That’s dealer mechanics, dealer mechanics don’t fix cars, they replace parts, often whole systems at once*, and the manufacturer tells them how long it must take to replace a part and for some marques even which part must be at fault for whatever symptoms. Seriously, factory repair manuals are INFURIATING to read sometimes as a shade-tree mechanic working on my own cars.
Independent dealers and outright third party shops that don’t specialize in any particular marque, will often charge you by the actual time taken, and the mechanic will get paid for time spent working. They’ll also be better at diagnosing the actual issue because they play by their own experience not a set of rules and might help you save money by replacing only what needs to be replaced.
* Good luck getting your auto transmission transmission solenoids replaced at the dealer. What do you mean 500€ for a set of solenoids? No, if it shifts wrong, the transmission is broken, it’s 21915€! And you’ll be paying twice as much per hour compared to the actual automatic transmission specialists who will replace the parts that need replacing and might not even drop the transmission. Also what do you mean transmission fluid change? It’s lifetime fluid, it’ll never go bad!
(variations of this transmission are used in like 20 different marques, GM’s 8 speed is also a variation of it, etc, I just used Audi because I could easily check their dealer pricing on a random model’s part code for the ZF 8HP and yes, a set of solenoids does cost under a grand even for such a modern transmission, with genuine ZF parts. I don’t know what the car manufacturers try to tell people on the 8HP, but for the 6HP most marques said the fluid is lifetime. ZF says it’s 5 years or 80 000 km between fluid + filter changes for 6HP. I wonder who knows these transmissions better)
Oh and for the price check to get a transmission part code, I used a model that’s depreciated enough that they now cost about 10k.
That’s dealer mechanics, dealer mechanics don’t fix cars, they replace parts, often whole systems at once*, and the manufacturer tells them how long it must take to replace a part and for some marques even which part must be at fault for whatever symptoms. Seriously, factory repair manuals are INFURIATING to read sometimes as a shade-tree mechanic working on my own cars.
Independent dealers and outright third party shops that don’t specialize in any particular marque, will often charge you by the actual time taken, and the mechanic will get paid for time spent working. They’ll also be better at diagnosing the actual issue because they play by their own experience not a set of rules and might help you save money by replacing only what needs to be replaced.
* Good luck getting your auto transmission transmission solenoids replaced at the dealer. What do you mean 500€ for a set of solenoids? No, if it shifts wrong, the transmission is broken, it’s 21915€! And you’ll be paying twice as much per hour compared to the actual automatic transmission specialists who will replace the parts that need replacing and might not even drop the transmission. Also what do you mean transmission fluid change? It’s lifetime fluid, it’ll never go bad!
(variations of this transmission are used in like 20 different marques, GM’s 8 speed is also a variation of it, etc, I just used Audi because I could easily check their dealer pricing on a random model’s part code for the ZF 8HP and yes, a set of solenoids does cost under a grand even for such a modern transmission, with genuine ZF parts. I don’t know what the car manufacturers try to tell people on the 8HP, but for the 6HP most marques said the fluid is lifetime. ZF says it’s 5 years or 80 000 km between fluid + filter changes for 6HP. I wonder who knows these transmissions better)
Oh and for the price check to get a transmission part code, I used a model that’s depreciated enough that they now cost about 10k.