rhagfo wrote:
twodownzero wrote:
Lantley wrote:
twodownzero wrote:
mkirsch wrote:
Good lord people! Do you expect the mechanic to work for free?
We have one poster quoting the long block from Jeg's for $3500. This estimate is INSTALLED for $6500. Doesn't seem that out of line to me.
If you will pay me $3,000 to install a plug in, bolt in engine, please line up and I will quit my day job.
Well you don't get to keep the entire $3,000.
You have to pay insurance,utility's,rent,disposal fees, licenses and permits and taxes.
You can keep what's left and hope everything went well and you don't have any call backs.
It takes me a whole month to make $3k, net. If you're telling me I could do two 16-17 hour engine swaps and make that in 4 days, I will hang up the suit forever and do that for the rest of my days.
Once again, in a shop there is a difference between what you pay for hourly labor, and what they pay the mechanic.
They need to cover the cost of doing business.
Shop rent/payments
Property taxes
Business taxes
Social Security tax, (you only pay Half)
Power bill
Water Bill
Garbage
Pay the mechanic
Profit
Yea, most people don't realize how much it more it costs to have an employee on top of their salary, or to be self employed.
Big difference between that and those doing it on the side and not reporting the income.
I get sticker shock when I hear what people pay to have their cars worked on. But not everyone has the ability or interest in doing the work themselves.
And I don't know about the newest f150's, but a few years ago the engine is halfway under the windshield. Not as easy to swap, so I can see why that would cost more on top of the more expensive replacement engine.
The GM gas trucks are way easier. But it costs a lot more to have a shop do the work. Wouldn't hurt to shop around though if you have other shops around you trust. I've seen a lot of hack work come out of "real" shops too.
