Love Hate relationship
Who else out there feels like me? I love my class A motorhome, but I hate the fact that it is so expensive to upkeep...tires, oil changes, gas, just to name a few. We had to put in a new starter and i...
Forum Discussion
Lantley wrote:
Did some of you actually read the OP's post. The $1000.00 fee was not solely for diagnosis! There was a tow involved,etc.
Furthermore how many of you actually own a shop or are at least familiar with over head and service rates for a large medium duty vehicle.
Unfortunately you are not going to tow the vehicle to the shop and replace the starter for a couple hundred bucks.
While I'm not trying to justify the shops charges. I do know having a Class A RV towed is expensive.
WOW! Simply amazing that you were the first poster to notice this, and had a rational response!
If anybody has the urge, call your local big rig towing and recovery service, and ask how much it costs to tow your motorhome from your driveway to the local dealer? If you get a quote of less than a grand, you are doing real well.
As a contractor I have paid some of these nasty bills. My local recovery service gets $3500 to rescue a stranded concrete truck. You get this information from the dispatcher, and you pay with a CC before they start the rig. Might sound steep, but how much would you charge to send a new $800K piece of equipment out to spend four hours wallowing in the mud? My son just had a horrible accident on a major interstate and destroyed a new one ton truck and a 10,000 lb equipment trailer. The trailer was moved two miles on a flatbed ($1500) and it took two HD wreckers to recover the truck from down an enbankment(Over $5K). If you haven't had the misfortune watching your MH "riding the hook" as it gets towed away, it can be difficult to really appreciate how horrifically expensive it can be.
Bottom line is that a final bill including towing a MH, diagnostics, and a new starter, all done by a dealer, is far from a "rip-off" at $1400. There are lots of us than can change a starter in a few minutes, big deal. There are lots of parts stores than can sell you a Chinese POS rebuilt starter for under a hundred bucks. It may last indefinitely, or it may take three of them until you find a good one. All of this has nothing to do with the OP's experience, and being fairly billed for a heavy tow, and a dealer doing the work properly.
