I was quoted $135.00/hr on a bill to install some optional foglights..talked 'em down to around $90/hr. Told the local BMW/MINI dealer this is NOT a 7 series BMW your working on. What do you think folks..you think these service prices are proportional to the cost of this vehicle??

Come on guys and gals...those of you are about to find out real quick the maintanence costs of these vehicles once your warranty expires..are in for a real sticker shock 'cause no one else can reliably trouble shoot if you have ECU faults only MINI dealers with the leased MoDtec/G2 hardware can. Time to start thinking about fair service prices for these MINI's if your go'n to continue enjoying them in th future :???: :???: :???: :???:

 

It's excessive. by about a factor of 2. Find another mechanic or shop.

 

Easier said than done..there only 3 dealers in this state(Pa.) and the next closest is 50 miles away. besides they sprung this on me after the job was done. Sign in their work bay said $90/hr..I still find this exhorbatant for the price of this vehicle.

 

Dealers are always expensive, especially BMW ones. The rates probably vary somewhat to what area of the country you're in. Here in the SF Bay Area, that's the high end of the going rate for dealer work (min. is $100 hour). Independents are as low as $50 to $60 /hour.

 

Any competent shop or backyard mechanic can install fog lights. You can probably do so yourself with just a little instruction and encouragement. Check out

http://bridger.us/mini/

for instruction, MCO for encouragement. Only certain specialty work requires the BMW dealership (much of it ECU - Software based). Again check around in your hometown, there are bound to be competent wrenches for hire at reasonable rates.

 

The sign posted in the shop should be honored. $130/hr is excessive.

btw, I just picked up my old Mercedes from the dealership who ran some diagnostics on the car regarding emissions, and they did not charge me. Plus I had one of their loner cars for two days, one of those 4x4 Mercedes things. Now THAT's service !!!

 

Sounds like they were trying to charge time and a half for some reason (135 vs 90). Was it after hours, or weekend or something? I agree with you that it's an inexcusable rate to charge; just trying to figure out where they got it from.

Maybe you look like a sucker, so they added in their 50% looks-like-a-sucker surcharge...

 

$130/hr is insane! Even Princeton doesn't charge that much. They are down at $90/hr, which still isn't cheap, but then again I believe you said that is your dealer's posted rate. I just don't get these dealerships going out of their way to screw people (not to mention aggravate you).

 

The rate of 130/hr ..what I've been told..is to do electrical work. FYI..still need to recode the ECU for the Fogs for both front and rear. So the comment: find a competent (non BMW)mechanic is out the window folks. Time to get out and demand better service pricing. This NOT a 7 series BMW!!! :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

Gee if the sign says $90 an hour then you shouldn't have to talk them down to that! They have to stick to that unless you sign something stating otherwise!!!

I think my dealer charges $89 or 90 an hour. Since you're in PA, I'd make the trip to Helix - he charges half )or less) than the $130! Even if it's a 3 hr drive for you, it would be worth it IMO.

 

aa3jy,

Perhaps you misunderstood my post. In the future for similar work, have an outside shop or mechanic do the physical install, then take it to the dealership for the software work. A full upgrade is rarely over 30 minutes in labor, therefore it would be $45 at the dealer and about $60 x hrs. for the grunt work. Many of us shadetree mechanics do our accessory upgrades this way.

 

hi there;
I work at a shop in Austin,tx,and we have a labor rate of $80/hr for working on BMW's and Minis,compared to dealer here which charges $120/hr.

bryan

 

>>hi there;
>>I work at a shop in Austin,tx,and we have a labor rate of $80/hr for working on BMW's and Minis,compared to dealer here which charges $120/hr.
>>
>>bryan

Hi Brian,

Are you Mini certified and is your shop leasing the MoDtec unit from BMW to do ECU code-fault diagnostics??

 

>>
>>Gee if the sign says $90 an hour then you shouldn't have to talk them down to that! They have to stick to that unless you sign something stating otherwise!!!

I did..but follow along on my response below
>>
>>I think my dealer charges $89 or 90 an hour. Since you're in PA, I'd make the trip to Helix - he charges half )or less) than the $130! Even if it's a 3 hr drive for you, it would be worth it IMO.

Folks this is NOT a 7 series BMW..I'll say it again this vehicle is NOT a 7-series BMW. BMW service pricing is imprortional to the value of this vehicle. Even 90/hr is outragous!
If I owned a 7-series or even a 5-series..than yes..the service costs reflect the vehicle..but not a $20K +/- Mini!

