Research carried out by automotive specialist, Warranty Direct, reveals that the DIY jobs of yesteryear are now not only almost impossible to carry out at home, but collectively cost motorists millions in garage bills.
The warranty provider’s annual study of garage labour rates shows that an hour of a professional technician’s time costs £96 on average, but soars to more than £200 for some car brands.
With specialist tools and diagnostic equipment now required to carry out some basic tasks, changing a front headlamp on the humble Renault Clio now takes a professional mechanic an astonishing 96 minutes.
Duncan McClure Fisher, managing director of Warranty Direct, said: “The days of changing oil, filters and replacing light bulbs on the driveway are fast becoming a thing of the past – in some cases, they already are. New, more complicated technologies on cars are placing even more pressure on already strained household budgets.”
Revealed in Warranty Direct’s analysis of the UK’s best-selling models from 2012, fitting a new headlamp on a BMW 1 Series will take an hour, while a simple oil and filter change for a Mercedes C-Class will now take just a few minutes shy of 60 minutes.
It’s a far cry from the days when enthusiastic drivers could save money by being ‘hands-on’ with their motors.
Replacing a headlamp on a 1994 Audi A4 cost £6.12 for the bulb and took approximately 10 minutes. Today, on an equivalent model, it not only requires the purchase of a whole light cluster with a RRP of £21.56 but also 45 minutes of a trained technician’s time.
Even the more confident DIYer can be left stumped, with specialist tools required to remove and replace oil filters. This job on a 1985 Mercedes 190 cost £27.03, whereas the 2012 Mercedes C180 leaves you with a £70 bill for oil and replacement filter, plus just over two hours of labour.
The advancement of automotive electronics also makes brake pad replacement harder, with calipers on some modern cars requiring a diagnosis machine that only the manufacturer has access to. And, in 1980, a game motorist would swap the timing belt on their Ford Escort in less than an hour – the same job today on a Focus requires almost three hours in a garage.
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