Diagnostic Fee - Fair?

dipsomaniac

Diagnostic fees are a scandal.  Still can't believe they haven't been outlawed. The hardware costs nothing, the software cost doesn't justify the fees.  

Bigwheels1111

I asked my local mechanic today what he charged for a diagnostic scan.
He charges 1 hours labour £48 inc vat.
The scanning kit and software cost him about 4k
The funny thing is that as much as the scanner tells you it not alway that helpful.
The car he was scanning said rear abs sensor had failed.
He smiled at me and said I bet the wires are damaged, as the plastic surrounding the wires is now eco friendly and contains 
a nut oil. The foxes love the taste and chew through them.
He put it up on the ramp and there were the chewed wires.
He soldered the wires and taped them up.
Charged the customer £48 all in.
Thats how you keep loyal happy customers.
The abs sensor was £150 plus fitting + scanning fee, near £300.

Ibrahim5

Oh my god. £48 for a bit of solder and insulation tape. I'd have done it myself for about 20p.

Grey_Critic

Diagnostic charges these days seem to be a rip-off.

Back in the day when I was doing annual budgets expenditure on tools (and that included diagnostic equipment) was built into the calculations, just the same as sending technicians on training courses, holiday pay and admin etc. I then added the percentage profit I wanted to achieve and that dictated what my labour rate was.

For many years manufacturers have required dealers to have specialist tools and that includes diagnostic equipment so there is nothing new.

 I do know (and I was with Ford) that diagnostics times using their test equipment was listed and I have no reason to thinks others do not operate the same way

I have previously commented on the Labour Charge Out rates which bear no relationship to what is paid to the technicians. I would point out that in my day - Sales - Service - Parts were all separate Cost Centres and each was expected to stand on its own. There were no crossover subsidies.

Personally I think greed has taken over.

pimento

Jenni_D said:

pimento said:

Well, I said I was surprised that they would charge me the full £126 diagnostic fee seeing how I bought the car from them, had always had it serviced by them, the fault appeared very soon after it had been serviced by them, was having the fault fixed by them and that the likelihood was that I'd be buying my next car from them and it made no difference at all. I was told the diagnostic computer was a very expensive piece of equipment and the charge was therefore justified.
Looks like my next car won't be bought from there. Shame.

Write to the Dealer Principal at the dealer to express your dismay at their intransigence, and advise him that they've now lost your future business in all respects. (Servicing, repairs and future vehicle purchases).

A rocket under the DP's backside can sometimes work wonders.

I might just do that.

Bigwheels1111

Ibrahim5 said:

Oh my god. £48 for a bit of solder and insulation tape. I'd have done it myself for about 20p.

Did you not read the comment, scan diagnostics and fix for £48.
Others dealers charge for scan, then another charge for fixing, parts and extra labour.

Ibrahim5

Well if you haven't got the ability to do the diagnosis you would have to buy an extra Bluetooth OBD2 connector for £3.95.

motorguy

pimento said:

Well, I said I was surprised that they would charge me the full £126 diagnostic fee seeing how I bought the car from them, had always had it serviced by them, the fault appeared very soon after it had been serviced by them, was having the fault fixed by them and that the likelihood was that I'd be buying my next car from them and it made no difference at all. I was told the diagnostic computer was a very expensive piece of equipment and the charge was therefore justified.
Looks like my next car won't be bought from there. Shame.

They'll really not care.  Theres no guarantee you'd have bought your next car there anyway, and most dealers have more customers than they have cars.

motorguy

Grey_Critic said:

Diagnostic charges these days seem to be a rip-off.

Back in the day when I was doing annual budgets expenditure on tools (and that included diagnostic equipment) was built into the calculations, just the same as sending technicians on training courses, holiday pay and admin etc. I then added the percentage profit I wanted to achieve and that dictated what my labour rate was.

For many years manufacturers have required dealers to have specialist tools and that includes diagnostic equipment so there is nothing new.

 I do know (and I was with Ford) that diagnostics times using their test equipment was listed and I have no reason to thinks others do not operate the same way

I have previously commented on the Labour Charge Out rates which bear no relationship to what is paid to the technicians. I would point out that in my day - Sales - Service - Parts were all separate Cost Centres and each was expected to stand on its own. There were no crossover subsidies.

Personally I think greed has taken over.

Customers want the lowest possible price for the car they are buying and really dont give a stuff about the dealers margins or how they make ends meet / a profit.  

So we've got to the point now where new cars are almost sold out at cost (i appreciate things are different at this minute due to supply issues, but generally speaking).  I was speaking to a dealer friend of mine and he was saying that more often than not new car sales was about seeding the area with future warranty work, servicing and parts.  They also got reasonable profit on used cars that came as trade ins.

So overall if it was broken out in to profit centres and each had to stand on its own two feet, new car sales would be likely not worthwhile.

Our BMW is just about to turn 3 years old.  It has went to the main dealers only for servicing and a paint warranty issue.  Over and above that i've sourced the tyres independently and any other work has been done by my local indy specialist.  Now the car has turned three, it'll be going there full stop.  

The O/P needs to find a good local indy or a good local mechanic full stop.  Expecting main dealers to be cheap is where they went wrong.

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

Diagnostic fees are a scandal.  Still can't believe they haven't been outlawed. The hardware costs nothing, the software cost doesn't justify the fees.  

What??

The hardware can cost in to many thousands / tens of thousands and they pay a stiff yearly licencing fee also.