Just a quick question. North Scottsdale Jag here in AZ just quoted me $270 per hour for labor. That has got to be wrong. Thoughts?

Cheers, Mike

 

I use an independant in the UK but it's nowhere near that. Maybe £50 or so but I never actually asked because my invoices are always reasonable and under what I expected. $270 dollars is miles off though.

 

Hey Mike

I take my 2013 xjl 351 up there too and I just walk away shaking my head with my wallet quite a bit lighter. For things that I don't need a Jaguar factory expert for,I take it to Whiteys in downtown Scottsdale for the past 40 years. Very honest, very competent and not $270 per hour. If they can't fix it they will let you know to take it up
to the Jaguar North Scottsdale. Whiteys has done my suspension, water pumps, trunk lock, etc. They told me to take the Jaguar dealer for both of the fuel pumps that
went out at the same time and an electrical ?? as they did not have a Jaguar diagnostic tool for those. I have complete confidence in them for anything. The mechanic
that works on my car is JP, tell him George sent you .
Good luck
gpk

 

Up here in the PNW the high end dealers (Bentley , Ferrari, etc) are about $250-$300 or so

$270 for Jaguar in Scottsdale seems…. plausible

Cheers
DD

 

$200/hr is about par for Indies who specialize in Euro vehicles in this neck of the woods. Bentley, Rolls, Land Rover, etc., are higher. $270 is not beyond the realm of believability.

 

I am blown away. I guess I will do everything I can myself.

George, thank you for the lead. If I cannot get it done I'll give them a shout and Name drop drop with no shame LOL

Doug - appreciate the reply. I have a 74 TR6 and would love to see pics of your V8. Buick alum motor or something else?

 

I read that Jag in Manhatten is @ $575 an hour.
wj

 

I have no idea, I take care of everything myself, my cars will never see the inside of a dealership

 

A really interesting thread. Tough to know how much is too much when it comes to paying shop rates, so much depends on your individual finances and your electro-mechanical skill set, experience and home equipment levels. Back in those wondrous days of yesteryear when all of us DIY auto hobbyists and enthusiasts could tune a carb, change air, oil and fuel filters, adjust a set of points, change the condenser, the plugs and do a 4 corner brake job, all in less than an hour with our eyes closed, being a car mechanic was commonplace. Back then there was little need for special equipment or diagnostic tools or discussion groups. Global Forums such as this one were unheard of, as were You Tube Contributors but not so today! 21st Century Auto design philosophy, features lists, integrated electronic technologies, build processes and materials have all expanded so far and so fast that the challenges facing us superannuated DIYers are much more significant and we need all the help we can get. I've been tinkering with old cars and motorcycles for over 60 years and have several ground up restorations of 60's UK classics under my belt. I have a typical, modestly equipped, DIY garage but I'm the first to admit my struggles getting my arms around problems on my '01 XKR. By far my biggest challenges are the diagnostic ones! The cars aren't particularly difficult to work on, although CAD design and automated assembly techniques have created numerous accessibility issues, but with only a basic OBD II code reader, a cheap multi-meter and a Chinese smoke machine in my diagnostic diagnostic arsenal I have often resorted to expensive Professional help. I can't imagine putting the car into a Pro Indie or Dealer shop for repair but paying them a couple hundred dollars for a (usually) reliable diagnosis and then sourcing the necessary parts and carrying out my own repair is a very good investment. as Dirty Harry famously observed..."A man's got to know his limitations..."

 

So very true. I have friends who bring me their Mercedes, Porsche, and Jags for one of two reasons. Dealers will not work on cars older than 2010 or their original quote was so high I was able to do it for half. If you cannot plug your laptop into it the "kids" these days cannot diagnose it. With my wife's Panamera, I had to go down and debate with the lead dealer mechanic on why her AC wasn't working two compressors later. It wasn't until I sat in their shop and asked them to show me the output signals and voltages with a paper schematic in hand did they go " Oh wow your right. It's the pressure sensor. And I'm just a dude who works on cars, not a certified academic graduate.

