New carb on a Honda small Engine

[jnesmith]

I took my pressure washer into my neighborhood small engine repair shop. It apparently needed a new carb. $95 for the carb, and supposedly 1 hour to replace it, at $60 per hour.

I don't know anything about small engine repair, but 1 hour to change a carb on a small engine and $60 per hour both seem high. If others agree, I intend to make an issue of it. However, I need some sort of reference, or some stats regarding this sort of repair to make a credible arguement.

Any suggestions, or comments?

Thanks as always.

[Jim Boyd]

If they are using a flat rate book, that sounds about right. Not sure about the labor rate but it does not sound too far off.

[Warren]

Both costs sound right. The shop time is a even little lower than here.

[jnesmith]

OK. Thanks for the feedback.

Looks like I'm in the wrong business.

[Stick]

seems like good money, but like any business, you have to consider overhead, special tools, manuals, and such. That's a pretty reasonable shop rate actually.

[vaking]

I also would not be surprised if labor smallest denomination is 1 hour. Like with your cell phone - 5 secs gets charged like 1 minute.

[Crash2510]

seems like a lot of money for 2-4 bolts to remove and replace with the new.

[Crash2510]

also a good guess is to say the carb price was marked up 20%

[LCHIEN]

also a good guess is to say the carb price was marked up 20%

That's probably true.
Repair shops generally get a good discount from the parts warehouse
and they mark it up, it ends up costing you the same whether you buy from the warehouse/dealer directly or thru the repair shop.

In a way that's fair because the repair shops buy in volume and usually have less fuss per order (e.g. returns, trying to figure out what part to buy, etc.)