Originally Posted by A12
Originally Posted by Dcuda69
Originally Posted by A12
Originally Posted by Dcuda69
"And that's at over $100 an hour."

Please tell me you don't think the tech makes $100/hour. I know many techs that make damn good money but they don't make $100/hr. They bust their asses working on crap most guys on here wouldn't or couldn't touch. This new crap is ridiculous to repair and even with access to the information most would be lost without the programming equipment required anytime you touch anything on a late model car.

Touch the sideview mirror...needs calibration. Touch the bumper cover...calibrate. Replace the module...program, then calibrate. Error codes....reprogram the module. Replace rear brake pads....scanner to retract the pistons.Alignment...scanner to zero cal the steering angle sensor. The list goes on and on and on and on. We just spent almost 30k on equipment to calibrate forward facing cameras, radars, blind spot detection etc.


So is it the dealership or the manufacture that makes or gets the money from dealership shop service work.? How much of the dealership service bill goes to the manufacture?


The dealer makes the money on customer pay repairs. The dealer gets paid on warranty repairs from the manufacture. A good tech likely makes $40-$50/hr flat rate.Don't forget....that tech has to maintain all his/her certifications and supply all his own tools(likely $50-$100k)


Then wouldn't it hurt the dealership's mechanic if the manufacture was FORCED to give away proprietary technologies that would at least insure that for a small part of dealer service work might come back to him? That seems to be the only thing the mechanic might be able to address at least during the manufacture's warranty period? From what I know the dealership labor rate for the most part is dictated by local and state laws and the DEALERSHIP due mostly to the costs of that dealer's "costs to do business". The costs at a Chevy dealer versus a Mercedes dealer I'm sure in your area are not the same.


My point is....even if manufactures are forced to make proprietary info available to all of us (which I support) doesn't mean we will be able to completely repair our cars without buying/updating/subscribing to computer hardware and software. Those costs can be very prohibitive especially for those that want to do a one time module diag/repair/replacement. Even if they make software available to you and I....would they have to make it compatible with your PC and mine? What happens when they change it next year(because they will)?