We are a dying breed. No one can tune my carbs on the motorcycles, forget anyone who here stateside that can work on my TR6. This forum is how we survive as they progress to manufacturing disposable cars.

At least when Zombie Apocalypse happens or they drop the EMP bomb all my old junk will run and I know how to keep them running. I have enjoyed a life that knows the feel and sound of a combustion engine. Rock on Old dudes.
enough rambling.

Cheers, Mike

 

Agree completely with the previous 2 posts. I believe it has to do with age of owner and complexity of vehicle. Seems that back in the 70s (when I was in my 20s or so) I was constantly tinkering with my cars--oil changes, replacing plugs, adjusting points, adjusting carburetor, changing jets and entire carburetors, etc. with the largest job I tackled being changing an intake manifold on my 383 V8. Vehicles have gotten exponentially more complex due to the electronics and computer controls and I am of a certain age where the tinkering stuff is no longer as fun.

I just got the car back from my local independent guy and the primary job was replacing front shocks and shock mounts. But as long as it was there I had him address the boot-to-lid link harness (broken wire so boot button wasn;t working) and the non-functioning antenna. Yes I could probably have tackled those myself but it was worth it to me for the couple of hundred extra bucks to have him do so.

 

What I like about these old cars is that, being over 20 years old, almost all the diagnostic stuff is available for free, or a pretty large discount. Even the Jag stuff is fairly reasonable. I find the biggest problem with these "limited production" vehicles is parts availability. Most of the German marques have parts availability long after the model ends production. The Jags are almost catch as catch can. Tata couldn't care less about decades-old cars. The original manufacturers can't be bothered with parts for a car that had, what, 60K units over a 10 year period? We're stuck using reproduction parts from Uro <shudder> and happy to get them. Sigh. Oh, well, the situation isn't too dire yet, but give it another decade. OK rant over.

 

Well, rather than disparage "kids" (which, to me is anyone under 45) , remember that on many of the systems there is no other way to diagnose the problem. If you can't interrogate the system you can't figure out what is wrong. And, in many cases, it would be foolish to NOT take advantage of the diagnostic systems built into the car.

Not that I entirely disagree with you, mind you. Even modern cars can have low-tech problems or old fashioned mechanical problems . Simple diagnostics and fixes are often overlooked.

Cheers
DD

 

To answer the main question, here it is $145/hr, same for independent and dealer. Where they get you is “diagnostics” which is an hour or more. I bought my first car in 1970, a 62 MG Midget. Brought it home and my dad took one look at it and declared it junk. Sure enough I’d died, he said he would not fix it but would tell me how. Under his supervision, pulled the motor, tore it down, learned to gauge bearings, rings etc…. Did total rebuild on many British cars as a result. Rings, bearings, valves… it was fun. My favourite Jag was a 62 3.8 MK II, spent every Sunday morning tuning the carbs before a fun drive. Now, if I go to a shop,I tell them what I want done and sometimes how to do it. I do not pay the “diagnostic fee”.

 

A couple of the well-respected indie shops in my neck of the woods are still relatively reasonable and I am very glad that I rarely have to utilize them thanks to the good folks on this forum. But if I had to rely solely on a dealership, my wife's 2006 XK8 would be out of here in a heartbeat....

 

$195 for me here in Northern California at the Jag Dealer, but I recommend checking to see if there are some independent shops that work on Land Rover / Jaguar...they're closer to $150/hr here in the states.

 

Yes should have added the independent shop I go to is about $150 per hour. They have been around a while and every time I pass by or go there I see Astons, Ferraris, and even McLarens there.

 

Avg labor rate at dealership service centers are $370/hour in South Florida. Cheapest Euro shop labor rate I can find is $180/hour. Standard $300-360 diagnostic fees. 2025

 

those hour rates are based on Job codes not real hours, so a good mechanic can do far more than 8 hours of billing a day so the real hourly rate is much higher.

 

i think what bothers me the most regardless of how much they charge it's how little goes to
the actual mechanics - by far most goes to people that had nothing to do with it
and do not generate anything billable