Bottom line, this is a greedy world. Grab it while you can!

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11 S550
09 C300
91 560SEL
90 300CE
84 380SE
83 240D

Probably a lot of margin on shop labor also. The rate might be $120/hr, but the tech who does the work probably makes (if he's been there a while) 20-30.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Somebody has to pay for the marble floors, big flatscreen TV's and whatnot. Our shop labor rate is $129.50. The tech's make $25ish per hour, flat rate. Oddly enough, the ratty old Toyota dealer down the street also charges over $125/hr and they have an old building and no fancy furniture...wonder who's making more money???

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2002 Ford ZX2
2 x 2013 Honda Civics

last time the dealership washed my car they brought it back to me with the hoodstar all out of whack.. I stood there and waited until someone fixed the star

Try to run a business like that. It opens up your eyes to where the money goes.

The marina I used to work at charged $90 an hour, maybe $10 max was profit after overhead. They made their money on storage.

If you are paying a full time employee $25 an hour, the actual cost is much closer to $40. Then you have other expenses, like taxes for example, insurance, right down the the guy who cleans the windows. All that little stuff adds up real fast, who buys the waste baskets? I bet paving the parking lot at a MB dealer costs $100k

In the marine business because of the location taxes are a killer, property taxes at the marina I used to work at are just shy of $160k a year, thats just property taxes. We put in new fuel lines to the gas dock a few years ago, $75k, a new section of bulkhead, $500k. And people think oh they are charging me $105 an hour and paying the mechanic $30, they must be pocketing the rest and making a killing.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Interesting. Park Place Mercedes by me uses a machine. I used it a few times when we were trying to diagnose a short (ended p being the harness) when the car got wet. They may wash some by hand but I know they have a machine.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

I'm right down the street from them. Realistically, it is the service department that keeps the lights on when sales are in a slump. Cars will always break and need servicing whether customer pay or warranty issues. Funny how this industry treats salesmen like Golden Children when it's us guys in service that pay most of the bills.......

There's not a huge amount of money in new cars unless they're top tier - A8,S8, S-Class,etc. Used cars are where the money is.

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???