fair price so far ya reckon????? now with pics

[andyae85]

well after spending over two months trying to sort out mechanics etc to do me an after hours cash job on my 4age conversion and finding i was getting no where due to everyone being to busy i simply got sick of waiting and decided to take it into my local garage to get it done, k well their intial quote was $1900 (excluding doing me a 2 1/4 inch exhaust) all up and that was taking my new motor out of the mr2 and taking the 3a out etc and botling it up into the levin, so i said id bring the car in with the 4age bolted up and simply get them to modifly the loom, inlet manifold and water lines and get the car running and engine serviced, the guys were sweet with this and said it would be little over a grand which i wasnt happy with but i just wanted it finished so i didnt really mind, anyway the car has been in the garage for nealry 3 weeks now and theyve done the manifolds, finished the water lines and just finished the wiring, and today the guy told me that the labour so far is up to $1700 already and they still got a few more hours of labour to go and they still have to do the exhaust and give the motor a service, please tell me if im wrong but dosent $1700 just seem a little bit steep for the amount of work theyve done? and its only gonna get steeper cos they havent finished yet they said today the conversion is a lot harder than they first thought and yet ive read here etc that its such a straight forward job

could i please have your opinions on this?

cheers andy

[Jazza]

Not for an engine conversion. Id say its actually ok. I got a price to put my 3sgte into my curren (and run it on current gearbox, no modifications needed at all) and the quote was just over 2 grand.

NB: It was merely to get a retrospective price on what it would cost me if i got someone to do it, i didnt, and wont, pay 2k for it

[Looonie]

*sigh* Mechanics are ripoffs

But unfortunately if you can't do it yourself, you gotta pay...

Best idea would have been to do what you could do yourself, the remove the bits you needed modified and taken them somewhere to get them done... so a bit more running around on your part, but less cost...

Leave it at a mechanics and they'll charge you $45+ per hour they lay a finger on the car, which is probably going to be at least an hour for each part they remove, then another hours labour to take that part to a workshop, who will then charge their price to modify the part, the mechanics will then put around 20% markup on top of that price, plus another hours labour to retrieve the part, another hour to re-install the part...

You start to see how it all kinda adds up?

So in my opinion yes its expensive for what they've done, but alas you took your car into a workshop and said "get it running" so thats what they do...

Also you probably didn't get a written quote from them in the first place so you've got no backing to dispute the amount they charge you...

[Mr Revhead]

45 an hour is cheap.

i reckon $1700 will be about 25-30 hours, so yeah, fair price

[andyae85]

yea na i see how it all adds up ay, but its annoying when its getting round this sort of money ya no, especailly when ya trying to save up to upgrade the gearbox and diff etc etc, well i do sort of have a written quote for them but that was when they were gonna remove the motors and i said id do that myself and they said that would save a lot of time and money and it would be a littlle bit over a grand, but i didnt get that bit in writing

[crnkin]

yeah, fair price sorry man.

Always get quotes in writing. But, hopefully theyll do a good job, and youll have a nice ae85.5 to drive round in. keep saving!

[Mr Revhead]

yeah if your a real car guy the money doesnt matter.... its all about the love

[Pies]

yeah if your a real car guy the money doesnt matter.... its all about the love

is it in yet?

[Bling]

next time, organise a rangiora toyspeed meet, you'd be suprised who might turn up and help out

[cr1mnl]

sounds ok 2 me. i had to pay 2 grand just to get a link ecu, my engine and loom rewired after i was quoted 8 hundred i told them to stop if when the bill reached 1 grand so guys rings me and says hes nearly done so i say sweet just do it. go in to pick up the car. 2k please. fuk i was spewing but couldnt do anything as they had my car! dont ever go to milford auto electrical in glenfield! and to make it worse wen i get around to starting the car the fuel pump is wired wrong, so i fix that then car overheats as the fan relay is wired wrong!

[crnkin]

putting them puppies on the blacklist

2g for a 300 buck job, screw that

[JT]

Thats what happens when you get a workshop to do the whole lot, they don't specialise in doing this conversion so they don't know the little things we take for granted. Takes them time to work stuff out and and like looonie says they charge an hour mininum to touch the car.

What do they still have to do with the exhaust and what exactly are they going to do for an 'engine service? I'd ask they get the engine running sweet and tell them you'll sort these things out yourself.

Dispute the bill. If they told you 1900 including the engine swap and just over 1K for the current job there's no way you should have to pay double the current quote.

[AE85coupe]

thats cheap man

very cheap

you can't expect a full engine conversion to be any cheaper really

[JT]

thats cheap man

very cheap

you can't expect a full engine conversion to be any cheaper really

He changed the engine, just got the workshop to hook it up. Not the worst price I've heard but hardly cheap.

[andyae85]

thats cheap man

very cheap

you can't expect a full engine conversion to be any cheaper really

hmmm yea your probably right, but it aint quite that cheap i paid $1000 for motor and all parts needed, then the garage is gonna charge a bit over a grand to 2 grand for all their labour, then $300 to run a new exhaust then another $300 or whatever it is for a cert quite a bit when your 17 and a school student with only an after school job but as mr revhead said its all about the love i just with i was in a better financial position lol, o well at least ill have 4age power

cheers guys

[andyae85]

yea well i got my car back yesterday and the bill for the work the garage did came to $3900 and that was with them taking 15hours labour off the price

[soven]

just for information sake from the cga:
"High price with no quote or estimate

eg, You ask a mechanic to fix the car's radiator. When you collect the car you receive a bill for $450. You think this is too high for the work that has been done. You can ask the mechanic for an itemised account showing the cost of parts, labour, any other charges and GST. Then ask two or three other garages what they would charge for the same work. Average their prices out – this is the amount you should pay for the work done on your car.
"

[snwtoy]

yea well i got my car back yesterday and the bill for the work the garage did came to $3900 and that was with them taking 15hours labour off the price

Christ. What was their hourly rate? At $50 an hour that's 78 hours, which is a solid 2 weeks work by one person, 8 hours per day! There's no way it should take that long

[JT]

That is an insult. If you want me to help out, take a look at what they've done and even go down there with ya flick me a pm.

[Cakky]

is $675 a fair price for a waterpump replacing? also put new cambelt in but they had to remove it either way to do the waterpump.

just feels a bit steep, maybe im wrong..