Testbook Costs

[discobandit]

How much do garages charge for a check of systems with Testbook?

Also can I get it done anywhere or does it have to be a main dealer?

Cheers

Gary

[BogMonster]

Anybody can buy a T4 or IDS nowadays, it just costs an arm and a leg so most probably don't bother.

[Dave W]

How much do garages charge for a check of systems with Testbook?

Also can I get it done anywhere or does it have to be a main dealer?

Cost varies from what I can gather, as does the proficiency of operation... and that includes main dealers as well as independents.

A lot of independents have the Autologic or similar "testbook" and, obviously they will normally be a lot cheaper than a main dealer. The autologic (if updated) can do anything that the testbook can do so no worries there.

My local independent (Maddison 4x4) charge their normal labour rate as far as I'm aware so it doesn't cost much as most operations take a matter of minutes, best thing to do is contact a few local independents and ask them. It depends what you want doing but if it's a simple reset to see if an error reoccurs they may well do it for free anyway.

[JimAttrill]

We do it for free if part of a service, and do it for free if not, in the hope that the prospective customer will become a real one.

It only takes 5 minutes if you know what you are doing.

[Ally V8]

I charge £35 + Vat to hook up Testbook - that gets you the first hour and will usually go a long way to sorting out the issue.The kit as said is expensive,and now Testbook is obselete its replacement needs funding.It is no licence to print money.

[discobandit]

Thanks,

I only asked because I found, what I presume is the serial plug in the drivers footwell and I've had the SRS light on and not been able to find a problem anywhere.

Thanks Again

Gary

[JimAttrill]

I find you guys in the UK charge silly money for something which should be free or almost so. It does not take one hour to sort out stuff on a pooter. Mostly about 5 minutes at the most. You are being ripped off big time, but I suppose you are used to it.

[landmannnn]

I find you guys in the UK charge silly money for something which should be free or almost so. It does not take one hour to sort out stuff on a pooter. Mostly about 5 minutes at the most. You are being ripped off big time, but I suppose you are used to it.

Yes, good old rip off Britain.

[Ally V8]

I find you guys in the UK charge silly money for something which should be free or almost so. It does not take one hour to sort out stuff on a pooter. Mostly about 5 minutes at the most. You are being ripped off big time, but I suppose you are used to it.

Sorry Jim,but I have to disagree with you on this,agreed reading fault codes does not always take an hour - maybe I should have been more clear.I charge £35 to do a diagnostic session on a car,for this I will read whatever codes are logged,clear if necessary and investigate whatever the issue is.If its as simple as say a failed ABS sensor then fine it stops there and the owner is advised as to what is necessary.If it is say a Disco II V8 which has failed its emissions test then often you can struggle to get the answer in an hour - esp if it is very close to a pass,even with the help of a scope.

I am still way cheaper than a franchised dealer who is often over £100/hour,and I do not throw parts at cars to fix them.You say this should be free or almost,but why should I use nearly £20,000 worth of diagnostic kit and many years of experience and not charge for it ? Testbook is obselete and the alternative is IDS or Autologic - neither are cheap but are now needed as D3 and RRsport are being shoved at me to fix.

I am not greedy and make a very modest living,but I am not a charity.You amaze me,making such a statement when you are part of an industry that is struggling so hard to recruit fresh blood into workshops where the technology is changing so quickly.

[BogMonster]

You say this should be free or almost,but why should I use nearly £20,000 worth of diagnostic kit and many years of experience and not charge for it ? Testbook is obselete and the alternative is IDS or Autologic - neither are cheap but are now needed as D3 and RRsport are being shoved at me to fix.

I am not greedy and make a very modest living,but I am not a charity.You amaze me,making such a statement when you are part of an industry that is struggling so hard to recruit fresh blood into workshops where the technology is changing so quickly.

