Greedy garages

By Mat Watson

04th November 2007

Greedy garages are ripping off motor-ists by making a massive 733 per cent mark-up on their labour rates, Auto Express can reveal.

New industry figures show that even though franchised dealers pay their technicians only £9.96 per hour on average, they charge customers £83. That’s a difference of £73.04!

The extent of the rip-off was confirmed following a national survey of 250 main agents, which included five of the UK’s biggest dealer groups and 1,600 technicians. Our table shows the regional variation for labour rates and how much staff actually get paid.

The biggest mark-up is at dealers in the south-east of England, outside the M25. Here, rates are nearly eight times what the technician takes home. Northern Ireland has the lowest increase, although garages there still make a healthy 645 per cent mark-up.

But this isn’t the only news which will anger consumers. The survey also found that for every hour billed, the technician will have worked on the car for only around 51 minutes. That’s because garages still charge for the full amount even if the employee finishes early – as encouraged through a bonus scheme. This means the average technician is charged out for 46 hours a week, but works only 40.

All this data is contained in the latest report from industry specialist Auto Retail Network. A spokesman for Trend Tracker, which compiled the information, blamed the huge difference between technicians’ pay and their charge-out rates on the amount of money dealers have to spend on training and equipment to meet manufacturer guidelines.

He told us: “For one particular brand, you can’t change the brake pads on some of its cars unless you have a £15,000 piece of kit to talk to the vehicles’ on-board computers.”

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