How much are garages charging?

[james butler]

I saw the change during my working life, when I started with Rover in 1980 they carried enough materials on site to build cars for 6 - 8 weeks without a parts delivery, when I retired a few years ago from JLR they could only run for a few hours without a parts delivery.

same
its quite entertaining when theres a part defect and all have to be removed with no further production until new delivery arrives
yup you saved loads there didnt you
still makes for great overtime for the rework lads

 

[Morris]

I saw the change during my working life, when I started with Rover in 1980 they carried enough materials on site to build cars for 6 - 8 weeks without a parts delivery, when I retired a few years ago from JLR they could only run for a few hours without a parts delivery.

My dad was parts storeman for Protheroes garage in Market Harborough back in the 60's and 70's. In the stores was a massive array of parts going back to the 30's. Sometime in the early 70's it was decided to "rationalise" the stock i.e. throw most of it away. My dad was gutted and tried to save as much of the old stuff as he could. This is how he ended up with a garage full of stuff he couldn't identify and couldn't find homes for as he had hoped. He did re-home some of it but some ended up with me and I ended up skipping it because I also could not re-home it.
I used to help with stock taking in the school holidays and Dick Protheroe would pay me personally. It was a disproportionately large amount for the work and my age.
Dick Protheroe

The name behind the race: Dick Protheroe | GRR

Members' Meeting's Protheroe Cup takes its name from Dick Protheroe, one of the last true gentleman racers and a man renowned for preparing and campaigning Jaguar sportscars with a mix of engineering rigour and fearless commitment...

www.goodwood.com

 

[Erie Fred]

I saw the change during my working life, when I started with Rover in 1980 they carried enough materials on site to build cars for 6 - 8 weeks without a parts delivery, when I retired a few years ago from JLR they could only run for a few hours without a parts delivery.

Yes, i have heard from truckers that deliver parts for final assembly plants (mostly Ford)
They say that have a very short window in which to back their loaded trailer into a certain dock.
IIRC 15-30 minutes was the time.
How much time they got from when they were loaded, to get it to the destination
sounded very tight as well.

 

[Robotstar5]

Yes, i have heard from truckers that deliver parts for final assembly plants (mostly Ford)
They say that have a very short window in which to back their loaded trailer into a certain dock.
IIRC 15-30 minutes was the time.
How much time they got from when they were loaded, to get it to the destination
sounded very tight as well.

The logistics company that delivers to site has a big warehouse near the factory which various suppliers feed into so the timed deliveries to the factory are only a couple of miles away to reduce the effects of weather, road conditions etc.

 

[Erie Fred]

The logistics company that delivers to site has a big warehouse near the factory which various suppliers feed into so the timed deliveries to the factory are only a couple of miles away to reduce the effects of weather, road conditions etc.

IIRC these were from Detroit/cleveland engine plants going to Texas.
If they didn't get the engines within the window, the line shut down.

 

[Smallfry]

My dad was parts storeman for Protheroes garage in Market Harborough back in the 60's and 70's. In the stores was a massive array of parts going back to the 30's. Sometime in the early 70's it was decided to "rationalise" the stock i.e. throw most of it away. My dad was gutted and tried to save as much of the old stuff as he could. This is how he ended up with a garage full of stuff he couldn't identify and couldn't find homes for as he had hoped. He did re-home some of it but some ended up with me and I ended up skipping it because I also could not re-home it.
I used to help with stock taking in the school holidays and Dick Protheroe would pay me personally. It was a disproportionately large amount for the work and my age.
Dick Protheroe

The name behind the race: Dick Protheroe | GRR

Members' Meeting's Protheroe Cup takes its name from Dick Protheroe, one of the last true gentleman racers and a man renowned for preparing and campaigning Jaguar sportscars with a mix of engineering rigour and fearless commitment...

www.goodwood.com

Vauxhall dealer where I worked in late seventies was the same. They had stuff going back to the war, and probably before. Air raid shelter was the boiler room underground.
Panelwork and chrome for PA and later Crestas, F model Victor, Velox and ever older, on shelves and racks that went up to a high ceiling, disappearing into the gloom above the low wattage bulbs in shades hanging from above. Plus many shelves of smaller parts. Old Bedford stuff also, even axles. Plus of course the more current stuff.
I didn't have the interest then though. When they closed down in the mid eighties, I saw all this stuff being flattened into 16 yard RoRo skips with an excavator.

