Pete Robertson Auto Service Inc 5198 Lynch Street Extension Jackson, MS Pete passed away a few years ago, his son owns the shop now. He built h is shop when he came home from Vietnam. They are very honest folks and they charge a fair price for the work they do.
Things have not changed all that much. You can get 4 wheels none now for as low as $500.
I'm telling you all, it was not worth it and he knew it. And he said from his pov, it wasn't worth it. It didn't depend on anything he didn't know. It's not a 20,000 car, it was a $2800 car and a used engine would have all the same chance of breaking that the first engine did. He said the rebuilt engines were rebuilt with better parts than the original, but it's still 6500. So it wasn't worth it and he knew it.
It's not a manual per say. It's the cost/quote/job bids/expected billable hours modules present in atleast two software packages I know of that provide automechanics intimate details on your car/truck/suv so that they can make repairs the right way. The software database information is provided by the various manufacturers of your ride, so that the repairs are proper and right for your make/model.
I have alldata and Mitchell myself; which is what most of the shops use (one or both) to work on your car and properly diagnose issues. It also tells them how much time each job they need to perform on your car should take. Billable hours, that is.
Some shops will go ahead and charge you the market value for the repairs based on the full amount of hours the software told them it should take, even if they were able to do it a couple of hours faster. Others do not.
The software tells them how long a job should take from start to finish, yes. it's upto the shop itself though if they want to go ahead and bill you for the full amount of hours or not.
The same places the autoshops who make use of the software can, but, expect to pay some serious money for the software and have plenty of storage space available to contain the database. Or, you can opt for the online version that's subscription based. You can access it from anywhere you have an internet connection and compatible browser.
If you feel that you're being cheated, and, it sounds like you feel that way, I'd suggest taking your vehicle to another repair shop and see how they treat you in so far as billable time goes for the repairs you request/need performed.
A flatrate amount most likely isn't in paper manuals, but the time it should take a qualified mechanic to do the repair is. As the repair cost varies from shop to shop and location to location. The shop owner sets the hourly rate, but, the software tells them how many hours this or that job should take to complete.
It doesn't provide a flat rate, it provides the time it should take a qualified mechanic to do the repair. The shop sets the price they charge per hour.
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