Originally Posted by
Aoshi
I hardly find that our problem. Charging 700 for a water pump install isn't exactly smart, when the pump itself is 150, and the new belt is 30. Now, would you rather get a couple hundred for your time, or nothing.
Johnny is selling one apple for 1 thousand dollars, and suzie is selling 1000 apples for 1 dollar each. Who do you think is going to get the thousand first? Lower prices for good work is going to bring you referral customers and repeat customers, while high prices may get you the money you need at first, you'll end up finding that your fucking yourself in the end.
and you need 3 mechanics to start out with why?
You need to look at what most shops work with. Doing a water pump on a PT cruiser is not a piece of cake. Your looking at pretty much dropping the entire front end out of the vehicle. Not only do you have to remove the timing belt cover, but the crank pulley requires a special puller and you have to disconnect the A/C. Now Johnny might be able to get away with doing the work for $450, but a shop has to have the equipment to recover the R-134a or face a fine if caught releasing it to the atmosphere. And if the bearing has not been replaced to the new style, that is another part to change.
Engineers are not mechanics, so all they have to worry about is putting the package in the car, when the mechanic has to dig halfway into the car to do anything, thats where the labor adds up.
Shops really do not make much on the smaller parts, its the big kits where you might make some cash. The labor of installing the part is where the money is.
As far as needing 3 mechanics, the shop I am looking to run will be doing a little bit of everything, not general specific, and not afraid to play with modified cars either. If there are cars sitting in the parking lot waiting to come in, your not making money. So you can have one mechanic, but I forsee a little more work showing up in the beginning.
I have had a shop before, and I have always been fair with my pricing.