Labour Rates

[Boycie]

What is the going rate for "experts" to work on our cars?

I asked at the local MB dealership and they said £99.85 +VAT /hour ....


now I may be out of touch /naive but this struck me as quite expensive ...

no wonder they reckon on £250 ...for an "A" Service

 

[Blobcat]

Someone has to pay for the glass, chrome, B&O TV and 'free' Tea & Coffee as well as the diagnostic equipment and regular training. Mainstream manufacturers main dealer prices are not far behind.

 

[television]

Fiat only charge £65 + vat

 

[Blobcat]

Fiat only charge £65 + vat

"Fix It Again Tony" Therefore he should get his money for repeat fees ;-)

 

[television]

"Fix It Again Tony" Therefore he should get his money for repeat fees ;-)

Its not like that, when its under guarantee they tell you to Bu--er off and they cant waste their time doing checks.

I should borrow my friends letter that Fiat sent him, copy it and post it up

 

[jberks]

indie specialists are around half that and with EU regs, it doesn't affect your warranty. Case in point - bought my car with 2 years MB warranty left, 18 months ago, had 2 indie services and the brake pads done at the indie. She's just spent a week at the dealer for a warranty issue. They didn't even question the servicing, just booked her in.

 

[Boycie]

It's funny (sarcasm)... I got that figure from a bod from Service ... I mentioned I wanted to make an informed decision about getting the servicing done at an Independent garage ...

She said .. "that will invalidate the warranty"

I asked if she was sure as I thought it was illegal to make statements like that ... she went away to check ...

"no it will not invalidate the warranty but it will invalidate the Mobilo Life cover"


I wonder how many people they have 'scared' with warranty invalid statements...

 

[hawk20]

indie specialists are around half that and with EU regs, it doesn't affect your warranty. Case in point - bought my car with 2 years MB warranty left, 18 months ago, had 2 indie services and the brake pads done at the indie. She's just spent a week at the dealer for a warranty issue. They didn't even question the servicing, just booked her in.

Local Merc dealer in Southampton is £85 per hour plus vat.

My A service had only 1 hours labour in it (and the B is only 2 hours). And for that you get free Mercedes breakdown cover , which for me and wife would cost £150 from the AA. And get free Euro cover for which the AA want another £100 plus.

In addition get 30 year rust guarantee and can sell with Full MBSH (I would buy no other).

IMO use proper Merc dealer for services and go to Indie for other jobs if need to save money. As I've pointed out elsewhere servicing is only about 2.5 pence per mile --the small change of motoring. And older Mercs get big discounts.

Have a look at latest What Car and all the problems because so many recalls not being done on loads of cars -as they don't go to main dealers. And lots of recall notices do not reach the owners.

 

[jberks]

Have a look at latest What Car and all the problems because so many recalls not being done on loads of cars -as they don't go to main dealers. And lots of recall notices do not reach the owners.

Good point and the reason that, despite my earlier post, mine WILL be going to the dealer when the next service is due ( in 1200 miles).
It does depend on what mileage you do. I was a 30kpa person so used the indie (3 services per year).
This year is projected to be 7k so at 1 service every 18 months it really doesn't matter.
I'd still use the indie for non service work though and the point that the warranty is not affectsed still stands.
True, Mobilio does save breakdown cover, but that's double edged as you'll save the difference in 1 service and if you do break down with something serious, I'm not sure I'd want the dealer to fix it @£100 per hour and swapping chargeable parts on the off-chance.
Corrosion - sure - but a post 04 motor is galvanised so rust is less of an issue. I certainly don't expect any on mine. In any case, my Dads 2002 E class is having it's rear wheelarch done despite not having fmbsh.

 

[mattsurf]

indie specialists are around half that and with EU regs, it doesn't affect your warranty. Case in point - bought my car with 2 years MB warranty left, 18 months ago, had 2 indie services and the brake pads done at the indie. She's just spent a week at the dealer for a warranty issue. They didn't even question the servicing, just booked her in.

Does this mean that the 30 year rust guarantee is invalid if the car is not serviced by Mercedes? If so can this decision be challenged

 

[Shambolic]

Better than that our new area sales guy has just left Volkswagen, Audi, skoda etc, he was service manager for main dealer for all group cars.
If you took your skoda in the labour rate was (these figure are not whit he said but just examples)
£45 a hour
For volkwagen it was £65 an hour
And Audi ws £90 an hour

The only thing it was the same ****** mechanic no matter which car!!!!

And we think we are being hard done by!!

 

[television]

Does this mean that the 30 year rust guarantee is invalid if the car is not serviced by Mercedes? If so can this decision be challenged

If challenged in a high court MB could not win on this one. Block exemption came into force last year for this very purpose. Providing you can prove that the car has been serviced in accordance to MBs service program, and in this case checks for rust also recorded on the documents

MB are rather in a stand alone position as they are almost the only cars that rust these days.

The biggest shock that I ever had was when I met a guy to help him with his locking problems on a 1999 CLK, his wheel arches were crumbling away all due to the silly way that MB fit the liners allowing mud to fill up behind them.

I could go on for ever on some of these faults

 

[jberks]

Does this mean that the 30 year rust guarantee is invalid if the car is not serviced by Mercedes? If so can this decision be challenged

No I don't think it can.
There are 2 things here.
Firstly the warranty itself is with regard to "rusting through from the inside". Whilst you could argue whether the definition of inside means under the paint, it is clear (to me anyway) that what they meant was simply to extend the corrosion warranty that most manufacturers now have anyway. When cars did rot through (remember jap boxes, fords etc in the 80s and 90s where the doors would rot out from the bottom?), manufacturers introduced a 5 year and the a longer warranty against this. Merc fixing corroded wheelarches, boot locks etc don't technically fall under this definition (IMO). Yes, MB have fixed rust (as they should) but I suspect the legal boys never related that activity to the 30yr corrosion warranty but instead did each repair on a one-off goodwill' basis. We all related the 2 but I suspect that infact they aren't.
This brings me to the second point - "Goodwill". Mobilio and the corrosion warranty (post 2 years anyway) are classed as goodwill rather than statutory and so don't fall under block exemption. The docs state that after year 2, the cover is 'renewed' each time the car visits the workshop. Had it been part of the main warranty, that would have been year 3. Block exemption is to stop manufacturers forcing you to use their dealerships. I would be unreasonable for them to legislate against manufacturers providing some "inducement" to stay with their dealers.
I doubt a court would consider it unreasonable for your car to have the odd patch of rust after 20 years, however carefully maintained anyway.
So, whilst not a lawyer, I would say, no you couldn't challenge it.

 

[jp williams]

Just had my 2003 E220 cdi W210 auto estate serviced (B) and the auto transmission fluid replaced (70,000 miles) by the Main Mercedes Dealer in Velez Malaga Spain.Total cost was 466 euros (approx £320).
Labour cost was 3.8 hours @45.50 euros=172 euros (approx £120)
Materials cost was 294 euros (approx £200 )this included engine oil (Shell),ATF oil, filters and miscellanous items.
Service book was stamped and Service indicator reset to 21,000kms (13,000 miles ).
I think that this is excellent value and supports what a number of members have said about cost effective servicing on the continent.