[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by AlmondJayRoM3

What you are missing is that you are paying for the mechanic’s expertise, tools, and equipment required to do a job quickly and efficiently while providing a quality product.

I only pay my dentist $300 an hour. He has all of the above plus an eight year college degree.

[Gen13 F36]

Originally Posted by silvercas

Sometimes when someone quotes a ridiculous price they don't want your business or will take it if you pay the price

This is somewhat correct.... 😂

You where given a quote, if you don't like it then go somewhere else. They got the right to set there own prices but it kinda mean tho.

[bavarianride]

Originally Posted by LA1Z24

You walked into a shop. They don't buy their parts online. They buy them from a local store that pays rent, labor etc. Not some random warehouse in the mid west.

My local indies buy from dealers at wholesale prices, and charge customers MSRPs for the parts. Online parts desks of dealers charge same wholesale prices plus shipping fees.

Some local indies are ok to charge labor only for customer-provided parts. So I usually get BMW parts from online desks, and bring to indies to install.

[toxik]

Originally Posted by bavarianride

My local indies buy from dealers at wholesale prices, and charge customers MSRPs for the parts. Online parts desks of dealers charge same wholesale prices plus shipping fees.

Some local indies are ok to charge labor only for customer-provided parts. So I usually get BMW parts from online desks, and bring to indies to install.

it's a shame how many shops don't let you bring your own parts. between the significant income loss for them, so many people waste the shops time by buying wrong parts. i know here, in the NY metro areas, a lot of shops are so busy and backed up that they simply can't afford to waste time with a car stuck on a lift because the customer provided the wrong part. it becomes easier for them to just say no to anyone that wants to bring their own parts.

[Wgosma]

Originally Posted by toxik

it's a shame how many shops don't let you bring your own parts. between the significant income loss for them, so many people waste the shops time by buying wrong parts. i know here, in the NY metro areas, a lot of shops are so busy and backed up that they simply can't afford to waste time with a car stuck on a lift because the customer provided the wrong part. it becomes easier for them to just say no to anyone that wants to bring their own parts.

I lived in Calif most of my life, Indy Euro shops were rarely accepting customer supplied parts- part of their logic was that by supplying the parts and labor they would stand 100% behind their work- customer got a warranty. I can see their point in operating this way, minimizes issues if a part happens to fail prematurely, they know and are responsible for fitting proper parts….customer assured of quality repair job- makes sense to me.

[toxik]

Originally Posted by Wgosma

I lived in Calif most of my life, Indy Euro shops were rarely accepting customer supplied parts- part of their logic was that by supplying the parts and labor they would stand 100% behind their work- customer got a warranty. I can see their point in operating this way, minimizes issues if a part happens to fail prematurely, they know and are responsible for fitting proper parts….customer assured of quality repair job- makes sense to me.

i think the warranty excuse is complete BS. i mean come on you're telling me that buying a new part from ecs or fcp euro is somehow at way higher risk of failure? that's why i'm perfectly fine with a shop saying they refuse to install used parts, but not if they're new.

the warranty excuse is a good way to not sound greedy, because the straight truth answer isn't very client-friendly. a shop doesn't want to say, yeah we don't want you to buy your own part because that's money we lose, by charging you msrp for a part we got at cost pricing. or, we don't trust your car knowledge enough to buy the correct part number. both of those would piss off most clients. where as the warranty thing comes off like you got the clients back, and it's for their own good, not the shops. this is like retail 101, in terms of up selling clients.

i'm fine with whichever route a shop goes, i don't think they're wrong either way. i will always prefer a shop that lets me bring my own parts though.

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by toxik

i think the warranty excuse is complete BS.

Of course it is. They want to make a profit on the parts. But dealers do as well.

[bavarianride]

Originally Posted by toxik

it's a shame how many shops don't let you bring your own parts. between the significant income loss for them, so many people waste the shops time by buying wrong parts. i know here, in the NY metro areas, a lot of shops are so busy and backed up that they simply can't afford to waste time with a car stuck on a lift because the customer provided the wrong part. it becomes easier for them to just say no to anyone that wants to bring their own parts.

The local trusted indies tell customers the exact part# to bring.

Some get parts from dealer wholesale desks, and pass wholesale prices to customers. Their hourly rate, or hours charges, tend to be on high side.

One tier-1 shop charges a surcharge on top of normal hourly rate when customer brings own parts.

[bavarianride]

Originally Posted by Wgosma

I lived in Calif most of my life, Indy Euro shops were rarely accepting customer supplied parts- part of their logic was that by supplying the parts and labor they would stand 100% behind their work- customer got a warranty. I can see their point in operating this way, minimizes issues if a part happens to fail prematurely, they know and are responsible for fitting proper parts….customer assured of quality repair job- makes sense to me.

BMWNA over-the-counter parts carry 2 years/unlimited miles warranty(need dealer invoice as proof), parts only, and that apply to dealer installed or indy installed.

Dealer services(and many indies) extend same coverage on labor.

My local indy only takes BMW part# from customers and charge the same hourly rates.

[Wgosma]

Originally Posted by bavarianride

BMWNA over-the-counter parts carry 2 years/unlimited miles warranty(need dealer invoice as proof), parts only, and that apply to dealer installed or indy installed.

Dealer services(and many indies) extend same coverage on labor.

My local indy only takes BMW part# from customers and charge the same hourly rates.

That's interesting- so a part you provide to your Indy shop needs to be a Genuine BMW part AND you need to procure it from BMWNA 'over the counter'…I.e. you need to buy part from an authorized BMW dealer to be assured of the 2 year warranty- is that correct?

[bavarianride]

Originally Posted by Wgosma

That's interesting- so a part you provide to your Indy shop needs to be a Genuine BMW part AND you need to procure it from BMWNA 'over the counter'…I.e. you need to buy part from an authorized BMW dealer to be assured of the 2 year warranty- is that correct?

