Engine In timing belt change

OMG . THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Exactly we have an s600 in the shop now , . HOLY CRAP BALLS !!!!!!!!!!! But guess what , WE still charge the same labor rate on it as a camry.

 

Thank you.
A 355 major service bill can easily reach $10k~$15k.
Customer brings his 355 in for a major.
You estimate $5k
Car just doesn't seem right to you.
Leak down and compression poor.
Heads need new guides(40@$40 a pop!) valve seals, exhaust valves, head gaskets, machine work etc etc etc.
Bill just went well north of $10k!

Nice 348 spider. I loved mine. Far superior manual top design when compared to the 355 "automatic top" mess!

 

John
I'm going to tell you what the problem is.
A shop has to keep that Ferrari a few weeks to justify the 8/9 k service.If they were to do the belts and water pump only guys! in three days and say to the customer we need 8k. most would wake up and say that $1000.00 for parts and$ 7000k labor for 3 days work.<again water pump and belts only guys> So the customer is made to feel good that it took some Ferrari GOD two weeks to change his belts and water pump so now he feels better cutting that 8k check.A 355 is a 20yr very basic car that is very easy to work on.
So next time you drop off your car to the Ferrari gods pass by in those two weeks and see if your car is being worked on all the time.
p/s I'm around Ferrari's more than you think. so I know what it takes.

 

I could see a substantial bill with guides, but I've seem guys throwing a $15 to $20 k number for that. It's just not justifiable.

And thanks. I love my 348!

I guess i'm just jealous that i'm not screwing people !!!!!!!!!!

 

But you get really nice pastries, maybe an espresso and sit in a nice leather chair when you're in the waiting room !!!!

Thing that makes me angry , we have a chain shop in town , they'll charge $900 for a camry front brake job , and the customer authorizes the work, they quote dealer prices , then buy the parts from NAPA. I just think people need to ask questions , Don't assume a steering rack job is $7k because that's what the manager ( who likely gets a commission for parts and services sold ) tells you and then rant and rave about the price of service work.

 

John
What are you talking about ....if you throw in the guides it would be 25k easy.Smile
Guys are paying 8k just for belts

 

Well, I've never had a basic major/full service sit here for 2-3 weeks, generally out the door in 4-5 days. The parts quotes are interesting here, again the bring a steak to a restaurant comparison. With all gaskets, seals, belts, bearings, filters, oils and other fluids and a mark up, most bill out around $2K-$2.2K, add my labour (same rate whether for a 1965 Bristol, 1975 Maserati merak, 1985 Porsche 911 or 1995 Ferrari 355) and my very thorough and complete retimed, all cleaned, tested (leakage and scanned) and inspected FULL service generally out the door under $6K, warranted and taxes included. Not sure how these 8-10K numbers arrived, I have several copies of ROs from various dealerships and independents to which I compare costs, but I charge what I believe is a fair fee for my clientele and can't comment on what others may charge, I don't have any idea of their overheads and costs.

Currently booking and backlogged into late March.

 

Michael, thank you.
A major to me is belts, tensioner bearings, water pump, timing, etc. All that adds up to approximately $2000.00 in parts, fluids, disposal costs etc. 3 days at a shop rate of $125/hr adds $3000.00. Service is $5000.00 with no issues. Not far off the $5k~$6k estimate that was called and questioned.
I do all my own work. It's what keeps me sane according to my wife!

 

These numbers are reasonable.

I have great respect for the diy guys. Guys that can't diy, ask questions first, pay later.

You know you've seen the videos , wine poured from the same bottle into two glasses , one glass for $6 and the other for $100. the tasters always say the $100 glass tastes better.

 

Interesting. The Mini Cooper s that I bought as my new DD has been the biggest pita to work on solely for the reason that they designed the engine to be dropped in pre-assembled on the factory floor. The FCar is a piece of cake to work on. Boxster also followed the same philosophy as the mini.

The big issue to me is that the tolerances I expect of the Ferrari mechanicals are greater than the mini. The costs for failure are higher if only for parts... and failure is highest after a service, just like ww2 fighter aircraft. You pay for things to be done the right way IMHO and that comes from experience. What I don't do myself, I don't mind paying for the right expertise. Respectively, because I do so much on my Ferrari I have a low tolerance on my BS meter.

 

You can request from a Moderator to have this thread closed and locked.

 

So do we. 100/hr across the board. No matter what you drive. From a rolls to a Hyundai and everything in between.