I agree absolutely. It "may not cost anything to do it 'cos the kit is already there" from a customer's perspective but the overheads of a business have to get funded somehow and the ruddy thing costs a fortune - Testbook has superceded to T4 (not including Testbook 2 and Testbook 3 which I have never seen, though they existed) and then WDS and now IDS and they all cost a lot of money. I would guess the cumulative cost has been about £25000 over the last 12 years just for the hardware, and that is not counting the subscription costs which probably add another 50% to the above figure. Whether or not it pays for itself depends on how big the business is but I can say from experience that it is a lot of money to have to find in a small business when you only use it perhaps three or four times a week.

[JimAttrill]

Our stuff has not cost an awful lot, as we have Rovacom (and only the modules we really need) and a Nanocom 1 which only does the TD5 engine. The laptops we use are basically scrap as they are old ones which have serial ports.

I agree that if we had paid anything like £25k for the stuff we would have to charge a lot to get our money back or some of it.

Apparently the Disco III stuff is very expensive, so we may have to join in with other independents to finance one kit between us. For the moment, we don't work on them as they are mostly still under warranty or owned by rich people who can afford LR dealer prices. But as some of them are now 4 years old, we shall have to think about it.

I notice in the interview in LRM with Paul Bashall (hope I got his name right) of Dunsfold LR that he only works on pre-2000 vehicles. We are the same except for the TD5s which are at least 50% of our work now. Luckily Land Rovers last a long time so we will be ok for a while yet.

[Dave W]

I wouldn't expect to pay to have codes reset/read by my local independent (and don't) because I'm a regular customer. I buy a lot of spares and service work from them so they don't mind spending 5 minutes on my vehicle, they also know that if there is a real fault they'll probably end up doing the necessary work anyway.

It's a completely different matter when you have no existing relationship with them though. I wouldn't expect a garage that I've never had any previous dealings with to do the job for free. It's only the same as turning up with a panhard rod and asking them to press the bushes out - it may only take a few minutes to do the job but they are more than entitled to earn a living, even if it's just a cash donation to the bacon buttie fund.

[JimAttrill]

As I said before, we normally do it for nothing if it is just clearing the faults or saying which ABS sensor has failed. It's a sort of PR exercise. As we are hard to find, and down a few kms of dirt roads so that you almost need a LR to even get here. So we encourage new business as any small workshop must do.

What gets me is when people buy their own spare parts, often from the same supplier we use. We get a 20% discount and add on 33% so it is a bit cheaper for them. Of course we just adjust the labour charge to compensate. As restaurants charge 'corkage' when you BYO vino we are considering doing the same which would make it cheaper for them to get the parts from us.

Often when we tell people that their only warranty is now with the parts supplier and not us, they shy off a bit. That means if we fit their supplied clutch and it fails, we will not change it for free as we would if we supplied it. The other alternative is to insist on fitting 'our' parts if they are identical.

Sorry, I seem to have strayed a bit OT here...

[Ally V8]

Sorry,but I disagree - you should charge for diagnostic time,since I bought Testbook back in 03 nobody has ever questioned the charges for it.Remember it is not just the capital outlay for the kit,its your experience and knowledge too.Your equipment as you say is ageing,are you going to upgrade it or just carry on ?

I'm not advocating shafting customers - far from it,but most people are reasonable and expect to pay for a service,esp if you fix it where others may have failed.My workshop like yours is in a remote location,there is no sign on the door and its down a narrow lane.People still find me and in the most part they keep coming back.Funny thing is local plumbers and electricians charge more than I do yet have little kit,no premises and often little knowledge - but they are stacked out with work.

I suppose what I am saying is that as LR's get ever more complex there is an oppertunity for independants to provide owners with better service at a lower price than franchised can.But not doing anything to drive the standards up helps no one,and struggling with a difficult fault and not having a structured way of charging for it is very demoralising.

[JimAttrill]

We find that the average TD5 owner does not realise that clearing the faults does nothing at at all to the running of the vehicle unless it thinks it has overheated and the a/c fans run all the time.

For the rest, we try to give a better service than just about anywhere else. It's a difficult decision to make.