The Rate Card, With the Arithmetic Behind Every Band

What are the posted labor rates?

Four rates, by discipline. Body and paint is $210 per hour, mechanical and electrical is $260 per hour, diagnostics with scan and programming is $285 per hour, and detail is $95 per hour. A repair order shows which rate each line was billed at.

Mixed jobs carry mixed rates, and they should. Pulling a slide room to replace a gear pack is mechanical hours. Refinishing the fascia that came off to reach it is body hours. A single blended rate would hide that split and make a line item impossible to audit, which is the opposite of what a repair order is for.

How are materials calculated?

Materials are calculated per hour of the work that consumes them rather than guessed at as a percentage. Paint supplies are $55 per paint hour, body supplies are $5 per body hour, and a $45 hazmat and disposal charge applies where chemicals, refrigerant or LP is involved.

Per hour materials are the honest version of a number that most shops bury. Sixty hours of refinish on a full body coach genuinely consumes many times the primer, sealer, base, clear, tape, paper and filtered air of a two hour spot repair, and a flat percentage of the labor total would either overcharge the small job or undercharge the large one.

What markup applies to parts, and what is taxed?

Parts carry 100 percent markup at or under $100 and 35 percent above that threshold. Sales tax of 7.75 percent applies to parts and materials. Labor is not taxed. Special order parts require a full deposit at the time of order.

The two tier markup exists because a ten dollar clip and a nine thousand dollar sidewall panel cost roughly the same to source, receive, inspect and warehouse. Special order parts require a 100 percent non refundable deposit at the time of order. That is not a preference. A discontinued coach panel cut and shipped to order cannot be returned to anyone.

Tax applies only to the parts and materials portion of an order. Labor is not taxed. On a labor heavy job such as structural straightening, that distinction is worth a noticeable amount, and it is the reason a repair order separates the two rather than showing one total.

What do the published bands mean?

Each band is a labor hour range at a posted rate, plus the rest of the arithmetic. A band marked open ended means the upper figure is a floor on the top of the range rather than a ceiling, which happens on structural and restoration work where the scope genuinely has no natural upper bound.

Reading a band correctly means reading its hours. Minor collision repair and major collision repair are not two opinions about the same job; they are five to forty hours and forty to three hundred hours of work. Where a specific vehicle lands inside its band is decided by teardown, and the number moves once, with documentation, rather than repeatedly.

What deposits, surcharges and minimums apply?

Deposits scale with the size of the job, a card surcharge applies only above a threshold, and the minimum repair order is $500. Minimum repair order. Below that figure the setup, teardown and documentation cost more than the repair. Every one of those figures is posted here rather than mentioned at the counter when an owner is already committed.

A 3.5 percent surcharge applies to credit card payments over $1,000. That is a pass through of merchant fees on high ticket work. Cash, check and every major card are accepted, and paying by check or transfer on a large job avoids that line entirely.

• A 50 percent deposit is due at authorization on any job over $2,000.
• An additional 25 percent is due when parts arrive on any job over $10,000.
• The final balance is due at pickup. No vehicle leaves the property until it is paid in full.

What does it cost to find out what is wrong?

Two figures, both credited back. A written repair plan is $150, applied as a credit against authorized repair. In depth diagnostic time is one hour at $285, also applied as a credit. Assessment on a large vehicle is real work: hours of teardown, tap testing, moisture metering and measurement.

Charging for that and crediting it back is the honest arrangement, and it is chosen deliberately over the alternative. A shop that gives assessment away has to recover those hours somewhere, and it recovers them by writing thin scopes fast. Owners then pay for it twice: once in a supplement and once in a delay.

In what order is a repair order built?

Labor first, then materials, then parts at markup, then tax on the parts and materials, then deposits against the total. Following that order in the same sequence every time is what makes two repair orders comparable, and it is what lets an owner rebuild a figure with a calculator instead of taking it on faith.

1. 01Labor is billed at the posted rate for the discipline the work falls under. Body and paint is $210 per hour, mechanical and electrical is $260 per hour, diagnostics is $285 per hour, and detail is $95 per hour.
2. 02Materials are calculated on every repair order. Paint supplies are $55 per paint hour and body supplies are $5 per body hour. A $45 hazmat and disposal charge applies when chemicals, refrigerant or LP is involved.
3. 03Parts carry a 100 percent markup at or under $100 and 35 percent above it.
4. 04Sales tax of 7.75 percent applies to parts and materials. Labor is not taxed.
5. 05A 50 percent deposit is due at authorization on any job over $2,000.
6. 06An additional 25 percent is due when parts arrive on any job over $10,000.
7. 07The final balance is due at pickup. No vehicle leaves the property until it is paid in full.
8. 08A 3.5 percent surcharge applies to credit card payments over $1,000. That is a pass through of merchant fees on high ticket work.
9. 09$500 Minimum repair order. Below that figure the setup, teardown and documentation cost more than the repair.