[DeTomaso] NPT, Toyota Dealer Rip Off

boyd casey boyd411 at gmail.com
Fri Aug 7 20:58:54 EDT 2009


On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 8:26 PM, <asajay at asajay.com> wrote:
> What Jim is talking about is "efficency rate"If the rate book says it takes two hours to change a starter and the mechanic does it in 1 he is working at a 200% efficency rate.It is one of the only businesses (besides a lawyer) where they can bill more hours then there are in a day. A good mechanic can bill 14 hours in an 8 hour day. The customer gets charged the flat hourly rate no matter how quickly the job is done. If a mechanic takes two hours to do a job that the book says takes 1 hour he only gets paid for one hour. If a mechanice consistently takes longer to do a job then the  book says it's supposed to take he will soon be unemployed.
The mechanics get paid hourly for being at work. It is the service
manager and the service writer resposability to make sure that every
mechanic has at least as many billable hours as the actual hours they
were at work. The last thing you want is to pay a guy for 40 hours and
he only billed 25 hours. You want a guy that worked 40 hours and
billed 60 hours. They measure the effciency of the shop bu how many
hours they billed over hoours actually worked If you bill less hours
then you payrolled ( like 300 hours worked  by mechanics and only 150
hours billed you are operating at 50% efficency and you will be
unemployed very quicklly). So they find ways to get more stuff billed.
It's very easy to make yp hours when you sell unneccesary work. Also
some jobs are in the rate book for 3 hours and any good mechanic can
do them in 1.5 hours other very complicated jobs ( like in the old
days a chevy citation (an X car) you couldn't reach anything because
the engine was so packed it took two hours to change the spark plugs
but the book would say it was a .5 hour (30 minutes) job. It's like a
big shell game when you pull into the service department don't take
your eyes off of the pea.
Boyd




fall under the Montgomery Scott principle of engineering.
> Since that kind of Star Trek just doesn't get credit anymore... nobody
> pays attention.
>
> "I kinna give it to ya eny soona keptin, it'll take three hours just
> to refire the dilithium crystals"  ... and then he get it done in 3
> minutes.
>
> Gotta love Scotty.
>
> Asa Jay
>
> Quoting Christopher Kimball <chrisvkimball at msn.com>:
>
>>
>> Talking about bad mechanics, have I got a story for you!
>>
>>
>>
>> Oh, that's right, if you've read this forum for very long you
>> already know it...
>>
>>
>>
>> I was supposed to get my car back from the body shop today, but now
>> they're telling me it may take them just a little longer than
>> expected to put everything back together.
>>
>>
>>
>> Whatever happened to "under-promise, over-deliver?"
>>
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>>
>>
>> Chris
>>
>> #3846 (at least I think that's the number, I haven't seen it in so
>> long I'm beginning to forget)
>>
>>
>>
>>> Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 17:42:21 -0400
>>> From: boyd411 at gmail.com
>>> To: chendric at bellsouth.net
>>> CC: JDeRyke at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
>>> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPT, Toyota Dealer Rip Off
>>>
>>>
>>> I was in the retail automobile business for over 25 years and started
>>> as a sales person and ending as a General manager.
>>> The srvice writers ( the guy or gal that writes you up when you come
>>> into service is on commision and is also guaged on how much the can
>>> "up sell a customer" That's one of the reasons dealers give free state
>>> inspections. Any service writer worth their salt can take a state
>>> inspection and turn it into a few hundred dollars by " selling " High
>>> margin jobs (like rotating tires ) Any place that has oil change
>>> specials will always try to "upgrade" the customer to a "better
>>> filter" better oil"
>>> In fact if you were a service writer and you did not sucesfully
>>> upgrade the service tickets would not have a job for long. In fairness
>>> to dealers most people don't realize how much the overhead is to
>>> maintain a new car franchise. I will say this in spite of the fact
>>> that I was in the business I never have had my cars serviced at the
>>> dealer unless 1. It was warranty work, or 2. It was a complex car that
>>> a run of the mill shop is not going to be able to work on ( Like my
>>> Jaguar XK8 ) I had my 911 serviced at an independent but he was a
>>> porsche specialist who had been trained by porsche and had worked at
>>> Porsche for many years ( and he charged almost as much as the Porsche
>>> dealer!)
>>>
>>> Boyd
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 5:07 PM, Jim
>>> Hendrickson<chendric at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Jack,
>>> >
>>> > I thought the way the mechanics were able to make a good living
>>> was by being
>>> > able to beat the "Flat Rates Manual" times. Do some stealerships
>>> still have
>>> > the mechanics getting commissions on parts?
>>> >
>>> > Jim #04091
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > -----Original Message-----
>>> > From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
>>> [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
>>> > Behalf Of JDeRyke at aol.com
>>> > Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 4:09 PM
>>> > To: Pantdino at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
>>> > Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPT,  Toyota Dealer Rip Off
>>> >
>>> > Most owners know this, but it's not the cost of the coolant; any dealer's
>>> > labor rate is around $85/hr and it doesn't matter a great deal if the
>>> > mechanic's emptying the ash tray or re-torquing headbolts during
>>> that hour.
>>> > His
>>> > guys work to the sacred 'flat-rate' book for all jobs, and much
>>> of the time,
>>> >
>>> > average mechanics cannot do jobs as quick as the book says, so there's a
>>> > 'little' extra mark-up on dealer's parts prices to fill in.....
>>> > Which is why I recommend you all at least become familiar with your
>>> > machines and what they require, even if you then choose not to get dirty
>>> > yourself.
>>> > Being young & poor when I started, I chose to do everything myself (no
>>> > choice, really). And that attitude hasn't changed over the years. FWIW- J
>>> > Deryke
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> >
>>> > Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>>> >
>>> > Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>>> >
>>> > DeTomaso mailing list
>>> > DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
>>> > http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> >
>>> > Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>>> >
>>> > Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>>> >
>>> > DeTomaso mailing list
>>> > DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
>>> > http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> >
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>>>
>>> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>>>
>>> DeTomaso mailing list
>>> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
>>> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>>
>> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>>
>> DeTomaso mailing list
>> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
>> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>
> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>



More information about the DeTomaso mailing list