Come on folks..'smell the coffee burning'..put your foot down and demand fairer service pricing :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

Not siding with the dealers or asking for flames here, but with the low percentage of markup on new cars, the dealership finds itself looking for other ways to gain some cash revenue. This is reflected in the higher cost of accessories and labor rates.

I agree that $90 an hour is high and $130 is stupidly high! My only thoughts on this are that you're going to a mechanic that's been specifically trained on your car. It costs money to send people to school. It costs more money to buy the specialized tools to do the job right. And it costs even more money because BMW is a very demanding mistress. Did you know when the 7 series came out, BMW demanded that dealers who wanted to sell it have a seperate showroom for it? Along these same lines, those that wanted MINI dealerships basically had to do the same thing. The dealer here in town was offered a MINI franchise, but had to turn it down because they had no room to build a place for them.

Like I said, I'm not siding with dealers on this, I'm just wanted to point out that running a dealership has little similarity to Joe Mechanic working out of his closed down gas station.

And finally getting back to your original statement. It should have been explained to you beforehand that electrical work doesn't fall under the normal service rates. That should have been listed on the same sign advertising their hourly rates that you said was in their shop. Since it wasn't, I don't feel you'd be obliged to pay that amount....which you didn't. And no, it isn't a 7 Series, but it is still a BMW garage.

_________________
03 B/W S model; Madness intake; Cibie 45 lamps; Magnaflow exhaust; H&R springs; Helix swaybar

 

I don't know...maybe Chicago just has inflated mechanic rates...and I can't speak for the dealers that I've been to, because I don't remember, but the only mechanics that I've spoken to (one is a Porsche and MINI shop, the other is a Tire Rack recommended shop) charge $100/hour and $92/hour. I think that the Volvo and JEEP dealers that I"ve used in teh area charge about $100/hour, but I really don't remember. I don't necessarily want to say "You get what you pay for" and leave it at that (and $130/hour seems like robbery to me); but I don't know how much I would trust leaving my baby with a mechanic who only felt that his time was worth $60/hour...am I completely nuts?

 

$90/ hour is actually pretty reasonable. A good mechanic in a metropolitan area can easily earn $100K per year with benefits. Do the math, they will need to charge at least $50/hour to cover the mechanics salary. They also need to cover the other salaries in the shop (service writer, manager, etc) and the overhead and equipment for the shop. At least in our area, $80 - $90 per hour is about average. I don't know why they felt it neccesary to charge more than their posted rate for "electrical work". On modern cars, there are very few repairs that don't involve some electrical work.

 

>>>>hi there;
>>>>I work at a shop in Austin,tx,and we have a labor rate of $80/hr for working on BMW's and Minis,compared to dealer here which charges $120/hr.
>>>>
>>>>bryan
>>
>>Hi Brian,
>>
>> Are you Mini certified and is your shop leasing the MoDtec unit from BMW to do ECU code-fault diagnostics??
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are an independent shop and we own a bmw modic machine with a MINI plug and a Bimmer plug.

Terry Sayther Automotive

 

I think you're mistaken about the $135/HR. If the posted labor rate is $90.00 per hr, then they charged you for an 1 1/2 labor = $135.00 for installing the fog lights.

 

Baron MINI wanted to charge me $130 just to have them turn off the follow me home lights.. she siad they would have to charge me for an hour of labor to do that.

This is in Kansas City. Closest other MINI dealership would be in St. Louis.

 

>>I think you're mistaken about the $135/HR. If the posted labor rate is $90.00 per hr, then they charged you for an 1 1/2 labor = $135.00 for installing the fog lights.
>>
>>
Neg....after the job was done ..I was quoted that the bill with an hourly rate of 135.00/hr..with a total bill of over $750.00 (included cost of the lights).. After several back and forth banterings with the service rep and finally the service manager.. got the hourly rate down to an only obnoxous $90/hr for 3 hours of labor from 4hrs of labor.

Bottom line folks this whole process of rate negotiations is completly unneccessary..kind of tells you that they pad the bills with inflated hourly rates and job completion times.

According to a previous post..the job should have taken 2 hours to complete. I was informed that the mechanic took 4 hours which included taking off the bumper for some unknown reason....

 

$130 an hour does sound a bit excessive, but you didn't mention what city you live in, what town was this work done in? Also, the dealers have a work book that tells them precisely how much time it takes to do work like rear fog lamps. You should have been quoted an accurate estimate before they started the work. If they can't give you an estimate next time, take it someplace else.

