OCR Text |
Show MAKE QUiDiC HI CHEAPREPMRS Repairmen Cannot Tell How Much a Job Is Going to Cost Owner. To hasten progress In the line of speeding up repair work and thereby help repairer und car owner alike the time charges for repair work to some of the more popular makes of cars are t)eing made public. One of the automobile auto-mobile trade journals recently published pub-lished a schedule of charges for every Job on u standard make of car. The list showed that many shops had been charging too much as a result of incompetent in-competent help and Inadequate equipment equip-ment Iieeau.se a number of repairers ' have facilities to do the various jobs according to schedule other repairers will naturally aim to offer similar service. This Immediately starts competition com-petition which has always been an advantage ad-vantage 1 to repairer and customer ulilie. The time is only a short way oiT when charges for repair work on all makes of cars will be as much of n certainty as Hie list prices of parts. Cannot Te!l Repair Coot. Repairmen have n I ways argued that they cannol tell In advance how much a job is going to cost, even if they have fust completed one just like it n the same make and model of car; Hie reason being that they never can tell when they will run up against a ting which will consume a lot of extra time. This argument is Moored when they are reminded that lack of equipment Is the reason for their Inability to handle han-dle the unusual I'cmoving a fender on one car. for Instance, may be merely mere-ly n mutter of unscrewing the holts, while on another the nuts have to be sheered off The mechanic who struggles strug-gles on the latter Job with an ordlnnry -wrench Is'hoiind to consume a lot of Time. Where dlfllcultles are encountered encoun-tered because a car has been neglected the owner ought to he charged for such neglect In the form of new parts rather than In labor trying to save the old ones. From the owner's standpoint stand-point It moans a saving of time; his car is tied up for a shorter period. He would rather pay for new parts than for time Prom the repairer's standpoint It means making smaller time charges on repair bills and handling more work Give Reason for Work. Perhaps n more important feature of servlni; enr owners Is to make sure that the customer knows why certain work is necessary on the car. The modern shop cannot afford to have car owners Imagine new parts were installed just for the fun of It. r.ut under the present order of things this Is Just what many a car owner thinks when he colhipscs upon looking at his repair bill This has always been one of the most ansr'tisf ictory features of car upkeep; and because of It the service station of a New York auto-, auto-, mobile a'.'onoy has hit upon the plan of placing n chassis In the office. The manager of the service station explains ex-plains the situation to the cuu!onior and shows him exactly what's wrong with his car and what has to be done 'o remedy it. |