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Originally Posted by autozen
Jamie,
I'm happy for you in the fact that you saved several hundred dollars by doing it yourself. I also repair things around my home to save money. I also applaud you for saying that you saved several hundred dollars rather than being ripped off for several hundred dollars. A professional shop would have charged you several hundred dollars, because of the expenses to keep the doors open to serve those who can't do it themselves. They are there to provide a service, and that costs money. It is no different than all the expenses it takes to keep a trauma center open for someone suffering a heart attack. What if all repair shops said that paying rent, insurance, permit costs, wages, taxes, refference library fees, $50,000 or more for BASIC tools, utilities, non chargeable supplies, etc. just wasn't worth it and shut down. Where would people take their cars? They just might as well abandon them by the roadside. So when a shop charges $80.00/hr, most of that money goes to the list above. I'm sure that no one reading this post goes to work every morning without any expectation of receiving a pay check for their efforts. I'm hoping to not hear from some smart ass retired people who do volunteer work. Jamie, at any rate the professional mechanics out there appreciate your attitude.
Thanks,
Peter
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My family owned a Car Dealership for 75 years so I did not really need that lecture about the money side of doing Mechanical work. I was simply stating for me, the one who only spent $800 on the car for the purchase, it was not cost effective for me to spend $730 on labor costs for a heater core. And calculate that it took me 5.5 hours to do this job and it was my first time, and we get his labor rate of $132/hr. So you can see what my dilema was there. Also I have worked on cars for the better part of my adult life as well, so I am fine with doing so. Now working on cars is not for everyone, but chaning that little sensor takes all of ten minutes and if one who has even the slightest bit of mechanical knowledge can do it. But I really do not care what other people do with there money so it really does not matter. I was trying to have him diagnose something that I have seen in the past and have had many people thank me becuase it fixed there car as well. If his mechanic can't find something that is listed on the MB Maint CD in the list of tests to perfom than I would switch mechanics. Since it is right up there on the list as one of the first things to check. It is one thing to pay a good mechanic, it is another to waste your money.
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~Jamie
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2003 Pewter C230K SC C1, C4, C5, C7, heated seats, CD Changer, and 6 Speed. ContiExtremes on the C7's.
1986 190E 2.3 Black, Auto, Mods to come soon.....
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