So was I overcharged...?

The CEL on my '99 Suzuki Swift (~65K miles) started flashing.  Felt like it was running very rich or only running on three cylinders.  I took it to the same shop I've used for 30 years.   They diagnosed a coil had gone bad.   They charged $270 for the coil, $135 for the diagnostics and $56 for the installation.  Does that seem out of line?

The shop is under relatively new ownership as of a couple of years.   I know Suzuki parts are sometimes hard to get now there is no US presence, but I see coils advertised for a lot less...

When you said only running on 3 cyls, I figured it was running fine. 

In reply to John Welsh :

For the US market, the Suzukis were fours.  The Geos were threes.  

Haven't priced any Geo parts in a while, but it seems high.  Did they go with OEM? Have to order from a secondary supplier that upcharged before their shop upcharge fee? Etc?

I don't normally outsource work, beyond oil changes, so I may not be up to date. 
 

That said... 

I thought the diagnostic charge was used to eliminate the potential for the shop doing the trouble shooting for free and then having a customer then take the car home and replace the part. If the repair was completed by the shop the flat diagnostic fee was waived and the charges were based on the actual cost for the time to diagnose and repair. 
 

But I may be taking out an orifice. YMMV

Diagnosis and install price seem reasonable. Price for the part does not. 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4377681&cc=1357411&pt=7060&jsn=903

RockAuto shows a Delphi (should be OEM) coil for $67.79.

In reply to hunter47 :

Better price check would be NAPA or maybe Worldpak. It's pretty unlikely the shop is ordering from RockAuto.

NAPA lists an Echlin for $80 retail, but it would take a week for me to get one. They may have had to go to a higher priced source that had some in stock because customers are not patient.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Still seems like an insane shop markup. They could've at least asked him if he wanted the higher priced option but faster service over the standard priced option but slower service, if that's the case.

Coil seems a little high, but availability is terrible right now. So they might have only had one option, and then they mark it up. It's expensive to run a shop and prices get scrutinized because prices for parts are easily visible.

You jack in the box drink you pay 2 dollars for doesn't cost them but 10 or 12 cents.

Most shops are doing high gross but once they pay everything they aren't making much

Most places that tell you they aren't charging you diag if you fix it, are just hiding it on the back end

3x retail honestly doesn't seem that unusual for a small shop, although there are certainly cheaper ones.

No Time said:

I don't normally outsource work, beyond oil changes, so I may not be up to date. 
 

That said... 

I thought the diagnostic charge was used to eliminate the potential for the shop doing the trouble shooting for free and then having a customer then take the car home and replace the part. If the repair was completed by the shop the flat diagnostic fee was waived and the charges were based on the actual cost for the time to diagnose and repair. 
 

But I may be taking out an orifice. YMMV

When I was a service writer we always did this.

Seems reasonable to me.  Ain't nothin' free in this world.

The few times I've gone to a shop I look at it this way.  Was the price paid worth my time in troubleshooting it and swapping parts myself?  Usually the answer is yes.

hunter47 said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Still seems like an insane shop markup. They could've at least asked him if he wanted the higher priced option but faster service over the standard priced option but slower service, if that's the case.

It's an option if the shop has somewhere secure to park a car for a week while they wait. That's not always true.

I had a customer abuse us one time for our markups. See, he used to own a Jack-In-The-Box and claimed their budget tacos cost a total of 2c, including the cost of the kids putting them together.  Those are sold for (checks website) 50c. So he assumed that margins in our industry were the same 2500%, and we were being greedy by not absorbing a cost increase or charging more than the cost of raw materials for parts or something. This story is not germane to anything but it came to mind for some reason. I also have never eaten at a Jack-In-The-Box and never will now :)

In reply to Keith Tanner :

you're missing out. I survived off the tacos in college. There was a jack-in-the-box across the bridge from my college and was one of the few 24/7 spots for filling stomachs after a long night of wire harness manufacturing, welding, and general percussive maintenance of the FSAE car.

Over an hour's rate for plugging in an OBDII scanner seems a bit high to me. I've been told that same thing and walked. In my case the Uhaul rental was cheaper than letting the shop diagnose.

When I sell my hoses I Jack up the price and sell for the maximum profit I can.  Emergency service or past complaining adds more profit margin.  

When my mechanic does that I get annoyed and vow never to return.  

Fickle bunch we are.  Go figure.  

You would E36 M3 if you found out the markups on some stuff.

This little widget we make, of course its patented and there are a few tricks to actually making it work is about $30 in parts and we sell it for $269.  

A cast piece of urethane is around $30 to buy, the mold was $5k.  I sell them all day long for $650 because no one else has them.

I went on a job and after figuring out what we charged and how long we were on site, our daily rate was $3400/man/day x 5 shifts x 4 guys.  Granted it was a 12 hour shift, but dang.  Thats a lot of scratch.  

93gsxturbo said:

You would E36 M3 if you found out the markups on some stuff.

This little widget we make, of course its patented and there are a few tricks to actually making it work is about $30 in parts and we sell it for $269.  

A cast piece of urethane is around $30 to buy, the mold was $5k.  I sell them all day long for $650 because no one else has them.

I went on a job and after figuring out what we charged and how long we were on site, our daily rate was $3400/man/day x 5 shifts x 4 guys.  Granted it was a 12 hour shift, but dang.  Thats a lot of scratch.  

My wife used to get paid $120/hr to work with kids.  Majority of the time she was babysitting because the parents did not do their end of the job.

That's not the best part.  Best part is her employer would bill insurance for ~$275/hr.

You can try to justify it many ways, but $450 for a bad coil is too much.

I wish I had a 99 Swift right now

When I was in the bakery industry, low performing products had a 600% profit margin. 

Welcome to capitalism.

hunter47 said:

Diagnosis and install price seem reasonable. Price for the part does not. 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4377681&cc=1357411&pt=7060&jsn=903

RockAuto shows a Delphi (should be OEM) coil for $67.79.

This, looks like they ripped you off pretty bad on the parts cost.

Fueled by Caffeine said:

When I was in the bakery industry, low performing products had a 600% profit margin. 

I'm in the wrong industry. 

It's only high if it wasn't worth $460 to be on the road again with no hassle on your end. You've already paid it, why second guess it now?