Oh dear, what a shame! Maybe this might force those car addicts to
leave the cars at home though or even get rid of them. Also cars are
now so electronically complex most drivers can't mend them cheaply
themselves as they used to. The prospect looks bleak.

"The cost of servicing a car can be as high as £200 an hour as labour
costs soar ahead of inflation.

The average cost of labour at a garage is now £75.17 an hour.

Franchise dealers are charging an average of £94.70 an hour for work
on vehicles compared with £87.91 in 2006 - a rise of 7.7 per cent.

The average rate for a mechanic at an independent garage has risen
14.9 per cent over the same period - from £48.43 to £55.63.

Greater London is the most expensive region at £94.26 an hour.

This compares with £68.70 for Edinburgh, £78.81 on Merseyside and
£78.01 for Cornwall.

The survey, commissioned by Warranty Direct, analysed labour rates at
nearly 2,000 garages to highlight price differences.

Duncan McClure Fisher, Warranty Direct managing director, said: 'This
is not great news for motorists who are already feeling the pinch at
the pumps.

"Doug" riseup.net> wrote

Oh dear, what a shame! Maybe this might force those car addicts to
leave the cars at home though or even get rid of them.

"The cost of servicing a car can be as high as

Doug wrote:
About a survey commissioned by 'Warranty Direct' I wonder if they are
biased?

On 1 Sep, 07:26, "Knight Of The Road" hotmail.com>
wrote:

It would be a pretty desperate situation if I had to rely on you to
feed me. Luckily though there are very many others who also transport
food and probably some who are not totally car...

"Tony Dragon" btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:a5CdnU3NNbkoDSbVnZ2dnUVZ8j6dnZ2d@bt.com...

And notice they dont actually state who's charging

"Tony Dragon" btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:a5CdnU3NNbkoDSbVnZ2dnUVZ8j6dnZ2d@bt.com...

Are you possibly suggesting that Doug hasn't taken a step back and
considered the ulterior motive of whoever released this story to the press?
I am shocked.

Well, actually, I'm not surprised at all. As I have stated many times
before, journalists are lazy, and will regurgitate any old press release as
long as it contains a survey or unverifyable statistics that have "shock"
value, even though the basis of those statistics will be dodgy at the very
best. And people like Doug are also lazy in that they will fall for it hook,
line and sinker without exercising their brain at all in applying a bit of
cynicism and common sense to the story, or trying to analyse the claims that
are made.

Doug wrote:

Yet another car thread from the one person who doesn't start car threads.

On 1 Sep, 07:08, Doug riseup.net> wrote:

Uhuh. I pay £30 per hour at my local garage. If anyone pays £200 per
hour, they must either i) have some flashy car like an Aston Martin or
Ferrari; or ii) have more money than sense.

BrianW hotmail.com> gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying:

Plus VAT, of course. So just over £35 out of your pocket.

Including VAT, I can easily believe £200/hr (£175 before VAT) for
anything even vaguely specialist or "premium", especially from a
franchised dealer. £50+vat is common round us for small village garages,
and I'd be surprised if even mainstream brand franchises weren't
approaching £100+vat. And this isn't even central London.

On 1 Sep, 09:41, Adrian gmail.com> wrote: