Quote:
Originally Posted by Tcoat
I can not for one second imagine enough people willing to pay $50 an hour to work on their own car to even run at 25%.
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They aren't paying $50/hr. They are paying $40/hr with a lift or $30 with no lift. The $50/hr is ARPU (average revenue per unit). But the median income in this area is quite high so those prices are perfectly reasonable for this area. The parking garages that charge $60-100 per car to park at the Seahawks games are some of the first ones to fill up. People who work downtown commonly pay $300-400/month for parking memberships just so they can park downtown to work. Spending $50 to do something your dealership is going charge $300 for seems pretty reasonable. The standard shop rate for labor is $100/hr in many shops and dealerships it's 110-140/hr. Shit just costs more in the PacNW, almost on par with SanFran.
If I was in Texas or Utah then yes, $20-25/hr makes sense. Also if this was a "bring your own tools" type of shop then I would charge less (less overhead) and more $$ opportunity for tool rental. But one of the target demographics are folks that don't own a bunch of tools (apt dwellers) so I think it's better to be fully outfitted and build that into the cost.
Compare these 2. One's in Kirkland (expensive city) and the other is in Kent (less expensive city). Both seems to be making it work. The one in Kent I believe is planning to open a second location too.
http://stewsgarage.com/ (Kirkland)
http://selfservegarage.com/ (kent)