Hi,
My wife's cars wiper motor needed replacing a few days ago and we've just received the bill. The car is a 2001 Renault Megane and we went to a local indie that we use to service the car.
The bill has come in at £55 plus VAT for the labour which to me seems rather excessive. I believe it's just a couple of bolts that hold the motor on, a 'click-on' electrical connector and the removal of the mesh at the back of the engine bay. I may be wrong but I would have though this is 30 minutes tops for a mechanic.
I'd appreciate your thoughts please as I may be completely off on the timings.
PS - The parts were £115 but I guess that is the going rate
Thanks
a900ss
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I can be cautious, but it doesn't sound too bad to me.
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>> I believe it's just a couple of bolts that hold the motor
>> on, a 'click-on' electrical connector and the removal of the mesh at the back of
>> the engine bay. I may be wrong but I would have though this is 30
>> minutes tops for a mechanic.
What about the time taken to get the new parts from the stores, disposable of the old parts, writing out and sending you the bill etc etc?
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My guess is this sort of falls under an hours min charge... even if that isn't stated anywhere. In truth sometimes it's not really worth taking the booking if you don't get at least an hour for the trouble of the things L'escargot mentions.
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Yes - I'd guess that's about an hour or 90 mins so not too bad, couldn't expect it for much less.
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If it was that easy you should have done it yourself.
Honestly. Your moaning over a 55 quid labour bill?
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I would think myself lucky if I was charged less.
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>> If it was that easy you should have done it yourself.
>>
>>
Oh dear, agreeing with Z again, bad habit !
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A Ford dealer ran my car through a diagnostic check and refitted a loose plug for £36.
I was surprised to get anything done at a franchise for under £50.
The OP may have discovered that independents are not necessarily cheap.
In the same way I know franchises are not necessarily expensive.
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>> Honestl'y. Your moaning over a 55 quid labour bill?
Quite. For comparison, how much is a 'solicitor's letter' nowadays ?
Last edited by: Old Sock on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 09:07
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If you' re in London and SE then £50 is probably well under an hour. These are just the sort of jobs we could be doing ourselves.
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SWMBO's Astra has needed hers replaced for some while, Motor (£70, new from Ebay) arrived before Xmas.
The equation was do I want to spend my valuable free time on a three curse job on a very cold, wet and windy driveway then endure earache every time they judder or even look like failing any time in the next five years, or does she want to spend her money getting her tame mechanic to come round and do it ?
£25 he charged her - bargain !
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Before I opened the thread, I was expecting to see a charge like £250. I think £55 is not worth quibling over.
Look at this thread on changing a BMW 330d air filter!
www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=279058
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I was expecting it to have been more like £250 too.
Sounds like a bargain. (That said I once had an AA man fit a replacement for me, under a breakdown policy.)
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Sounds very reasonable. Times have changed, you cant get a cambelt change for £50 anymore and you cant get a wiper motor changed with a pittance labour charge - peoples have to draw a wage from that charge you know!
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>> Look at this thread on changing a BMW 330d air filter!
>>
>> www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=279058
That is just ridiculous for a routine service item. :-(
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Did he wear a balaclava?
Daylight robbery. £170 to replace a wiper motor on a 2001 megane, they're having a laugh, you paid top dollar.
If he wanted to charge an hours labour for a 5 min job, he could have at least found you a cheaper part, £53 at GSF.
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I think £55 labour is very reasonable for this job. Personally speaking, I would do this myself though.
Last edited by: DP on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 10:59
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>>>he could have at least found you a cheaper part, £53 at GSF
So how long do you expect your indy to spend on the phone or at the PC to save you on parts costs? The indy will need to use a trusted local supplier who will deliver and in many cases once you move beyond service items that ends up being the main dealer.
Best prices are often mail order and this can be a nightmare for an indy if parts are not delivered on time or arrive as the wrong part... and if there is a warranty issue it's so much harder to pack stuff up for return.
No.... if you want a bargain job buy a Haynes, get the part from EBay, wait in to sign for the delivery and fit it yourself at the weekend.
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Lets see.. 30 mins work plus check it and a warranty.
And £55 is expensive?
It was- 10 years ago.
Cheap now.
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>> So how long do you expect your indy to spend on the phone or at the PC to save you on parts costs?
There's another 45 mins of that paid hours labour leftover judging by the procedure, its a lot simpler than i was expecting for a renault, it easier than any of my cars. Not that he needs anything like that, It took me less than a minute to check ECP & GSF, it's a single part not a shopping list.
What are the other 44 mins for? Can I get the VAT refunded too please.
For £55 an hour I'd expect a bit more than a fitter. A fully qualified GP barely gets paid that much.
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But the fitter's not getting £55 an hour unless he's working on the street. My indy has premises to light and heat, reception staff & an assitant tech to pay as well as rates and taxes etc etc.
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>>>For £55 an hour I'd expect a bit more than a fitter.
For that you're getting the services of a business with overheads and the skills to do the job.
As I said if anyone thinks the job is so easy then they're mad to take the car to a garage.
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Amazes me how people think that these services should be charged at cost price.
I had a customer say to me once that he thought £10 was alot to come out to his house and wash his car. What he failed to realise is that fuel alone was £4 of that, then other costs of materials, insurance etc adds another 50p atleast, so if you then factor in travel time plus the time for the job ( about 40 mins ) I was set to earn about £3 an hour.
Its just plain ignorance.
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It is of course a Renault.. so even the simplest job becomes more complicated...
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>> It is of course a Renault.. so even the simplest job becomes more complicated...
And you can't buy the wiper motor as a separate component. You have to buy a new underbonnet "assembly" consisting of engine, transmission, driveshafts and the wiper motor that you actually wanted. ;-)
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Anyone that moans at the price OP included, is usually the type of moaning customer most garages dont want need or care for
Do it yourself if you dont want a job doing once, doing right and all the rights thrust upon consumers who want jobs doing for dooooo diddly nowt...........
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The OP haw highlighted the labour charge, but I suspect he's more concerned about the total bill of £170.
It's a pity the indy didn't offer him a choice of a pattern or main dealer part, with a quick explanation of the possible difference in quality and the definite difference in cost.
Unless the indy is charging main dealer prices for pattern bits.
Perish the thought.
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Having just done this on a Vectra C I can say an hours labour probably is par for the course. Can't speak for a Megane of course, but on the vectra you have to removethe bulkhead cover, sealing strips and the wiper assemly. Then remove the motor, replace it and re-assemble everything else. Took me 1.5 hours with cups of tea.
As already mentioned, the guys are doing this for a living as well so £55 doesn't seem too horrendous for the labour. I maybe would have tried to source a scrap motor (I did with the vectra and it cost £20)
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>> If he wanted to charge an hours labour for a 5 min job, he could
>> have at least found you a cheaper part, £53 at GSF.
....... and then charged for the time involved in locating the GSF parts and for getting them to his premises! You've conveniently forgotten about time spent in getting the genuine parts from the stores and for disposal of the old parts. You'd soon go out of business with your way of charging.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 14:17
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It might be a harder job then you think, given Renault's illogical engineering practices. If it's the same logic as applied to changing a headlamp bulb on the later Megane, £55 is probably cheap.
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OK, it looks like £55 is par for the course, I guess i'll learn next time and do it myself. Thanks for all your input.
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{{Labour charge to replace a wiper motor?}}
Well their usual donor's are feeling the pinch, so maybe rolling the sleeves up and doing some work will help sort out the debts.;)
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>> OK, it looks like £55 is par for the course, I guess i'll learn next
>> time and do it myself. Thanks for all your input.
>>
>>
>> be aware most renos dont let the wiper arms come free from the spindles so you either smash the screen trying or buy the tool at £23 to do a one off job
have fun now ya ear :-)
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>> >> be aware most renos dont let the wiper arms come free from the spindles
>> so you either smash the screen trying or buy the tool at £23 to do
>> a one off job
>> have fun now ya ear :-)
>>
This Megane is fine in that respect. A laguna I had was like you quote above though and changing the wipers was a fiddly job.
Thanks
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>> You'd soon go out of business with your way of charging.
Just to be clear, i'm not advocating the garage charge nothing, or even a lesser labour rate.
I'm claiming that 1 hour labour charge is not justified here, and if it was a case of "all jobs, subject to a minimum 1 hour labour" then in lieu of the customer being advised up front, the garage should at least make an attempt to extract value for money on the customer's behalf. That could be as simple as using their contacts and knowledge to source a part at a keen price, it could be using their skills to repair rather than replace. In this case they appear to have done a good job (it didn't fall off), and in the garage's favour that is certainly part of the value for money equation, but not enough.
~£200 (inc VAT) to change a £60 wiper motor in 15 mins, without even proper communication with the customer in this case, goes past my definition of fair.
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...without even proper communication with the customer...
Agreed.
The OP could reasonably expect to have been offered the cheaper part, which would have brought the bill down from £170 to nearer £100.
Forum member Skoda seems to have sourced the bit easily enough, so the garage should have been able to do it.
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Anyone who has been in business will have come across the customer who thinks the hourly rate you charge goes straight in your pocket and you must be rolling in it. They don't see the wheelbarrow loads of the stuff you have to shell out every month, whether you are busy and earning or not.
If you go to a professional to get a job done properly you have to pay enough to make it worth their while.
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Labour charge to replace a wiper motor? - MD
