RE: Need Advice Quickly, Please --Man hours for Clutch job

["Doss Donaho" <ddonaho@xxxxxx>]

My understanding is that they all have these books, even the mom and pops.
The reputable shop will charge the book hours even if it took the mechanic
2x.
Conversely they will charge the book rate if it actually takes half the
time.
A friend of a friend who is a good mechanic at a mom and pop
(non-dealership) shop hasn't had a good day until he bills 30 "book" hours.

You're not going to get much help from this defense, in my opinion.  Very
few shops are going to back down on the book hours, they couldn't keep any
mechanics if they did.
Now if they charged you the hours for a different car than yours (in which
the job takes longer), you might have a chance, but not much of one since
you already paid them.  You could try to call another dealership and get
them to give you a price and nail down the hours, or you might try calling
BMWNA directly.  I'd be interested in knowing if they will give you that
info?

The best and worst thing about what you've learned is that the car was most
likely driven pretty hard.
Usually (particularly if it was on a track) spirited drivers do do regular
maintenance.
I believe that a BMW properly maintained and driven real hard is better off
than one driven easy and not maintained.
In other words, you bought a car that was built to take it, and probably got
the maintenance it needed.

Doss Donaho
86 535i (not driven hard enough the first 60k, but I'm fixing that :)


....
When I was going to my Toyota dealer with my 4X4 and they were doing
estimates, they had a book that listed how many hours is required for every
possible job done on their car/truck. It was precise at 1/10 hr for a
specific job.  I'm sure BMW has that kind of book. If someone on the list
has acces to that information, it would be nice to tell us what BMW
suggests for a clutch change. If it's lower, you could argue that the
mechanic was not fast, or well trained and took more time than an
experienced mechanic etc etc.
...

Cheers.
Michel Drainville
91 318ic

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