Are these parts prices fair? Or am I an idiot?

[MrChuck2000]

I just got an estimate on a new clutch for my '04 5-speed XLT 3.0. He's also replacing my rack and pinion. I am such an idiot when it comes to car repairs, I need to ask a basic question: In his quotes, the parts are all at least double the retail prices I'd pay if I bought the parts myself. And then something like power steering fluid...$55 for two quarts??? Is this supposed to include his overhead cots? Am I getting brazenly ripped off here? His labor costs are listed separately, of course.

 

[sgtsandman]

Parts should be about the same or cheaper than what you would pay to buy them yourself. If the price is a little inflated to cover shop supplies and fluids, that’s fine. Since labor is quoted separately, double the price for parts is not acceptable. I would go somewhere else.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Parts will never be cheaper then you can buy them yourself. Most parts stores sell parts to anyone for jobber price. That use to be reserved for professional businesses with a resale license. Then the parts store should sell parts to anyone that walks in at a retail price... and so does the repair business. So Joe average pays the same either way. But that went away long ago.

I guess the thing you need to remember is the guy at the repair shop has your vehicle sitting is his garage tying up his hoist and marking up parts is normal and it helps cover cost associated with being in a business like that. It also helps cover his cost when a part fails and he has to spend his resources repair it for free. Most times a good shop uses quality parts that are more expensive then you can buy the cheapest thing on amazon for.

It's just the way business works. Most places charge for shop supplies to. none of that stuff is free to them nor should it be to you.

 

[RonD]

You have to base the parts cost on Motorcraft parts, not 3rd party parts, because a shop has to warranty the parts and labor for the job, so they will ONLY use factory replacements
And they will mark up the parts, usually 15%

So call up local parts store and see what Motorcraft/LUK clutch kit costs and new flywheel, and that will give you an idea of what shop needs to pay for those parts, they can't shop "on line", and hope the parts get to them on time, lol

Some shops will allow you to provide the parts, if you will sign off on warranty, i.e. no warranty on parts and labor
Some won't because if its the wrong part or doesn't fit they have to eat some labor costs while waiting for the right part

Fluid costs also have added cost of recycling the old fluids, which shops have to pay to have old fluids picked up weekly or monthly

 

[MrChuck2000]

Parts will never be cheaper then you can buy them yourself. Most parts stores sell parts to anyone for jobber price. That use to be reserved for professional businesses with a resale license. Then the parts store should sell parts to anyone that walks in at a retail price... and so does the repair business. So Joe average pays the same either way. But that went away long ago.

I guess the thing you need to remember is the guy at the repair shop has your vehicle sitting is his garage tying up his hoist and marking up parts is normal and it helps cover cost associated with being in a business like that. It also helps cover his cost when a part fails and he has to spend his resources repair it for free. Most times a good shop uses quality parts that are more expensive then you can buy the cheapest thing on amazon for.

It's just the way business works. Most places charge for shop supplies to. none of that stuff is free to them nor should it be to you.

Good to know. I certainly understand that. As a craftsman, I am constantly stunned when people can't understand why something custom-made is so much more costly than what they can buy at Home Depot. Even worse is altering something somebody else built. "You just want me to cut this table down one inch? After it's built? You know what's involved in doing that correctly? And you think that should cost you 5 bucks? Etc." I guess I just thought that might be included in the labor costs. I'll give this guy a break, but I'll still try to negotiate a bit. Thanks.

 

[MrChuck2000]

You have to base the parts cost on Motorcraft parts, not 3rd party parts, because a shop has to warranty the parts and labor for the job, so they will ONLY use factory replacements
And they will mark up the parts, usually 15%

So call up local parts store and see what Motorcraft/LUK clutch kit costs and new flywheel, and that will give you an idea of what shop needs to pay for those parts, they can't shop "on line", and hope the parts get to them on time, lol

Some shops will allow you to provide the parts, if you will sign off on warranty, i.e. no warranty on parts and labor
Some won't because if its the wrong part or doesn't fit they have to eat some labor costs while waiting for the right part

Fluid costs also have added cost of recycling the old fluids, which shops have to pay to have old fluids picked up weekly or monthly

Thanks, this will keep me from looking like an ignorant jerk. I don't mind a guy making a living. I'm gonna try to wiggle him down a tad, tho!

