Repair costs and frequency frustration
We like our 15 year old 30 ft. Class C we've had for 7 years. Reliability has always been up and down. We had a pretty good couple of years of repair costs we could live with but now we're discourage...
Forum Discussion
I remember when I needed the door handle contraption replaced on my Durango. The dealer priced it at about $400 in labor. As soon as they told me, I called an independent shop I usually go to and asked their labor cost for the repair. $75 at max. I immediately turned around and told the dealer to not fix it. They had already removed the contraption - not five minutes. In less than another five minutes they had put the old "broken" one back on and I was on my way.
Their labor rate was approx. $100 an hour. So for a 10 minute job they were going to charge me 4 hours of labor.
My independent shop charges $75 an hour with a minimum 1/2 hour labor charge. They acknowledged it was less than an hour's job and were going to charge me accordingly.
In the end, the door contraption only needed a shake because when they put it back on, it worked fine.
I learned after that, that labor costs get inflated way beyond the time frame. If I go someplace new, I stay there for the repair and watch how long they actually work on the vehicle and compare that against the labor charge. If it is within 30 minutes difference, I'm good. If more than that I don't return ever.
My independent shop will often drop off a bit of labor costs because I am a longtime regular customer. They also will tell me if my picking up the part and bringing it in will save on markup. On my side, I don't give them a bad time if they can't get to my vehicle right away and I don't whinge about the costs. We both win.
Their labor rate was approx. $100 an hour. So for a 10 minute job they were going to charge me 4 hours of labor.
My independent shop charges $75 an hour with a minimum 1/2 hour labor charge. They acknowledged it was less than an hour's job and were going to charge me accordingly.
In the end, the door contraption only needed a shake because when they put it back on, it worked fine.
I learned after that, that labor costs get inflated way beyond the time frame. If I go someplace new, I stay there for the repair and watch how long they actually work on the vehicle and compare that against the labor charge. If it is within 30 minutes difference, I'm good. If more than that I don't return ever.
My independent shop will often drop off a bit of labor costs because I am a longtime regular customer. They also will tell me if my picking up the part and bringing it in will save on markup. On my side, I don't give them a bad time if they can't get to my vehicle right away and I don't whinge about the costs. We both win.