Criminal

 

[m_c]

Add to that rarely-used special tools.

I have lots of timing tools only used once for one specific job, injector pullers, special hydraulic pullers, ball joint press tools, etc.

Even the cheaper end of timing tools can be ~£70 for one engine, makes a dent in your profit when you need to buy it for the job.

Even special sockets, i have loads of them, some being £50+ each.

Special tools has been a hot topic at work this week.

Needed to change a cracked upper sump pan on a V6 Sprinter, which involves removing the rear crank seal and housing.
Genuine seal doesn't come with an installer, so thought we'd cheat and order an aftermarket seal as they usually do, but it didn't and that took an extra day to find out.
Eventually got the Merc instructions to get the part number for the proper tool, to only discover we had one sat on the shelf, which nobody knew about, even the oldest member of staff can't even remember anyone ever changing a rear crank seal.
Went to fit it, and because Merc have changed from a pressed steel housing to a cast housing, you also need new longer bolts, which the dealer parts failed to mention, and they don't stock them.

So 4 days later, the van is still stuck on the ramp.

And then to add to the woes, somebody fitted a new Bosch starter to a Sprinter a couple weeks ago, which got recovered in two hours into it's first shift back on the road.
Starter motor burnt out while trying to get it running again, and turns out it had been rubbing on the drive plate as the nose cone is wrong (starter was labelled with the correct part number, but physically different from the other one in stock)
Drive plate looked OK apart from a few scuff marks, but would only idle very roughly and die as soon as you try revving it.
We noticed a pool of ATF under it this morning, and suspect the drive plate has distorted/cracked, and damaged the torque converter/gearbox input.

Regional manager asked our workshop planner how quickly he could get somebody to take the gearbox out it, and was quickly reminded there's already one stuck on a ramp with no gearbox in it, another outside with a seized engine, and we're heading towards 4 week behind scheduled work due to lack of staff.

And a couple other managers managed to upset our parts guy that much, that he's now retiring next month. He was going to retire next month anyway, but had agreed to delay retiring until they could get a new workshop manager in place before finding a replacement for parts and give time to do a proper handover.
One of the managers in question got a good 15 minute ear bashing from our parts guy, as they'd blamed him for stock levels being wrong, which is caused by a known issue with the parts system.
Then when the regional manager appeared, he got a few truths, which resulted in the head of fleet being called to deal with it.

At least the motortrade an be quite entertaining, and there'll be more overtime coming up.

 

[Beeezer]

My dad was parts storeman for Protheroes garage in Market Harborough back in the 60's and 70's. In the stores was a massive array of parts going back to the 30's. Sometime in the early 70's it was decided to "rationalise" the stock i.e. throw most of it away. My dad was gutted and tried to save as much of the old stuff as he could. This is how he ended up with a garage full of stuff he couldn't identify and couldn't find homes for as he had hoped. He did re-home some of it but some ended up with me and I ended up skipping it because I also could not re-home it.
I used to help with stock taking in the school holidays and Dick Protheroe would pay me personally. It was a disproportionately large amount for the work and my age.
Dick Protheroe

The name behind the race: Dick Protheroe | GRR

Members' Meeting's Protheroe Cup takes its name from Dick Protheroe, one of the last true gentleman racers and a man renowned for preparing and campaigning Jaguar sportscars with a mix of engineering rigour and fearless commitment...

www.goodwood.com

A chap I know worked there in the 90s and still does mots for a local garage.