Sisters Pricey Holden Repair

[XR6T8080]

$80 just to flush a radiator...

I dont think that's too unreasonable, your paying not just for the labor but a skill. and yes for a 22yo with a few spanners in the shed it probably doesnt sound like a lot of work, but for a 60 y.o. whos most likely retired, and living on a pension with a property they own, $80 is peanuts to pay for the convenience. We find in our game (painting) its almost a complete waste of time quoting a job to somebody under 30 years old, because they do it themselves, not real well, but they still do it themselves.

I.e. a plumber gets called to a house, plumbings all backed up, he walkes to a pipe and bashes it with a mallet fairly hard, runs the water and hands the lady an invoice for $70 she asks "that's expensive for what you did" he replies "yes but I knew what to do"

dont use ford / Expensive Daewoo for service is my motto, get your local garage to do it for under half the price.

I used to winge and whine about mechanics like this years ago, and ive come to realise that its a highly skilled profession, and most of you probably dont know that the guy working on your car, is probably the worst paid tradesman around, and alot of the time hes working his arse off.

[XRPete]

[sly_ba]

$80 to flush a radiator is an absolute joke. Its probably only a 15 min job and less than $40 for coolant

[Dagabond]

i dont think thats too unreasonable, your paying not just for the labor but a skill.

So what was the rest of the 380 I payed for the actual service to cover.....aint a lotta skill in removing a hose and flushing a radiator...they had the bonnet up and there head under there doing the service anyway.....(Yeah 380 is a lot for a service as well...)

IF they had of said 50-60 dollars above the actual service I wouldnt have blinked.....

[Adam]

Dag's, it sounds like you need to use a different dealer. In saying that though...

If they flush a radiator properly they use an additive to remove all the junk, then they run it/drive it for a bit, drain it again and refill it with new coolant.

Sometimes what seems simple isn't always the case. I can't stand it when someone questions how long it took me to diagnose/repair something. If they think they can do better then I'm happy to watch instead.

[Dagabond]

I 'WAS' keeping it brief....

But hell if you guys all say its cool to be paying 80bucks on top of the general service fee to flush a radiator who am I to argue......

[Adam]

Overall I think you paid to much for the lot.

At my dealer the service wouldn't of been over $300.

[harvyk]

The problem is that the layman doesn't know the time, and expertise which goes into a lot of the work. The plumber knowing exactly how to hit the pipe to get it to work again is a good example.

One of the problems I have is that I head out on-site and look at something small, and I also feel a little bad sending them a big invoice for such a small job, but then I think "It's cost me time and money to learn how to diagnose that problem, it taken years of experience to be able to do it quickly, and that is what they are paying for".

I charge between $110 and $165 per hour depending on the job and \ or sale, but I might go for a week without any sales or jobs. I still have bills to pay and a T which keeps asking for petrol, and I still have the running costs of my business, these don't go away because I haven't brought any work in, (over Christmas is a great example). Plus the tax man comes in and takes a huge chunk of that money in both GST and other "misc" taxes. In fact it can be as bad as 50% of the money you pay me goes to the tax man and other people with hands out.

Edited 23/01/08 11:41 PM by harvyk

[mls]

$80 to flush a radiator is an absolute joke. Its probably only a 15 min job and less than $40 for coolant

I like this, to me you are saying "I really have no clue what it takes to do the job and therefore am unable to do it myself, yet I don't believe you should charge me that much as I think I might be able to do it cheaper myself"

Not a personal dig at you sly_ba, what you have written is what is expressed by a lot of the community.

As a qualified mechanic I can only say this:

"If you feel you can do it cheaper yourself, go and do it. However when something goes wrong because of what you have attempted then be prepared to accept that subsequent damages are not covered under warranty and will undoubtably take much longer and be much more expensive to repair."

For example, what may have been an $80 coolant flush job could easily turn into an $800 head gasket job because the system was not bled properly.

Edited 24/01/08 02:33 AM by mls

[XR6T8080]

$80 to flush a radiator is an absolute joke. Its probably only a 15 min job and less than $40 for coolant

$80 to somebody on wages is probably a lot, but for somebody running a business, and paying the overheads of advertising, wages, parts, etc. $80 is stuff all.

my advice to you is that if $80 is a lot of money to you, you probably shouldnt be driving your XR coz you probably cant afford it.

If that guy working on your car makes a mistake, say the workshop catches fire, the hoist drops on somebody, then he has insurance and the costs associated with that to contend with, not to mention all the regulations he has to adhere to, all the health and safety bullsh*t that people on wages probably cant appreciate the cost involved.

your just looking at the $80 your handing him, your not looking at the $10 he paid the mechanic, the $2 electricity, the percentage of his $25,000 yellow pages add that got your car in there, the rent hes paying on the workshop, the tax hes paying and the money hes paying to his accountant to deal with all the GST bullsh*t that (again) people on wages dont have a clue about. Oh, and that's not forgetting all the superannuation, and holiay pay hes got to work out (hes got to pay for his own holidays). again all of this is managed by the business owner, not the employee (wages).

your $80 probably translates to $30 in his pocket when its all said and done.

you run a business for a while, $80 is peanuts.

Edited 25/01/08 03:48 AM by wesleyt