chstitans42

As the title states, what is the normal labor cost mechanics charge to work on your car? I usually do all my own work, SO I have no idea what it would be. $75 and hour? $100 and hour? What have you guys seen to be a common price?

fauxrs

Shop rates vary so much that I doubt the numbers would help you much, here in So Cal I've seen as low as $45/hr and as high as $90/hr, but I would expect different rates in rural areas as opposed to the metropolitan area I am in.

Has nothing to do with the car of course.

qwank

My dealership charges $110 an hour

daanbc

"Whats in your wallet?" LOL. I would think the going avg. is 85. At least thats what I see down here in Fla.

jdecarlo

My local dealership can never seem to fix anything properly on my C3. Their mechanics are not expecting cars of this age to be brought to the dealership. When my C5 or C6 goes to the dealer he charges $85.00 per
hour. I take my C3 to the Corvette Shop in Costa Mesa, he specializes in the older Vettes and he charges about $70 per hour.

Sully1882

rates will vary per shop and per region but definitely should not vary by car... someone tells me this I leave and go somewhere else.

hth,

Sully

joewill

they will charge what ever you are willing to pay.. they want to do away with hourly charges and charge by the job. .the mechanics that get the work done under the time the book states get to keep their job..

Spacecoast

The rates here for a shop that can work on a C3 are around $85/hour. Luckily I have a "one man shop" that does fantastic work and only charges by the job and is even only about 3 miles from my house.

lumij3

You have to take into acount the overhead. The biger the shop, the more employees, the more conforts while serving your car the more expensive the hourly cost.
If the kind of car does not affect the $ charged for work the location does. Here in CT the average is about $100 per hour.

Spacecoast

Absolutely true, which is why I am fortunate I found a shop that essentially just works on classic American muscle, so overhead remains relatively low for him without having to worry about modern diagnostics, etc.

Lupigiato

$40-$50 per hour for home workshops w/ lift and $90-$110 per hour for "Corvette specialty" shops here in central NJ

KS69Coupe

$75.00 per hour here in Northern Virginia for Corvette work at the Chevrolet dealership just up the road from our house. I do most of my own work and try to avoid the garage rates.

alswagg

I can not tell you what local Corvette repair is, as we work on it ourselves. I can tell you are Marine managment company labor rate is $75 hr, we are not on the water, Where the local on water dealer labor rate is $105 and $115. Both are very large and cumbersome in my opinion.
Al

78-l82

Where are the $40-$50 per hour shops in Central NJ?! Not to hijack the thread but can you recommend one (PM me)?

I'm familiar with the $90-$110/hr Corvette specialty shops, and I don't think that's too bad as the local dealerships and even the mom-and-pop shops are charging that much.

At $40-50/hr I'd let someone else do the work but at ~$100/hr I'm doing as much of it myself as I can.

Jay-Dog

I just had my trailing arms, rear wheel bearings, and alignment, etc... done. The tech even made a custom press to do the job. I suggested that I would send all of my Covette friends to him for the great work he did. His reply was HELL NO! BTW, the shop rate was $85.

RobbSalzmann

I have a local ASE Cert'd guy that comes the house for the really time consuming stuff. I give him access to air, power, jacks and stands, and he lets me lend a hand if I want. He charges me $30/hr. He's very humble and not afraid to say "I'm not sure, let's look it up". I think he's worth his weight in gold.

He's trying to get his own business / shop off the ground in a tough economy. If you're in Tucson, PM me and I'll get you his contact info.

couperdecar

$85 /hr here

milo30

For mechanic work there shouldn't be any difference in rate. I'm near by in Arlington and I have a large garage that I take everything to when I can't or don't want to do it myself. They've worked on everything from the corvettes to an RV. I think they charge about $40/hr. All I know is they always give me an estimate on what it will be and the price is always reasonable and when I pick up the car it is always lower than the estimate. Sometimes they are so cheap that it isn't worth getting greasy.

My personal opinion is tat it isn't the rate per hour they charge but rather the price of the job. I've seen many shops inflate the number of hours charged compared to what this shop does. They want repeat customers.