Do note over-the-counter includes online parts desks of dealers, e.g. this one:

https://www.getbmwparts.com/warranty

[bavarianride]

Do note that online resellers are not authorized BMW dealers.

Basically the resellers buy parts from dealers and then resell, and those parts do not carry BMWNA's 2-year warranty on parts.

Some have their own warranties(e.g. fcpeuro), but those are not affiliated/backed by BMWNA.

[gameson]

My local indies charges 2x than official BMW dealer.

When i caught them do that, their excuse is that they have a bad supplier that sell them at a price that is 25% higher than the MSRP dealer price, so they have to charge 2x for profit. Lol

If they don’t want to lose me, they could have charge me what they say their actual cost (25% on top of dealer MSRP), and i would have gone on with my life, but the fact that the shop owner refused to even sell me at 25% above MSRP tells me the shop owner is being greedy and it turns me off and i decide to find a new indy. Too bad since their workers are good people and do a good job.

[bavarianride]

I notice dealer websites now mention labor of warranty work covered by BMWNA 24-month OEM parts warranty is also paid by BMWNA.

Warranty work can be done throughout US BMW dealership network.

BMWNA does reserve the right to deny claim if part is not correctly installed, so dealer-installed likely has less warranty issues than indy installed.

BMWNA also provides lifetime warranty on certain parts, e.g. shock absorbers, struts, mufflers. On those, the free labor only applies to first 24 months(although the parts-only coverage is lifetime)

[bimmer456]

It may be an easy job but you have to reset the brake sensors. You can get the parts from fcp so they're free going forward.

[adilakif]

Originally Posted by bimmer456

It may be an easy job but you have to reset the brake sensors. You can get the parts from fcp so they're free going forward.

Indy can't reset the brake sensors?

[Wgosma]

Originally Posted by adilakif

Indy can't reset the brake sensors?

I'm guessing the other poster is referring to doing a reset of brake wear mileage tracking function (Conditioned Base Service) via iDrive or 'hidden menu' function; if so that is easily done by anyone, no special diagnostic tool required.

[McGyv3r]

Originally Posted by adilakif

Very popular mechanic in this forum quoted me $834 for front pads+rotors+sensor replacement. $821 for the rear.

That seems a little high, but it also depends on the cost of living where you live. Shops have a lot of overhead to cover. For reference, I worked at a shop in Berkeley that charged $3,000 for an e90 m3 brake job using all BMW parts.

Originally Posted by adilakif

The car (2013 328i xDrive) has regular brakes. I wanted 2-Zimmerman rotors + Akebono pads which are $208 online. Did they quote me $626 labor for 2 wheel brake job?

No. Look at your quote from the shop, it brakes down parts and labor. You also forgot the cost of sensors, solvents, anti-seize, loctite, towels, gloves, set screws, single use bolts, etc.

My assumption is that they charged you ~$400 for the pads and rotors, or twice your retail price. They also buy from a distributer (Worldpac) who gives them cheaper prices than you can get. The more they buy, the cheaper their discount. They can either pass on the discount to be more competitive, or keep it for themselves to make more profit.

Part of the markup is to help with profit. It also helps to cover them if a part is defective (or perceived defective) and they have to eat the labor cost to do it twice.

Originally Posted by adilakif

The guy on YouTube changes the rotor and pads in under 10 minutes, that is including the intro and outro. Is it not reasonable to expect a mechanic to change one wheel under 30 minutes? 1 hour to change both front wheels.. So they want $626 for 1 hour of labor. What am I missing here?

I don't think I would be able to walk to the lot, pull a car in, put it on a rack, and remove the 4 wheels in 10 minutes. There is no way a youtuber is doing it in 10 minutes. You also have to grab the right tools, solvents, and parts. Being in North Jersey, they're going to have to fight with rusted and rounded bolts in addition to previous mechanic's fuckups. Once done, they're also going to give the car a quick inspection to look for other issues, then test drive it to bed the brakes. They also need to cover the overhead of the service writer.

Here's the part that's going to blow your mind. Most shops will have a similar "book time" for how long a job should take. 1.5-2 hours an axle is probably reasonable to cover any issues that might pop up. Then the mechanic will be incentivized to beat the book time, probably only taking 50% of the book time to finish the job. You still get charged the whole time, regardless of how long it actually took.

Originally Posted by adilakif

I got a quote from my local BMW dealership for $950 to replace ALL 4 rotors, pads and sensors. I don't want OEM pads because of the brake dust. I want ceramic pads which they don't offer for this price.

So take the cheap price, or pay extra for the fancy pads.

Originally Posted by adilakif

Do you know a shop that can install the parts for a reasonable price?

Maybe you should just spend the $400 for all the parts and do it yourself? As long as all your tools are less than $500, you're going to come out ahead. If you want the cheap option, that's it.

[bavarianride]

Originally Posted by adilakif

VI got a quote from my local BMW dealership for $950 to replace ALL 4 rotors, pads and sensors.

As other posters said, most dealers these days have bmw value service prices.

So go online to get the prices (of your local dealers) from bmw website, and show it to the SAs, and they cannot charge you more than those prices.

I tried to grab prices from some NJ dealers, pads + sensors should be $250, and pads + sensors + rotors $450-ish.

[jnj2455]

https://rsweuro.com/

I haven't used them in a while but they charged fairly for DSG flushes which I knew VW/Audi dealerships love wringing you dry for.

Brake jobs aren't overly difficult but will require you to have the right tools and patience. I guess DIY is off the table for one reason or another? I've had a hell of a time breaking the caliper bolts free before, as well as pushing the piston back into the caliper so, I get it.