My local mechanic  I use has quoted that. I assume it would also need tracking which is probably £40 so is this about right? I thought would be lower as shocks are about £70 each but there’s maybe something I’m missing

10 minutes ago, Jason87 said:

My local mechanic  I use has quoted that. I assume it would also need tracking which is probably £40 so is this about right? I thought would be lower as shocks are about £70 each but there’s maybe something I’m missing

That does sound steep. If it were a Ford dealer with marble flooring and cappuccino on tap, maybe. Have you tried your local KwikFit (or similar), this is bread and butter stuff for them and they always have offers on...

1 minute ago, StephenFord said:

That does sound steep. If it were a Ford dealer with marble flooring and cappuccino on tap, maybe. Have you tried your local KwikFit (or similar), this is bread and butter stuff for them and they always have offers on...

No haven’t tried elsewhere as this Mechanic is always good but just made me wonder. Even if added £40 for alignment it’s still steep? I may have even misheard the price on the phone. 

The tracking shouldn't need doing and realistically it is only a couple of hours work to change both sides, so £390 does sound expensive for an independent.

Put your reg# into a parts supplier, motor factors and price up the parts, he could do shocks and legs for that price. Time to find a new mech !

A quick google shows from £20 to £50 per leg and a going rate of £40 an hour.

Just had it done. Down as 3 hours labour. do garages ever charge by part hour or is it always by the hour? So if it was say 2 hours 20 mins work are they always going to say 3 hours?

3 minutes ago, Jason87 said:

Just had it done. Down as 3 hours labour. do garages ever charge by part hour or is it always by the hour? So if it was say 2 hours 20 mins work are they always going to say 3 hours?

Depends on the garage, my local does it in half hour slots, though to be fair, I get quite a few '10 minute' jobs done as 'freebies'. A genuine Ford dealer will squirm as much as possible out of you without a 2nd thought. So, how much did they squeeze you for then? LOL

Book times for main dealers are listed as decimals for each hour and should only charge as such as well.

Your garage may have seen you coming though... 

180 for the shocks plus the top mounts we’re about 40 then rest labour. 393 in total 

The prices on other work I get done there is always what I expect or cheap so just curious 

1 minute ago, Jason87 said:

180 for the shocks plus the top mounts we’re about 40 then rest labour. 393 in total 

That leaves about £170 for 3 hours, so they charge almost £60/hour - so glad I live in a rural area LOL

Lol yeah it’s 57 hour I think with the vat 

12 hours ago, StephenFord said:

That leaves about £170 for 3 hours, so they charge almost £60/hour - so glad I live in a rural area LOL

There's a weird thing about that.  I lived in such a rural area that there wasn't any competition for the local garage!  Even 10 years ago they charged £50 an hour, plus full MOT rate!  Now I live in suburbia MOT's & labour at indys & chains are much cheaper!

So could it take almost 3 hours to do shocks or at least over 2 hours? Would ford dealer be much more than £400 lol?

4 minutes ago, Jason87 said:

So could it take almost 3 hours to do shocks or at least over 2 hours? Would ford dealer be much more than £400 lol?

Hey buddy, it's done now - let it go LOL

8 minutes ago, Jason87 said:

So could it take almost 3 hours to do shocks or at least over 2 hours? Would ford dealer be much more than £400 lol?

Phone your nearest Ford and ask them for a quote... 

But no, it doesn't take that long lol.  It's literally 4 bolts to remove the leg from the car, then 10 minutes to set up the spring compressors, squash it, remove the shock and top mount, and poke the new one through. 

Tracking afterwards isn't necessary, but Ford would charge a lot more than £40 for that, more like £80+ on their Hunter machine.

Lol I want to ask them why it was 3 hours but don’t want to sound rude 

1 hour ago, Jason87 said:

Lol I want to ask them why it was 3 hours but don’t want to sound rude 

Tbh I'd just leave it now as Stephen suggested.  You'll only upset them no matter how polite you try to be.  (Been there, done that...  )  Just be sure to haggle a bit on the next quote instead, or at least get 2 or 3 locally to compare.

Only reason I ask as I’ve had other things done there like roll bar drop links which Ive done myself in past and the part and labour was what I paid myself and labour was cheap. So assume must be a reason it was 3 hours rather than just ripping me off lol

15 minutes ago, Jason87 said:

So assume must be a reason it was 3 hours rather than just ripping me off lol

Was there a live sporting event on at the time? (Tennis/football/horse racing?). Maybe they charged you for time spent watching it LOL 🤣

Been quoted £1110 for new clutch and flywheel or £600 odd for just the clutch. This seems expensive?

19 minutes ago, Jason87 said:

Been quoted £1110 for new clutch and flywheel or £600 odd for just the clutch. This seems expensive?

Do you not have another garage to get quotes from? The extra £500 for flywheel doesn't make sense.

I know the flywheel is about £280 on eurocarparts but labour should be same. They also said to not bother doing it all until it really needs it so It’s not like it’s a con. I don’t understand why the price is high. Yeah I’ll get other quotes.

They must be adding some Covid tax on top of the Brexit tax for those prices!   

A Clutch is about £200 on eurocarparts so how much should labour be?