Rant: And people wonder why they feel being fleeced by “mechanics”.

In reply to MrJoshua :

I will check them out. I can't remember the last time I saw a shop that just did alignments. 

The shops I've seen that specialize in alignments or have it in the name it's in addition to suspension and brake work.

I try to get my cars aligned at shops where the owner uses the alignment machine for their own race cars.  I give them specs and they come back exactly right.

You generally can't argue against book time.  Otherwise, you are asking to pay more when they spend an extra hour removing a broken and seized bolt. 

I wish more shops combined book time for jobs where the parts are already off the car though.  I am about to pay a boatload of labor for a bmw rear main seal, then 2 more hours to replace the giubo that is already off the car.  30 minutes per corner for the pads and an hour for the rotors is a little painful too.  I guess this is where the shops make their money so I can't really complain.

Stampie said:

In reply to MrJoshua :

 I can't remember the last time I saw a shop that just did alignments. 

I was thinking about this recently as another shop closed up. Pretty much every specialty shop around here has closed or is going to. Muffler shops, transmission shops, and alignment shops are all closing.  My tire guy is also my exhaust guy, and he told me recently, Everything comes with SS exhaust, cats last forever and all the trucks have duals now. That's why I sold my exhaust equipment.

Now I don't have an exhaust guy, which is a drag because people seem to think an exhaust should cost $1500 these days. And it shouldn't

Stampie said:

So this has me thinking. How hard is it to open a shop specializing in alignments?

Probably very. It's important, but not something that a large market segment regularly needs performed (like tires, brakes, and fluid changes). Regular people only worry about alignment after having had significant chassis or suspension work done that necessitates it. In which case, they want all tasks done in a single appointment.

Showing up *just* to get an alignment is mostly just going to appeal to race drivers like on this board.

As is apparent from this thread, we tend to be both critical of the work people perform and cheap-asses about how much we spend on jobs that we can do ourselves.

Can we make 70 pages of arguing whether shops should apply backyard techniques to their service work, while also failing to pay the rent?  

Shall we apply the behavior of mismanaged, poorly trained techs to all shops and mechanics?

Wait and see!

In reply to Beer Baron :

In a larger market you could almost run an alignment shop as a "wholesale" operator . Link yourself up with a few body shops (not rushed clients) and a few major mechanical shops that don't have an alignment machine (rush jobs probably keeping your afternoons busy). Set up a flat rate for shops , they book their time by 9am for the afternoon and pay whether they have the vehicle there in time or not. Not sure if this model could cover the cost of one tech one apprentice two alignment machines and a service writer on top of insurance and rent but it probably could. 
Value added if you want to do the vehicle shuffling for the shops.

docwyte said:

$80/hour?  Man, most shops here are at least twice that and some of them (Porsche shops, not even the dealer) are three times that!  Where do you live?

Probably in a place similar to where I live. IIRC the shop I use in town charges somewhere around 80-90.

The Porsche specialist I used for the 997 charges around 190 if memory serves, and they're on the outskirts of DC.

In reply to ojannen :

Tell me about it.  On my Porsche there's a lot of little "while you're in there" jobs that you do when the engine is out.  These jobs take anywhere from 5-30 minutes to do, yet the book rate for each job is hours and hours.  I don't have a problem paying book rate to R&R the motor, but don't charge me an hour to replace the coolant reservoir tank when it takes 5 minutes while the engine's out, etc, etc.