Adherence to flat rate guides

[chucks]

Eric The Red brings up a very good point. Virtually no non-oem labor time guide is based on any independant time studies, they all use the factory warranty times with a multiplier. And, at least in Ford's case, the warranty times have been being cut dramatically over the last couple of years, and the new (lower) times re-published for past model years. So if shop A uses a 4 year old Chilton's manual to price a job on a 1998 vehicle, and shop B uses a brand new Chilton's to price the same job on the same 1998 vehicle, the "new and improved" factory times may result in two very different labor times.

[PROUSER]

Let's keep in mind that these are Labor Guides, not Labor Bibles. That being said there are mistakes, and you may also need to factor in other circumstances -for example replacing a tie rod end should be followed up by an alignment -these secondary operations are often not listed on the same page in the labor guide I am sure there could be reasons for adding time to what these guides suggest (rusty parts, etc.), but excessive abuse only hurts the dealership in the long run. The Service management team should be monitoring this and not allow this kind of thing to happen