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Americas Getting Rip off by my dealer

The hourly rate has very little to do with what the guy doing the work is getting paid.
Your comment seems apropos of nothing with what I was pointing out. The hourly compensation package for my employees is currently 62% of the rate. We do industrial electrical maintenance, and the % was different from when I managed a plant of machinists, but, even then the rate was the variable that would make or break us and seemed significant to me. And yes, that is the negotiated rate unskilled broom pushers have negotiated. 7.25 is the US legal minimum, but I don't think burger flippers in a tiny town get that anymore. It ought to be around 12, last I ran the numbers a couple years ago.
 
No, not as yet but since there are a Bentley Rolls dealer I am get myself ready
My "dealer" is a Bentley establishment - >3 hrs away. I'm planning on a more local BMW independent shop familiar with the engine and 4x4s to do the 1st Check Up. They already did the oil change. I'll plan on driving further and northward if any warranty work needs done in the near future. Quality is more important than distance. Hoping a closer dealership arrives in next 2 yrs given the popularity of the "G" (or Ineos gets super smart and embraces the KISS principle and lets in smart independent established reputation mechanic shops!!)
 
Here is what my dealer told me i didn't get a chance to post it before.

I absolutely hear you on that. Unfortunately I don’t have INEOS techs so at the present moment I have to charge based on what my rolls technicians times cost. If you want to just buy the roof I completely understand we don’t have to install.




 
Here is what my dealer told me i didn't get a chance to post it before.

I absolutely hear you on that. Unfortunately I don’t have INEOS techs so at the present moment I have to charge based on what my rolls technicians times cost. If you want to just buy the roof I completely understand we don’t have to install.
Luckily their Rolls Royce technicians are Ineos trained now... I understand what they're saying though, the technicians are hired at a certain pay rate, somewhat dictated by what the shop's labor rate is, and just because they add a new brand, those technicians still get paid at their previously agreed hourly rate, which means the new brand's shop labor rate matches the old brand. This continues until they get enough business to hire dedicated technicians for their Ineos customers
 
Luckily their Rolls Royce technicians are Ineos trained now... I understand what they're saying though, the technicians are hired at a certain pay rate, somewhat dictated by what the shop's labor rate is, and just because they add a new brand, those technicians still get paid at their previously agreed hourly rate, which means the new brand's shop labor rate matches the old brand. This continues until they get enough business to hire dedicated technicians for their Ineos customers
What you're saying makes sense, but it's a shit reality for folks who have to use that dealer. What makes this worse is that our hands are, for all intents and purposes, geographically bound.
 
Seems easy enough for multi-brand dealerships to hire dedicated Ineos techs at a lower rate. Customers aren’t going to tolerate paying Bentley prices for BMW work (which is also a premium). I think in the long run dealerships who manage their service fees this way will ultimately tarnish their reputation…no one trusts dealers and mechanics as it is.
 
I don't think the technicians between Rolls and Ineos have a pay delta. This is a service management decision that if their shop gross profit after hourly rate is 260.00 bucks an hour, they expect to make 260.00 bucks for an hour, period. I find end customers look at companies as one entity without fully realizing that internally, service and sales are two entities with differing often conflicting profit motives. I cant even tell you how many times as a return customer I've spoon fed deals to the sales staff of generator suppliers, only to have some unknown service manager throw a wrench in the deal by arbitrarily upping rates, or treating the customer like shit. I get that every division has profit targets, but, if service tanks sales, they don't seem to comprehend, they eventually won't have a job either. Sometimes its outright dumbfounding.
 
I didn’t realize the shop rate affected the individual pay of the mechanic. I would have thought that at a high end dealer, they would receive an annual salary, so it wouldn’t matter if the guy was working on a Bentley or Honda.
 
I didn’t realize the shop rate affected the individual pay of the mechanic. I would have thought that at a high end dealer, they would receive an annual salary, so it wouldn’t matter if the guy was working on a Bentley or Honda.
Mechanics are compensated, and you pay, by book time. So, if the book says its a 9 hr repair, and they do it in 5, they get paid 9 and you are invoiced 9. That's why getting some unknown gremlins at some places is shoddy. Who wants paid 30/hr to drive around looking for a mystery issue, when you can crank a wrench and make double if you're good?

And yea, your car may be done that day, but they aren't calling you in 5 hrs because if you can do math the typical person will question the charge.
 
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I didn’t realize the shop rate affected the individual pay of the mechanic.
It doesn't - mechanics negotiate an hourly rate with the shop.

I would have thought that at a high end dealer, they would receive an annual salary, so it wouldn’t matter if the guy was working on a Bentley or Honda.
As Zimm said, that's not at all how the automotive industry works in the US.

Mechanics look to bill as many hours in a week as possible by being efficient (and cutting corners) and completing as many jobs as possible. It's not unheard of for a good tech to bill 80-100 hours at book rate per week.

This model is good for mechanics, good for shops - and usually not great, but not horrible for consumers. The exception would be if a job takes longer, you still only pay the book rate. Though they'll probably try and hit you for a diagnostic fee.
 
Mechanics look to bill as many hours in a week as possible by being efficient (and cutting corners) and completing as many jobs as possible. It's not unheard of for a good tech to bill 80-100 hours at book rate per week.

This model is good for mechanics, good for shops - and usually not great, but not horrible for consumers. The exception would be if a job takes longer, you still only pay the book rate. Though they'll probably try and hit you for a diagnostic fee.
And with the pluses comes the minuses, there are weeks where techs will be knocking out 90+hrs of work in a normal 40hr work week, and then there are others where the service department will be slow and they'll barely scrape 20hrs in a week. The shop I used to work at was co-founded by a dealer tech, and thus from the start we always paid our techs hourly instead of flat rate; that way if they were there for 40hrs, they get 40hrs whether they are turning a wrench or sitting around without a car in their bay watching YouTube videos. You'd be surprised how quickly techs who have worked at a dealer for 5-10 years will jump to that model instead of flat rate, even at a pay cut, to get the consistent pay check and don't slack on their work ethic at all
 
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