 

[MrChuck2000]

Thanks, this will keep me from looking like an ignorant jerk. I don't mind a guy making a living. I'm gonna try to wiggle him down a tad, tho!

Don't know if "wiggle him down" was the best choice of words, actually.

 

[sgtsandman]

The cost of doing business should be built into the labor.

As far as the cost of parts being Motorcraft or aftermarket. Good point. I didn’t think about that.

I don’t have a problem with a business making a living. I just had brackets welded up by a local shop that might take 30 minutes to do. They quoted me a guestmate of $50. I was expecting around $60. It might still be so or a little more. Wire, labor, utilities, etc don’t come free.

 

[superj]

i don't think they all use motorcraft parts. oriellys delivers to lots of auto places and i don't see motorcraft boxes being unloaded.

 

[Roert42]

I would ask him what brand of parts he plans on using. I know some shops that will quote the cheapest parts their supplier offers, to keep their estimates low, and some placed don't want to take a chance on a call back so they will only quote OEM stuff. You should look at what parts are being quoted before you assume he is slapping 100% markup on them.

 

[RonD]

Parts the shop uses is their choice, unless you request premium brand, they have to warranty the part, so most use premium brand, they are not paying for it, you are, they just have to warranty it, which is why they tend to use Car maker parts, in this case Motorcraft

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I don’t know of any local shops around here that use OEM unless it’s not available any other way. Maybe it’s different in other places, but not here.

I also know that certain parts stores will quote prices to garages and when they ask for the list price or whatever, what they are told is double their price. Which often is close to double retail price if it’s not a big shop that racks up huge monthly parts bills. It’s bad form all around, but some shops do it. I can’t speak for if the shops use that difference to cover overhead (which really should be calculated differently because just randomly adding money could really be vastly under or over shooting actual costs), but it could be a quick and very dirty method, and has the potential to look bad if someone notes the discrepancy.

I did construction for a number of years and still get into stuff on the side. Well, not right now because I’m recovering from injuries, but anyway. There was a training seminar thing that I took at one point where they talked about inflating material prices or just throwing a random number at overhead, and broke down how to properly calculate overhead. If I remember right, both guesses which seemed like they could be appropriately high turned out to vastly under shoot the true overhead costs. Which is part of where people end up not making as much as they should. More small businesses should be aware of things like that.

 

[19Walt93]

$55 for 2 quarts of fluid is way too high. Is this a guy you trust and have done business with before? If so, ask him why the fluid is so much and ask him to explain the estimate, ask questions if you don't understand his explanation. I never minded explaining estimates to customers, if they were concerned about the cost it told me they planned to pay the bill. You could also get an estimate elsewhere and compare but make sure you're comparing apples to apples.

 

[gaz]

MrChuck,

You could go all in, the last clutch I replaced wasn't $300, having the flywheel checked wasn't much and the entire job required no special tools; if you have no tools, I would buy a Craftsman Max-Axis universal socket/rachet set ($100), set of quality jack stands ($65), big oil catch pan ($20) and a bag of cheap Kittie litter ($5).

Then call it either "The $500 clutch job" or the $x,xxx.xx savings job.

 

[black_demon69]

Having worked in shops for a long time I can tell you that the only shops that OE parts on a regular basis are dealerships. Most shops these days get parts from places like Autozone and Oriellys. They do get a small discount but part's usually get marked up 10% to 300‰ depending on the part. Labor these days is around $100 to $125 an hour.

I have done estimates in shops and I can tell you that sometimes the mark-up on the parts is pulled from thin air.

And this is why I do my own work.