Hourly rates at dealer

[wetwolf]

Help wanted

Seeking a Professional welder with pay ranging $18-$28 an hour. When he arrived he was told he would have to take a welding test. He turned in two sets of welds, the first was the worst weld anyone has ever seen and the second weld was absolute perfection, a thing of beauty. When the boss asked him why he did this, the man replied "The first one is $18 an hour, the second one is $28 an hour."

 

[Laser Dude]

I don't mind paying someone $100 per hour for their skill and talents. Just as long as when they use my services, they don't mind paying me $100 per hour for my skills and services.

You are not paying the $100/hour for anyone's skills or talents. You are probably paying less than $30/hour for skills and talents, including benefits and payroll tax. The rest is divided up to pay part of the pay for other personnel, keeping the air compressor running,the toilets flushing, the heat or air conditioning going and the owner's boat payment.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm fine with paying $100 per hour. I'm also fine with charging $100 per hour. You are 100% right, and I agree totally, people don't realize how much it costs to rent a place, insurance, taxes, and all the other things just to keep the lights on. It's not cheap to run a business. My only observation is that often times the companies that have no problem charging $100 per hour are the first ones that want to pay me $20 per hour when they want to hire me to do services for them.

 

[Fred W]

It gets much worse in some industries. I was in the medical imaging electronics business in the service and support area. We routinely charged our customers over $100k per year for a service contract. And if they needed us to come in outside of the contract hours it cost them $300-400 an hour on top of that. The service engineers were very well paid, but they were definitely not getting $100 an hour. Heck, I was their support engineer (safety net) and I wasn’t getting anywhere near $100 an hour.

 

[El Toro]

When I started as a mechanic in a Honda shop, I made $2.25 an hour and the labor rate charged was $6/hr. Over the course of several years the mechanics pay increased to $5/hr and the labor rate increased to $12/hr. I left the business in 1973.

My first job as a real engineer in 1974 paid me $7/hr. My employer, a consulting firm in Atlanta, billed my time at $40/billable hour. I moved on to Kodak where I started at $8/hr and they were glad to have me.

It is what it is. I dont mind paying a man, or a dealer, his requested price if I judge Im getting good quality.

We had a sign on the wall in the Honda shop.

Labor Rates

$6/hr

$12/hr if you want to watch

$18/ hr if you want to help

$24/hr if you tried to do it yourself

 

[sullivan]

Can you get whatever insurance will cover and do the work yourself? If you aren't up for the level of work that needs to be done, you can probably source parts cheaper than what a dealer quoted and hire some non-dealer talent for the repair work. Lots of good guys out there who are capable and usually cheaper.

Up to it, yes. Time available, being in the commercial construction field, zero, after my forgotten house chores.

 

[sullivan]

What does your local car,dealer charge per hour?
Why should the motorcycle dealer charge less? Similar investment in building, equipment and tecnician training.

Not disparaging the charge. Just wanted an average. As I have to pay sub-contractors, as well as billing the customer, per hour in construction, I'm quite familiar with the people/companies who penny pinch don't know their ass from the elbow.

Part of my brain resides in the old days of repairs, 4 wheels or two wheels. Including when bread was cheap. I do the work on the four cars in the family so I don't know what the auto shops charge. Fair enough?

 

[bigjohnsd]

Rates here for MC/ATV repair run between $99 and $110 per flat rate hour. Some shops will bill actual hours on complicated jobs like insurance collision repairs, especially on a fully paneled bike like the FJR which often has concealed damage.

New Car dealers are getting $125-139 per hour. I haven't checked Body Shops lately.

 

[sullivan]

Thanks, BigJohn

 

[bigjohnsd]

Rates in Baja were much lower, the guy so worked on my KLR all morning wanted 800 pesos (800/18= $44) I have him a $100 bill and he argued with me.