How much your mechanic charges per hour?

Doesn't matter at all in my opinion.

To compare labor rate would only matter if every shop/tech was equally as skilled and accomplished all tasks in the same amount of time and accuracy.

 

I think it's still an interesting point of reference (even if statistics are misleading). Most Ferrari Mechanics in the SF Bay area are $250-350 per hour.

 

I agree it does not always relate to quality or know-how. It’s $200-$250 here in LA.

Ferrari is LOW production, technical, high strung & parts can be chassis # specific. At the end of the day, if it is not a professional OEM factory trained tech with all of the training, experience, manuals, special tools, etc… ordering factory parts via a professional Parts Manager you are essentially paying “Guy with a wrench” incorporated.

 

Totally 100 % irrevelant. Business cost of operation are not even in the same universe.


Lets not go down the same stupid path again.


Lets try a less talked about issue like ...Oh I know, how long to timing belts really last?

 

Obviously they only last 3 years or 109 miles, whichever comes first. The handbook even says so...

 

I recently had Fabio Fiammenghi over, he is from Italy, we went through my maintenance and restoration log and he was FLOORED at the independent labor cost here vs Italy for Ferrari work. He literally did not believe it.

 

My mechanic charges $0 per hour, he's pretty thorough, although sometimes it takes him months (or years in some cases) to do what other mechanics could do in a few days. There are always several cars waiting for work of some sort in his shop, although he did recently help pull a transmission on a Ferrari and the car was up and running in the course of 2 days. He drinks way too much beer while he should be getting work done and really doesn't prioritize his customers' cars. He really doesn't deserve to get paid. I will say this though, as a straight man, I will admit to finding him pretty darn sexy.

That's what tensioners are for. A belt is fine until the tensioner is fully extended. Stop ripping off your customers with this 3-5 years nonsense...

 

Hourly rate for a Ferrari technician appears to be comparable with an IT consultant w/ 2-5 years of experience. Which one offers a better value?

 

I must be lucky our sole Ferrari dealership charges about US$75 per hour and I still do 90% myself.

 

Well Ferrari sets the MSRP of the cars, they don't set hourly rates of dealers and independents.

 

For comparison, here in the UK Ferrari dealers charge on average around £200 gbp an hour and reputable indies anything between about £100 - £140 an hour.

 

No but they do control the hourly rates for the warranty reimbursement as well as the billable hours and they make a great many demands on the dealers, very expensive demands and both have a very direct impact on labor rates.

When Ferrari took a greater role in paying repair bills both due to extended warranties and covering routine service I told many others in the Ferrari business to watch because it was going to lead to higher repair costs than we had ever seen. It was not hard to see coming.

As the dealer principle at one of the dealers I worked at used to say "Somebody has to pay"

When reimbursement in column A falls far short of profitability guess what happens to to the bills for the clients in column B ?

 

Between you and Steve (SAFE4NOW), I appreciate all the inside info!

 

That is cheap! Nobody charges that for any brand.

I seriously doubt there is a dealer in the US for <$100/hr. Part of the reason is sales are so competitive, dealers don't make their money on sales but service. Fancy centers, free loaners, drop-off/pick-up all add to the service experience expense. I really dont know how people afford to have cars serviced anymore.

The mechanics are not always making out either. Most brands have an allotted time to complete a job. If the mechanic takes longer, he is making less/hour.

 

I tell the mechanics I deal with to, "Fix it. Call if it looks like its gonna be a lot of money."

 

Speaking of Ferrari only

Dealers are $300 to over $500.

The profit is not in service. If having a franchised dealer with no service was allowed in the dealer contract none would have service departments.

Fancy centers, loaners etc are all required in dealer contract and why "A" it costs so much and "B" why there is so little profit.

Most brands??? They all do. This is obviously a business you are not very familiar of.

 

Same reasons most new car dealerships of all makes do not have body shops anymore?

(plus the GOOD body shop guys get poached every other day - you can't keep a good one)

 

Funny, that is not what a Porsche dealer in Chicago told me. He specifically said he isnt really interested in selling a car that will go out of state as he makes more servicing the car than selling it. Granted, this was before cars became stupidly expensive but the car was a 991 R.

 

Body shops, i.e., paint shops, are horribly expensive to run due to EPA regulations. Typically, you'll see one big independent servicing several different dealers.

 

$240-285 USD base rate for exotics in Las Vegas.

 

That I know, a friend had a GOOD one (body shop) but sold it maybe 15 years ago SPECIFICALLY due to
coming EPA regulatons. He could afford it, just didn't want to deal with it.

 

I could have sworn this conversation was about Ferrari.

Servicing German cars is a license to print money. No parallels whatsoever. Benz service departments are especially so. German cars are parts intensive. German parts are high profit. Parts are where the profit is. Ferraris are labor intensive. Labor is where the expenses and liabilities are. The parts you do sell are terribly expensive and low profit.

I knew line mechanics in Benz dealers, little automatons replacing bucket loads of parts making 3 times what we were making. Also Benz warranty work is quite profitable.

Its also why it was so hard getting quality people in the Ferrari businesss.

But lets talk about apples and leave oranges for someone else to talk about.

 

67beamer was evidently talking about any dealer since he mentions $100/h or less.