labour charges for a never ending list of repairs.

Then they try and get someone to set up a price list for car repairs. Totally unworkable.