Ball joint. £90…?

Flatulentoldgoat

Just been quoted £90 for a ball joint replacement. Is that a bit dear? Seen 'em on carparts4less for £10 and I've been told it's only an hour's labour?

[Deleted User]

Seems about right, depending on who's fitting it.  An hour's labour @ £60 or so, plus parts plus VAT. 

AdrianC

An hour's labour is probably £50 or more plus VAT, depending on where you are - so that's £70-ish of that £90.

Finding the absolute cheapest part online doesn't mean that's what you're going to be paying for the part from the garage. Not only are they not buying it online - they're phoning their factor, who put it on the next van, and if it's the wrong part or damaged, it's replaced within an hour or two - but they are very likely to be avoiding the cheapest and nastiest off-brand parts like the plague. Remember, they've got to be able to stand by that part and replace it if it fails prematurely (which the ten quid ones are very likely to)

fred246

It's interesting people like carparts4less ie eurocarparts normally sell at least 2 versions of the same item. A cheap and premium version. DIY people are normally pretty obsessive about getting the best parts. You do a job yourself to do a better job than any garage would do it. It's pretty fundamental for a business to keep outgoings as low as possible to maximise profits. I would say it's the garages that normally fit the cheap parts.

AdrianC

fred246 said:

It's interesting people like carparts4less ie eurocarparts normally sell at least 2 versions of the same item. A cheap and premium version. DIY people are normally pretty obsessive about getting the best parts. You do a job yourself to do a better job than any garage would do it. It's pretty fundamental for a business to keep outgoings as low as possible to maximise profits. I would say it's the garages that normally fit the cheap parts.

Quite the opposite.

A garage sources a part through their factor, and fits it - then it fails miserably in short order... they're not on the hook for the cost of the part - the factor will swallow that - just the time for fitting a new one. The factor won't stock rubbish, because they know a different factor is happy to supply.

Also - parts supplied to customers aren't an "outgoing" of the business. They're a profit centre. There's more mark-up on a £20 part than a £10 one, if the mark-up is done by a percentage (or, rather the discount from the factor is a %age).

Garages simply don't buy the off-brand cheap rubbish. It's no benefit to them, and carries to high a financial risk, let alone reputational.

You really think that a garage is going to spend half an hour trawling eBay to save a quid on a part for a customer...? No, one call to the factor.

fred246

AdrianC said:

fred246 said:

It's interesting people like carparts4less ie eurocarparts normally sell at least 2 versions of the same item. A cheap and premium version. DIY people are normally pretty obsessive about getting the best parts. You do a job yourself to do a better job than any garage would do it. It's pretty fundamental for a business to keep outgoings as low as possible to maximise profits. I would say it's the garages that normally fit the cheap parts.

No, one call to the factor.

And they'll bring you some cheap parts in a van. There are so many parts that will never fail. Filters are a classic example. "You fitted a new pollen filter and some pollen got through". It's never going to happen. That's if they can be bothered to change it at all.