Now I know this isn't MC dealers but about 16-20 years ago 48 Hours or 60 mins. Did a special on Ford Motor Co. The Ford Escort new off the lot was $8,000. The news show got a copy of the service parts book with prices for parts. They added up what it would cost to build one from the ground up (Excluding tires) it came out to be $84,000 no labor cost, just parts. I remember this very well because at the time my Dad was the foreman in the Ford Body shop in Yanceyville, NC. Can you imagine what it would cost with labor? The honda shop in Danville, VA used to automatically mark any part up 300%. My coworker's wife used to work there. She told me a clear snap on face shield cost them $3.00 and they sold it for $25.00. It's crazy.

 

Harley dealers traditionaly steer you to the item that has the largest mark-up, that's just business. I for one am glad they do as it allows us to work on a smaller margin and get more customers. In todays economy pretty much everyone is looking to save a few dollars, but beware. If a price looks too good to be true it probably is.
Over the last year or so we've had a coulpe of "start-up"hops go under and theier customers have come to us to get some work done that should have been "warranty work". Most of them were friends of the shop owners and got a great price, but no follow up.
The mark up in the average shop today is not what Bama91 posted for what was obviously a "Honda botique" shop. Yes there are some items that have more than a 30% markup, but they are few and far between and low buck. I make about $17 on a $130 starter because I own my shop, plus I am retired and have health care so I can do that. This allows me to pass some saving on to my customers and explains my loyal customers.
In closing I will state yes there are shops both MoCO and Independent that gouge customers and got away with it for years. But the ability to do it today with a much more informed customer base (thanks to the internet and forums like this) will make it more difficult for them to continue. I will be moving to South Carolina some time this year and will open up a small shop and expand it as needed, for I've found that it is better to have more customers than space no matter what size the shop is.

 

[quote=miacycles;7947852]The mark up in the average shop today is not what Bama91 posted for what was obviously a "Honda botique" shop. quote]
This actually was the Honda Dealership for Danville, VA "Olde Dominion Honda" and it was 1999 when I was told this. They were bought out by Kawasaki/Suzuki and is now Triangle Cycles. Don't know their mark up, don't go in there.
Now a few years back we had Rick Doss and he got big headed. I burned a brake line in half on my Ironhead and he wanted $300 to fab a 20" line. I walked next door to Riverside Auto and bought one for less than $5 and fabbed it in the lot. He sold out to Custom Chrome and now he is back here building bikes again. I did a lot of work his customers walked away from (brake jobs, timing, tire changes etc.) cause he wanted you to make an appointment and doubled his prices after the Easyrider shoot. My Dad always told me "Don't forget where you came from cause you can always go back"

 

I know this has nothing to do with MCs but it does with this post. I appreciate people like miacycles that do not rape people over a buck. But I lived in a place (Danville, VA recently moved to Reidsville, NC) that has the highest unemployment rate in VA (10.5-12%) but the city caters to rich people that they don't have. The average income is $30,000 but the Ford Dealership here ordered the $150,000 Ford GT to sell in the showroom. We have Rick Doss, and Rocket Roger's Dixie Choppers. He (RR) sells bikes for 25k and up. There is an Indy shop in the county that does good work but he also has a shop in Eden, NC so he is not open all the time. Rick Doss I don't know about cause I don't go in there. The Harley shop in VA is extremely snobby. I went in to look at bikes one day in my work clothes (I do Boiler Work) and they would not talk to me, walked around me and ignored me. I am not a RUB so I didn't exist. Merchants here mark up goods and services trying to attract richer clientelle and ignore the needs of the poorer people. If the dealers (not just MC) would price their goods and services to meet the income of the people they would fare better.
The harley shop we had in Reidsville closed as did the one in High Point. They were owned by Greensboro HD. I talked about this in another post. But their service dept. was the pits. The shop foreman was the oldest guy there and he was about 30. The rest of the crew couldn't have been over 22, you walk in and there were Clymer and Haynes manuals laying by every bike. Simple jobs such as change a starter relay took all day and several phone calls to HD. My friend went in there to buy a bike cash (he received a settlement from Work Comp)and rather than sell him a bike they wanted to grill him over where a person like him (he is a rough looking dude) got $13,000 cash. So he left and bought one no prob. in Burlington. If your bike was over 10 years old and you wanted to do the work yourself they would tell you the part was no longer available (although they not only looked at the HD book but also Custom Chrome). The starter relay of yesterday is the same as today but they could not get one for my Sporty. Can't get battery, gas cap, throttle cable, headlight, etc. That is part why they went under the other is in my previous post. Not all MC dealers will rape you only the ones who think they can. And MIACycles If you were to open a shop here I would bring my work to you, cause you sound like you know your business and are not trying to get rich by making others poor, and for this I thank you.

 

Your Indy is in the ballpark. Depending on what he gets for labor. The last time I looked at the Dealers labor rate it was over $80 and hour. 10-12 hours if a blatant rip-off. Like I posted, it's nothing 'technical', just a bunch of take it apart and put it back together. A really good mechanic can probably get it done in around 4-5 hours, assuming he doesn't have to wait for parts.

I've found that the dealers and (some) indys seem to favor the quick in/out stuff over the more time consuming. They can rock out a dozen 500, 1000, 5000, etc. mile services, charge $300 and up, a pop, and never break a sweat. Unlike tearing a bike down, which ties up a mechanic and a service bay.