How much would you expect a garage to charge?

F

Fred Smith

Active member
 South West Surrey
You take a car (in limp mode, error messages everywhere) to a local independent that you've never used before. They seem great and tell you the boss loves the brand of car you've brought in. They say they will charge one hour labour for diagnosis and then we'll talk about the work they will do and the price it will be.

They have the car for several days and claim to believe they are reasonably confident that they know the issue, but are concerned that the ECU might be dodgy and that they can't guarantee being able to fix it because of the possible ECU issues (no evidence of them, just their hunch) and a suspicion there might be multiple other issues relating to the fact it's currently broken (there might be, but there might not!) They say they don't feel comfortable working on the car. Decline the job.

[Typing this out I'm starting to wonder if they might know they've damaged the ECU, but that's probably wild speculation on my part]

I am almost certain that they've spent much longer than one hour diagnosing and pricing multiple issues in addition to the immediate urgent necessary fix. But they never asked me whether I want them to go over one hour... and they've declined the job so I'm not sure that their diagnosis is of much use to me.

How much would you expect to pay in this circumstance?
 
I would simply want my car back from them ASAP, they do not sound reliable or knowledgeable.
They initially quoted one hour's labour so that is what I would expect, hopefully no more than two.

Good luck.
 
So they’ve actually diagnosed and priced multiple issues?
If that’s the case, then it’s reasonable for you to pay them an hour’s labour, because that’s the deal you struck.

You’re not under contract to them for anything else. And if they haven’t done what they said they would do, I wouldn’t pay them anything.
 
In response to the initial question I would expect to pay around £100 for an hour 'diagnosis' using a brand specific diagnosis machine/software and some numpty reading the messages.

In other news.....
I have a friend who had a similar issue with his Ford Kuga. The local Ford dealer diagnosed the ECU "may" be at fault but told him they couldn't replace it as Ford no longer supply the part (the car is a 2015 model)!
So he spent over a thousand quid trying to get to the bottom of the problem with various garages. Then finally a back street garage found it to be a blocked DPF. £60 later the car was back on the road following a forced DPF regeneration!
 
I think garages and mechanics shy away from non-obvious electronics problems because (and I say this as an electronics engineer) it could be almost anything, especially if it's an intermittent fault. Dodgy connection. Mildly out of spec sensor. Broken wire. Damp somewhere it shouldn't be. Being Wednesday. It's very rare to be an actual ECU failure as they're so damn reliable[1]. Many error codes lead somewhere easily, others are very vague and open. I've got a friend who has a Skoda and a Transit and both have weird intermittent faults. She did manage to get an auto electrician to look at one of them - he proceeded to reset codes and say "see if it comes back". It promptly came back but damned if she can get him to come back!


[1] Spent ages trying to find a fault on a CAT Bulldozer that occasionally conked out and wouldn't restart for ages. It would flash the ECU error light but only gave codes that came from an engine conking out (low oil pressure etc.) Turned out it was the ECU but only after spending £700 for an authorised tech to come out to fault find whether he was there 5 minutes or 5 hours and with no better results than I'd had. "We can try another ECU to see if it is at fault but you've bought it as soon as we open the box and we don't give refunds if it isn't that. Oh, and that's £5k + VAT."

Makes me feel better about what I spend on mending my cars (and I think £100 is a lot!)
 
simply take your car back and ask for second opinion. My Indy garage charge £20 for diagnostic with printed result and my BMW specialist garage charge £45.

but of course depending where you are.
 
Zedebee said:
So they’ve actually diagnosed and priced multiple issues?
If that’s the case, then it’s reasonable for you to pay them an hour’s labour, because that’s the deal you struck.

You’re not under contract to them for anything else. And if they haven’t done what they said they would do, I wouldn’t pay them anything.
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They claim to have identified what they think is the problem, but they don't want to do the job because they fear they might be wrong and fear there might be other issues stopping it working that they haven't identified.

I have told them the car (a 2006 330i) has been a dream to drive for 13 months, and had a refurbed ECU 2 years ago, so I am happy to go ahead with them doing the one repair they think needs doing in the hope that the car broke down for one reason, not loads of reasons at once. On my head be it if that repair fails to resolve things. To be fair to them I much prefer that they declined the job than do anything when they're not confident. I have no issue with the garage (yet?!?!?!)

In addition they have priced up lots of non-urgent work, which they don't want to do! They don't seem to want to put anything in writing to me, but I have made notes when we've spoken which are helpful, and I do believe they have spent a lot of time looking at the car!
 