 

>>Neg....after the job was done ..I was quoted that the bill with an hourly rate of 135.00/hr..with a total bill of over $750.00 (included cost of the lights).. After several back and forth banterings with the service rep and finally the service manager.. got the hourly rate down to an only obnoxous $90/hr for 3 hours of labor from 4hrs of labor.
>>
>>Bottom line folks this whole process of rate negotiations is completly unneccessary..kind of tells you that they pad the bills with inflated hourly rates and job completion times.
>>
>>According to a previous post..the job should have taken 2 hours to complete. I was informed that the mechanic took 4 hours which included taking off the bumper for some unknown reason....

Shortly after I brought my MINI home, I started keeping a service journal to document all of my interactions with both the local dealer and MINI USA regarding the car. After reading about the difficulty other folks here have had trying to get their cars' stumble problems fixed, I started the journal so that I would have a record of things that don't show up on service invoices, but which might be important later should I need to persue drastic recourse (lemon law?) to get any persistent problems fixed. I also started recording my personal observations and thoughts regarding my experience. Below is an excerpt from that journal, written after I got my car back from the second visit to have the rear fog lamp switch retrofit installed. The first visit was a flop- MINI's parts warehouse shipped the wrong part to the dealer, and this was only discovered after I got there to have the part fitted:

10/14/2003- Took car to MINI dealer for the second attempt at installing the rear fog lamp switch, and to address the driver’s window squeal. The service advisor quoted me a total figure of approximately $233.00 for the installed switch assembly. I asked for a breakdown of the price, and was told that the part price was $131.00, plus $92.90 labor. I immediately objected to both figures, citing the parts bulletin figures of $75.00 MSRP for the part, and .5 recommended labor time to install. The service advisor replied that .5 hour figure was BMW/MINI warranty guide time, and represented only the amount that BMW would pay if the service was being performed under warranty. He stated that the shop minimum labor charge for any COD work involving connecting the car to the diagnostic computer was 1 hour @ $92.50/hour shop labor rate. A technician who was standing at the service advisor’s desk seconded this. I conceded that as a former automobile dealership service technician, I was aware that it is a common dealer practice for the service department to bill COD jobs at a significantly higher rate than OEM warranty labor guide time.

(I did not voice my opinion on the morality and ethics of billing a cash customer more than the manufacturer believes is fair compensation to a job, as doing so at the time would most likely have not yielded any benefit to me. Service staff tend to be quite sensitive about this issue, and I did not want my conversation to adopt an accusatory or confrontational tone.)

Although my line of questioning regarding the labor time was totally unproductive, the parts price inquiry was more fruitful. The service advisor phoned the parts desk manager, who asked me about the details of the parts bulletin. I explained that I had read both a press release from MINI USA and an MINI dealer parts bulletin online, which quoted an MSRP of $75.00 for the retrofit kit for cars with DSC and existing factory front fog lamps. I also told the parts manager that I had brought a print copy of the bulletin in with me on the previous service visit. I used this copy at the parts counter to confirm that the part that was originally ordered for my car matched the one listed in the bulletin. The parts manager replied that since I had published information from the manufacturer which quoted a lower price than the one their computer listed, he would honor the lower price and override the system. I accepted this, and allowed the 1 hour labor time to stand without further objection.

Unfortunately, when I got the invoice for the installation, I found that rather than the bulletin MSRP of $75.00, the part was charged out at $89.95, less 10%, for a net figure of $80.95. By this time, I was too concerned with getting back to work to haggle further, so I paid the invoice as written. I still may go back on a later visit with the bulletin in hand, and try to get the parts price amended.


Looking back on the visit with a week's hindsight, I won't go back and quibble over $6.00, since they did at least make a price change without requiring me to produce a copy of the document as proof of my assertions before they made the adjustment. I did, however, e-mail a copy of the document to the service advisor later, so that he would have a reference available when other customers come in for the same service.

As to the issue of the fairness of warranty labor times, there is at least one class-action lawsuit by dealers and technicians against a manufacturer (Ford Motor Co.) of which I have recently read. Factory warranty labor allowances are unilaterally set by the manufacturer, and it seems very likely that any manufacturer would be tempted to treat warranty service charges as a "cost savings opportunity," at the expense of the affiliated dealers and their technical staff.

To sum all this up, based on my experience, I would recommend that any person seeking to have any of the fog lamp kits installed prepare for the visit by negotiating a set price for the job before going in for the service, and be ready to defend your position with the appropriate documentation, if necessary.

_________________
Midnight- '03 indi blue MCS, learning all the bad habits of a proper British car from Rusty- '75 MGB