 

I'm a safety man I wear a belt and suspenders

 

Since this thread if totally off topic, I'll waste more time by adding the above insurance story made me think back to the episodes of "Fast and Loud" where the Ferrari F40 was mangled by an overzealous employee at a shop. I'm sure that shop owner's insurance company was not amused when he had to report that claim.

 

Exactly. One incident like that could make you uninsurable, or your rates go skyhigh. It's funny how many people think that all the money charged for a job goes directly into the shops pocket. It doesn't, else we would all be driving rolls Royce and flying in private jets.

The costs to run a shop just keep getting higher and higher. I have one scan tool that costs 35k a year to keep updated which includes tech support. But without it I could never do my job. The Leo was 25k, with another 10k about to be sunk into it for new updates and softest for Aston Martian. Add the other scan tools, G-scan for the japan imports, Genisis for the domestic, tech-2 for GM.

Now let's add up all the "hard" tools we have to buy. Cam lock tools for BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, jaguar, Mercedes. BMW vano's set up tooling, special sockets and wrenches, smoke machine, the list goes on. We must have well over 200k invested in just speacialty hard tools. Alignment machine..that's 60k right there now add the rack..30k

Lets add hoists, basic shop equipment and maintenance, hoist inspections 1 a year by LAW,
Air compressor, drain maintenance, oil disposal, coolant disposal, tire disposal, garbage disposal, chemicals that we use for service and cleaning of parts, uniforms, front office staff, accountants.

Never mind a good tech is not cheap to keep either.

100-120 bucks an hour is not a lot of money. A shop is Lucky to keep 10-20% if all goes well and is very lucky, but if a garage door spring breaks, or a peice of important equipment bits the dust..you can kiss your profit for the month goodbye.

 

Even Honda dealer charges like $75-80, $100-120 is cheap! It's similar rate as the local Porsche dealer service dept.

 

I thought someone said 25 for a mechanic not happening here. Would not think you could survive in downtown van at that rate either, just sayin.

 

I think your a little high in hours I paid 4 hours I think to do both so close enough. Some shops are good and others ? Thanks for sharing all the info.

 

Michael no disrespect but I think everyone is comparing apples to oranges and peoples memories are short. I don't think any shops are quoting 10000 for majors but many majors at the end of the day can cost 10 grand. I just had a company fix my transmission on my f1 which was still running fine but a gear looked not great. 2500 to tear it all down and fix it. Another 600 to reinstall. Total bill 8000 because while it was there I did a whole bunch of other stuff. Price was broke down by the quarter hour and with my experience doing my own engine out among many other things all times were reasonable. 10 years from now I will probably wrongly tell people my transmission was 10 grand. I think if the shop is willing to put down the hours etc any of us who work on our cars know what's reasonable. I don't think I got hosed because I know how long things take. I could have saved atleast 3 grand myself but my time is money as well.

 

Grant i agree a lot of majors can cost alot more than 10k.
But the post was just doing timing belts and water pump only.
our economy is darn good up here,to good and most people now are not fixing their cars they just go out and buy a new car. zero down ,1% interest ,5 yr warranty so in return that has been hard on repair shops and wages came down big time for techs in the auto repair business. not in other parts of economy.10 years ago a good tech made 30 to 40hr not anymore.As far as the 25hr and living down town not every body lives down town.Your right i know they pay 15hr to work at timmys in fort mac...but would you live up there its like -35 7mths of the year.
So your right it is apples to oranges.To be honest i made more money 5yrs ago.
I dont like to send anybody home and will do a job for less money just to keep everybody working we all have bills to pay,and if i don't the guy down the street will.
Just my two cents.

 

Ya I hear you. Don't envy your position though I think I have had lots of problems with BBC employees. You must be sending me all the rejects. Ha ha. Keeping all the good guys

 

Grant
Dont worry we still have lots a rejects left here for ourselfs.Its a lot better now because as the auto business slowed down only the good one's seem to be able to get work now. and the rest went to Alberta ... to work at timmys. just kidding.I couldn't believe when i read the paper that you guy's in alberta had to pay $20hr for workers at timmys because of the shortage of workers.I know a few guys that left BC to go work up in fort mac alberta<oil> and are making over $140k a year.If i was a young 20yr old thats were i would be. i would have me a new 458 in a few years.I can only wish now.

 

Ya lots of them are bull chitters. My friend runs rock truck up there and makes 45 bucks an hour, but not a lot of ot and his 1400 square foot house was 450k so his wife works as well.
The cost of living is quite high. Your right though if you could go up there live in camp and work for 5 years you would gain atleast 5 years of somewhere else or more.