GenZed said:
simply take your car back and ask for second opinion. My Indy garage charge £20 for diagnostic with printed result and my BMW specialist garage charge £45.

but of course depending where you are.
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I'm not sure how confident I am to drive it away. I need to line up a new garage (RBM in Hook are getting a call tomorrow)
 
Find an independent BMW specialist near you and then ask on here whether anyone has had any positive /negative experiences with them.
 
Needs code reading by someone who knows what they are looking at, RBM would be a good choice if you can't do it yourself
 
Anything other than basic stuff I'd be taking a car to the most specialising specialist i can find, not just a brand specialist but engine and/or problem if possible. If they haven't seen the same problem before, on the same car/engine/part, then they're just guessing.

Worth a try with RBM but unless it's a particularly great condition or low mileage 330i then possibly worth considering replacement of the car. Especially if there's lots of non-urgent work needed as well.

I'd pay the £100 agreed for the diagnosis.
 
tiglon said:
Anything other than basic stuff I'd be taking a car to the most specialising specialist i can find, not just a brand specialist but engine and/or problem if possible. If they haven't seen the same problem before, on the same car/engine/part, then they're just guessing.

Worth a try with RBM but unless it's a particularly great condition or low mileage 330i then possibly worth considering replacement of the car. Especially if there's lots of non-urgent work needed as well.

I'd pay the £100 agreed for the diagnosis.
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Probably a fair comment... the trouble is I'm not sure what I'd buy instead. If I could take a punt on a different E91 / manual at a similar price to what I paid then I may well do so... but the reality is that there are few on the market and the ones that are seem to be fall into one of two categories "a few issues and not cheap" or "very expensive and look very good on the face of it".

I could spend over £5k on repairs on mine and still repairs plus purchase price would be less than the asking price of the only really decent one on ebay right now. All good fun!
 
Well, update time. I went and picked up the car and they did not want any money despite (according to them, and I believe them) having the car on a ramp three times and spending at least two hours on it). I think that is very fair of them. Will use them in future for simpler jobs.
 
Fred Smith said:
Well, update time. I went and picked up the car and they did not want any money despite (according to them, and I believe them) having the car on a ramp three times and spending at least two hours on it). I think that is very fair of them. Will use them in future for simpler jobs.
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That is highly unusual in the car mechanic world these days IME. Good on them.
If that was a BMW dealer, they would have taken £200 off you, just for turning up. But then they would have included a very useful video of the underneath of your car to show you how lovely it is, even though they can't fix it. Car garages seem to be better at 'film producing' than spannering nowadays. They seem to be wannabe doctors aswell, as they like a 'health check'.
 
Fred Smith said:
Probably a fair comment... the trouble is I'm not sure what I'd buy instead. If I could take a punt on a different E91 / manual at a similar price to what I paid then I may well do so... but the reality is that there are few on the market and the ones that are seem to be fall into one of two categories "a few issues and not cheap" or "very expensive and look very good on the face of it".

I could spend over £5k on repairs on mine and still repairs plus purchase price would be less than the asking price of the only really decent one on ebay right now. All good fun!
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Yeah that's the problem, the next one will almost certainly have work that needs doing too, no one sells a 20 year old car that is perfectly maintained and has no large upcoming services required. Normally I'd say "better the devil you know", but that only works if you do know what the devil is... I guess try RBM and see if you can get a fairly confident diagnosis.

Well done to the garage for being so generous by not charging.
 
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Seen quite a few garages these days just decide not to touch older cars, especially 'enthusiast' owned..

If its bog stock servicing then great..but..these cars can turn into a nightmare..previous crap maintenance, shitty mods means the time and cost of correction can be massively more expensive than the owner expected..simpler to walk away as far as the garage is concerned...none of them have a shortage of work!
 
I've found RBM really good & you can have honest / straightforward conversations with them - I'd expect you to have a better outcome there TBH.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Fred Smith said:
Well, update time. I went and picked up the car and they did not want any money despite (according to them, and I believe them) having the car on a ramp three times and spending at least two hours on it). I think that is very fair of them. Will use them in future for simpler jobs.
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That's mighty impressive. Don't expect that sort of thing to happen these days!

I've been taking both of my BMWs to RBM since they opened and always been very pleased with them.
 
Pondy said:
That is highly unusual in the car mechanic world these days IME. Good on them.
If that was a BMW dealer, they would have taken £200 off you, just for turning up. But then they would have included a very useful video of the underneath of your car to show you how lovely it is, even though they can't fix it. Car garages seem to be better at 'film producing' than spannering nowadays. They seem to be wannabe doctors aswell, as they like a 'health check'.
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They didn't provide me with a video but they did both show me the underside rust in person under the ramp, AND they showed me a video of it on their computer. They even asked me to tell them what the fault turns out to be. The more I think the more I like them. To be honest I feel they deserve a hamper or something.
 
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