My starter motor decided to break on Thanksgiving while we visited family in NJ.

I live in NYC and as you can imagine, I have no place to park a disabled car. I would have done the job myself otherwise. Emergency repairs are big pain for city dwellers. No shade trees available to jobs which take more than a couple of hours or to park under for a couple of days. Logistics are bitch. On top of that, I don't have another starter handy and it was cold... below 20 degrees outside.

So I remembered that there was a Rover independent shop in north New Jersey just about 10 miles from where my car sat. I look on the handy "mechanics in your area thread" in the "General info" section of this site and I arranged a tow truck to pick up and drop off the truck at vinne Tarrone's shop, "Rover Specialist" in Garfield, NJ. vinnie was a pleasure to deal with on the phone and all went smoothly. So far.

I'm in no rush. I don't use the truck very often during the week. No pressure at all to turn this around quickly. Of course every shop rightfully wants to move cars along and get them off the lot.

I was pleasantly surprised when Vinnie called me on Monday morning to confirm that the starter had crapped out. He had a replacement in stock, the truck was on the lift, and could do the work immediately.

"Great," I said, "how much will it cost?".

Here's where it goes all wrong.

"$625 (with tax),"
"Wow, Vinnie, I'm surprised. How much does the starter cost?"
"The starter is $275"
"OK, how many hours do you need to do the job?"
"Two hours"
"Wow, $300 labor is basically what I'd expect at the dealer"
"Well if you want the work to be done right, that is what it costs"
"Yeah, but Vinnie, I want indy shops like yours to make money so that they remain in business, but I also expect a less expensive experience than the dealership" given your lower overhead.
"If you want to tow the car out of here I can take it off the lift, I won't charge you for the diagnosis, but it needs to be out of here today or I'll charge you storage"
"The labor operations time manual only calls for 0.7 hours"
"That was in 1997 when they used to have good mechanics working on these cars"
"so you're not a good mechanic?"
"Do you want me to to the job or not"

We then negotiate a small discount for cash payment, after he tells me he won't take a credit card.

This guy is going to run himself out of business with this attitude, and I'm glad to help. At the end of the day it was just a couple of hundred dollars so I'm not going to be hurting. The real issue is his blatant abuse of an "out of towner"

I paid, picked up the car and will never go back.

He did take the time to install his own license plate frames on both the front and rear of the car. I guess he charged me for them. Needless to say they are gone now.

This is a warning about this shop.

ROVER SPECIALIST, in Garfield, New Jersey is not an independent shop that I can support and will never go back. I recommend that all steer clear of the place and Vinnie Tarrone unless you are willing to pay a premium.

 

An OE rebuilt Denso starter is about $150. These places have to make money on parts and double the price is sorta normal. So $275, yeah - not bad. I hope it was not a cheap one that will fail soon. Denso is OEM and one rebuilt by Denso would be the way I would go. But labor... $100/hr is probably where he is at. You did not specify. One hour minimum is normal, then in half-hour blocks. Some places, its by the hour. So pushing north of $500 would seem to be entering the steep territory indeed.

I will add that while you had a bad experience, a quick search online shows pretty positive reviews for the place. I could not locate a BBB rating.

 

****, and just to think, I'm in ne PA, could have gotten you a yard starter and put it on in an hour for $100...and then had your original starter rebuilt from the alt and starter guy down the street.

 

 

Pretty sure a blind gofer could do the job. Took me about the same amount of time to do the starter on my LR3 and it is a ton more involved.

Removing the tire, skid plate, heat shields and a bolt meant for a mini me to get their hand to. Don't get me started on the weather pack connector for the trigger wire...

 

Dude..... it's worse over here in England. As soon as the Land Rover specialist hears my American "Yank" voice, the cost for maintenance and parts goes up 3x-5x the normal price compared to a local.
This is why I now have my English friend call for me and luckily the pound exchange rate isn't too bad now.

 

You've got to develop an accent, and not a French one!

 

I googled "labor time for installing a starter in a Land Rover Discovery" and the first to results didn't offer a time for the labor but did offer prices that left the cost you incurred just on the high side of the expected range. The shop in question was 10 miles from Manhattan so you're likely to pay some of the highest labor rates in the country, that's just a fact of doing business in the NY metropolitan area.
The first result quoted prices ranging from $318 to $658 based on labor rates of $44 to $134 per hour and parts prices ranging from $274 to $524. The second result was even higher, quoting between $391.82 and $755.30. I know that's outrageous to shade tree mechanics but the reality is, nothing is cheap, with these cars or with work done in the NY metropolitan area.

If the shop did the job and the truck is working, all I can say is "once bitten, twice shy."

 

Part and parcel of living in NYC metro area, no? Everything costs more there, and generally the folks who live in your neighborhood are willing to pay so Vinnie is probably right on the money for his rates. Still think you were charged about $200 too much, but it goes with the territory. This is why people are leaving the Northeast in droves - cost of living is way out of control.

We got out of Dodge about 15 years ago when property taxes for our 1.85 acre lot and home in NJ hit $17K.

 

17k??? wow, keep voting in them taxes people.