I'm curious if I'm being overcharged or paying the current hourly labor rate. My place charges 150.00 dollars per hour. Does that sound excessive?

Thank you.

 

$175 at my dealer in CT

 

$195/hour in So California

 

I don't know your area, but I would say in most places $150 is reasonable and probably on the low end of the range for a decent euro specialist.

 

Mercedes Of Riverside, Ca 269.95 an hour

 

need to learn to do the general maintenance yourself.... I got over 20 yrs practice resurrecting and racing older Porsche. will probably limit the work on my SL55 to brakes and bolt on stuff.

good luck

 

I know what you mean porsheguy, i'm going to start doing my general maintenance myself. Did not have to worry about it for the past five years. I bought my 2008 sl 550 from carmax in 2018 and got their Maxcare extended warranty 60 months or 125,000 miles with $50.00 deductible. They paid just over $25,000 dollars in repairs in the five years. As a matter of fact i had 4 days left when they approved 5,400.00 to replace both rear struts and one month before that they replace the front and rear accumulators,lower ball joints,motor and trans mounts and they also paid for the alignment for a total of 6,200.00. Took it in to the dealer 9 times for repairs $450.00 out my pocket. Three days out of warranty my stater went out, that was the day before Thanksgiving. Over the five years it was about $17,000.00 on ABC suspension work. The problem i have for now is the headliner ratting in the back. I've read threads here on the repair for it i might do it myself. It looks like an easy fix, i hope so anyway.

 

Not worth owning an older Mercedes, especially the R230 if yiu can’t perform the work yourself. Any of the common top or suspension problems will consume quite a large percentage of what the car will sell for. These cars require lots of repairs as well.

 

I live in LA, CA., so it seems I'm on the lower end of labor costs. Performing the work myself (DIY) is out of the question.

Thank you.

 

Some of those dealer rates are laughable.

Local (and reputable) shop charges $145 / hr labor.

Most of the cars they work on are Porsche, AMG or M.

 

"These cars require lots of repairs as well."
read that during research. but the these cars are something special.

 

When they work as intended they do a nice job, unfortunately they decide to not work quite often, and usually it is to the point of not being able to operate the car.

 

saying I made a bad choice? had a BMW 645 for several years with similar afflictions...

 

Easy. Position and secure roof halfway, remove four or five hex bolts up front and start pulling the roof liner off. The clips come downward but iirc the rear clips come backwards. You will certainly make several of not all clips come loose as you pull. Re-glue the clips to the liner with two component epoxy or similar (some fast stuff and baking powder seem to do a great job).

 

Well add the ABC suspension, battery control module issues and typical battery amperage draws with this vehicle, and guaranteed convertible top issues to the BMW issues. What you essentially have done is gone from rudimentary Rube Goldberg to advanced Goldberg engineering. You better love the car.

 

Well add the ABC suspension, battery control module issues and typical battery amperage draws with this vehicle, and guaranteed convertible top issues to the BMW issues. What you essentially have done is gone from rudimentary Rube Goldberg to advanced Goldberg engineering. You better love the car.

 

yea I am an automotive masochist, but love the rides. had a number of older Porsche but in today's market I cant afford the newer models.....

$20k for a nice SL55 AMG, $50+ for a nice 911. sigh....

 

Where I live the MBZ dealerships charge about $300 an hour, and what's worse, they lie, cheat and steal. They say your car needs this, that and the other thing, at stupid costs, and upon further examination, the car needs none of those repairs. They then claim to have done a job (head gasket) for thousands and upon examination, one can visually tell the head has never been removed from the engine. The dealer also faked a vehicle inspection with a checklist showing things working fine, that did not work, proving they never even looked at the car yet charged $450 for this inspection. This all was not at just one dealership, but two different ones about 30 miles apart. Let's not even talk about what the MB dealer sis to my lawyer who knows nothing about cars, and took it to them against my good advice, they bilked him out of $14,000!
I found a local indy shop that charges about half what those dealers charge for labor, and I used them for about 4-5 years; this shop was family owned since 1968, and they are honest and take pretty good care of their customers, and have a few former MBZ techs on staff. Then I got really lucky and found another local indy shop that's owned by younger (28-30-ish) brothers who are engineers and started their own shop because they're crazy about cars. Their business has really taken off like gangbusters, due to word of mouth because they do everything right and don't overcharge people. No mis-diagnosis, no fooling around... A lot of times, mechanics don't know what they are doing and that will cost the car owner time and money. These guys rate is around 150-200 an hour. Very well worth it. They are pretty close to "masters". They're not scared of any job and have range rovers, Mercedes, Jags, Corvettes, Italian cars, you name it, all kinds of high end vehicles, and even truck fleets, do everything from maintenance to full engine/trans- out stuff. They have a couple of employees, who obviously are good too but the brothers oversee every job. Once they start on a job it is finished amazingly fast and always done skillfully. I trust them 1000 times more than I would trust any Benz dealership, that's unfortunate to say about MBZ dealers, but in my experience it's the truth. This indy shop is the exact thing that R230 owners need for those jobs the owner doesn't want to do or can't do. I do a lot of stuff on my own cars but there are things I'd rather not do, and it's actually a treat to watch the brothers work. They are really great. Whenever I'm there picking up one of my cars, I bring gifts too. LoL In the past 12 months over three vehicles, (SL55, Maserati, and GL450 SUV) I've spent about $15,000 at their shop (!!!!!!!) and if I had done all those repairs with the MBZ dealerships and Maserati dealer, it would definitely have cost me at least TWICE as much. When you find mechanics like those, treat them right!

 

tonylinc
Would that shop by any chance by in California?

 

^^^^
what he said. I have heard the same about my local MB shops. I have a good indi shop who works on my BMW and wife's Audi.

one thing to always understand is the shop rate has to cover the shop, util, insurance, taxes, equip and the tech's salary.

what I believe is important is good work at fair price.

 

Sorry, the shop is called Twin Brothers Automotive a.k.a. TB motorsports, in Bellevue, Washington

 

Thanks Tonylinc still looking

 

Thanks Frederick NL i was thinking about doing it this way