Engine replacement . Ecoboost and GM 5.3

Lantley wrote:

twodownzero wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

twodownzero wrote:

I do wear a suit and am a professional, and I used to teach the difference between revenue and profit to students. As such, I know that I could certainly make more than I make in a month if I could get two $3,000 jobs that took me 4 days to complete. Even if I could only do it at half the speed of book rate, I could work 8 days instead of 20 days a month and make the same money. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

Of course, if you are a shade tree type (no insurance, no history, no certifications, iffy warranty, etc...), customers are going to expect a big discount compared to a professional shop.

Yes you can make money turning wrenches on the side but it's not a get rich quick plan.

These kinds of responses seem to indicate that consumers think they're getting something other than what they're actually getting when they take their vehicles to a shop. Over 15 years ago, I was employed by a shop. We had regular customers, but much of our work was fixing things that other shops couldn't.

There is no guarantee that any business has insurance that will cover any consumer's expense. "History" is irrelevant if they've never worked on a car like yours or diagnosed the condition yours has. Warranty comes from the parts manufacturers; hardly any of them pay labor claims when their parts fail. Certifications are as worthless as the paper they're printed on--they are used primarily within corporate systems to get people raises.

Nobody's ever going to convince me that $3000 to replace an OHV V8 is a good price. That is robbery. I would quit my job tomorrow to work for that kind of money turning wrenches as a parts replacer, because that's what this job is. Replacing an engine requires no meaningful amount of skill or diagnosis. It's a remove and replace kind of job.

Reading threads like this makes me so happy that I never have to depend on another person to perform work like this. I am far from rich, but I make much more money than the median worker in our economy and I could probably not afford to drive at all if it cost that kind of money.

Have you ever actually turned wrenches for a living?
If you have, than I think you would understand the cost involved.
Your comments don't reflect a true understanding of overhead cost.
There is a big difference in perspective between being employed and being the owner when it come to understanding the cost and challenges of running a shop.

When someon compains about someones trade skills and prices it always reminds me of the story:


A man calls a plumber to his home to solve a problem with one of his pipes. The plumber looks around and listens for about 10 minutes, and then he grabs a pipe wrench and hits a pipe three or four times in the same place. The problem is quickly solved. The plumber then hands the man his bill, and the man is shocked to see that the invoice is for $200. The man objects, “How on earth can you charge $200 for simply banging on a pipe three or four times with a pipe wrench? I demand that you clarify this bill.” The plumber takes the invoice from the man, recalculates it, and hands it back. The invoice now reads:

Item one: Hitting the pipe with a pipe wrench–$2.00

Item two: Knowing to hit the pipe with the pipe wrench–$99

Item three: Knowing where and how to hit it–$99.