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Traumahawk

Traumahawk

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Dec 12, 2011
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Location
Lawton, OK
I've got a friend with a V-65 magna. After sitting a while, it was running very rough, and wouldn't stay running below 2800 rpm. He decided to take it to a Honda dealership and have the carbs rebuilt. The told him it would be 12 hrs for a cost of 2000.00 dollars....he made a bargain with the shop manager for 1700.00

WTF!!!! He got ripped off so badly...why do dealerships do this kind of stuff?

12 hrs and 2000 dollers?????? to rebuild 4 carbs...
 
Why?
Because people can..
There's still goodness left. Just have to hunt for it. He should call the dealer back and tell him about how much $$$ he lost out by ripping him off.
 
Unfortunately he decided to have it done...so that way he could get the bike on the road quicker...the dealer settled on 1700.00
 
Unbelievable!!

I think....

I could almost see 12 hours for a 100% complete and thorough removal, cleaning, rebuild, reinstall and tune...:ummm: Although thats probably padding it some....
It takes me almost full day to do the Vmax on a 100% teardown to completion...but that's counting some soak time for the parts as well....Actually I soak 'em overnight........deduct out the beer drinking time, lie telling time, soak time and it's still probably around 7-8 hrs of actual "hands on"....

Shop rates of somewhere between $75-$125/Hr

Then throw in a few very expensive parts because the parts are hardly supported by Honda any longer....:rofl_200:


Parts availabilty is the reason I didn't buy another V65 when I was thinking about it, before I discovered the Vmax.......

Unless your rich or very handy with the tools it just doesn't pay to own a high maintenance "hot rod"

Don't we have someone on here thats a professional carb restorer or am I thinking of the guy who's written a lot of tech articles for the Vboost Mag? or is it the same guy....??
 
Well the thing that got me was 125 an hour is 1500....and 500 for parts? I guess that Ive been EXTREMELY spoiled by this group...buying what Ive needed, and doing the work myself.

On the upside, after speaking with me....he says that he wants a Vmax now....
 
Traumahawk said:
I've got a friend with a V-65 magna. After sitting a while, it was running very rough, and wouldn't stay running below 2800 rpm. He decided to take it to a Honda dealership and have the carbs rebuilt. The told him it would be 12 hrs for a cost of 2000.00 dollars....he made a bargain with the shop manager for 1700.00

WTF!!!! He got ripped off so badly...why do dealerships do this kind of stuff?

12 hrs and 2000 dollers?????? to rebuild 4 carbs...
Click to expand...

So instead of $166.67/hour, he only paid $141.67/hour? Sounds like a bargain to me!

The shop mechanics probably work on straight commission. The Hon/Yam/Kaw/Suz Ft. Lauderdale FL dealer's mechanics & parts counter guys all do.

He could remove those carbs and have them redone by some reputable shop for probably 1/2 that even if they had to use a bunch of OEM parts. And, depending on what was actually wrong, maybe all they need is a good cleaning & some new gaskets/o rings. Oh well.

The V65 guys can weigh-in on the difficulties of the work on them. I did a pair of V45 carbs for a friend, not-too-hard, but I thought it was more work than a VMax.

Why didn't he ask you for some advice?
 
Fire-medic said:
Why didn't he ask you for some advice?
Click to expand...

I mentioned the peashooter....or shotgun method, (now Ive never worked on a V-65)...but it cant be that much different than a Vmax..

He and I work together...but he lives one state over and wanted it done now. Ive sent him links to Lvlheads website for the shotgun method. Today he told me that the bike has been at the dealership for about a week now.
 
I clean/rebuild 'em for less than 10% of that price....plus parts, and spend 3 - 4 full days on them....but I'm fussy.

Seriously consider coming out of retirement for THAT kind of money :rofl_200:


 
The OEM parts for those carbs is going to be expensive. Especially if their rebuild is getting all new everything. I could easily see that much. Even getting all new everything on the vmax could escalate the pricing VERY quickly.

Sean
 
The bad thing about it...when my friend was told how much it would be...he found 4 rebuilt carbs on ebay for 300. He ask the dealership if he could buy them and the dealership put them on....and the dealership said no...they couldnt take the liability.
 
Is there no independent shop in his area with a good reputation?...........................Tom.
 
Fire-medic said:
So instead of $166.67/hour, he only paid $141.67/hour? Sounds like a bargain to me!
Click to expand...

Whilst I agree that it is a lot of money don't think this all goes into his back pocket.

Out of that he will have to take out any sales tax, allocate a proportion for gas, water, electricity & telephone, building costs, business taxes, rent & rates, consumables, investment and maintenance of equipment, pay staff (productive and non-productive), holiday and sick pay, training, depreciation, advertising, workshop stock holding (oils, consumables etc.).....oh yes, and he might want to make a small profit.

Traumahawk said:
...he found 4 rebuilt carbs on ebay for 300. He ask the dealership if he could buy them and the dealership put them on....and the dealership said no...they couldnt take the liability.
Click to expand...

This is not uncommon - I wouldn't you be prepared to fit a part that I have no idea if it is fit for purpose and then have to stand behind the repair.
I suspect the dealer has been bitten big time before.
 
I had a '85 v45 honda, when I bought bought it the year before for 1200.00. But never the less I also had issues this the bike running at low rpm. I was not wanting to get into the carbs but knew it was the carbs. So I took it to my local favorite bike repair shop. I was still healing from surgery so I had the carbs and front brakes rebuilt, carbs where resynced, all fluids and filters changed and front seals on forks replaced and did not pay over 350.00 for everything and the bike was ready in three days from drop off. So if you ask me 1700.00 or 2000.00 was way overpriced, not that there is that much difference between the carb set up on the v45 versus the v65. He should have used little more time and shopped around. My local Honda stealership would not work on it because it was too "old".


honda.JPG
 
one2dmax said:
The OEM parts for those carbs is going to be expensive. Especially if their rebuild is getting all new everything. I could easily see that much. Even getting all new everything on the vmax could escalate the pricing VERY quickly.

Sean
Click to expand...

need to agree. if you need to pay staff, use "genuine" parts etc etc, it`s amazing what numbers you calculate if you want to stay in business...and feed the gov`t of course...
 
one2dmax said:
The OEM parts for those carbs is going to be expensive. Especially if their rebuild is getting all new everything. I could easily see that much. Even getting all new everything on the vmax could escalate the pricing VERY quickly.

Sean
Click to expand...

Very true! New OEM parts are very pricey but carburetion is the key to everything...if it isn't done right there's no way the bike will run like it should.
 
dannymax said:
Very true! New OEM parts are very pricey but carburetion is the key to everything...if it isn't done right there's no way the bike will run like it should.
Click to expand...
At that price, I would think it is not OEM parts but NOS carbs, plus some labor to place them on.
 
Saw rebuild kits for $80-90. Brand new oem carbs (4) were going for around $1300 for the set. Holy crap is that a high price to ride!
 
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