Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the average hourly rate for a Jaguar mechanic in the US and how it compares to the other luxury brands like Audi, BMW, Acura, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, and Volvo? I was reading on a UK site that rates ownership costs of used cars and they stated that Mercedes and Jaguar are known to have the highest repair labor rates in the industry and I want to know if those of you have owned some or all of the aforementioned makes could validate/invalidate this statement. I know they are all expensive compared to to the "cost conscious" brands but I'm talking premium brand vs premium brand.

 

i think the US rate is $120 per hour

 

Sounds about right. It would be interesting to see how costs for parts compare as well. I see so many conflicting reports about Jag's reliability and cost of ownership which leads me to wonder if organizations like J.D. Power and Consumer Reports really know what they're talking about or if they do any legitimate research at all.

 

I run an independent repair shop so I know a little. Very little. Shop rate or flat rate will depend on where the shop is and what their overhead is. Flat rate is higher at high line car lines, but not that much more. What you may want to ask is how difficult it is to work on a car line. The more bells and whistles on a car line the harder it is to fix something. Hard to get to items to repair. Early Jag water pumps are more time consuming than later Jags. How much time it takes to repair something can make a car line seem expensive. A water pump on a 04 XJ8 is about 2 hours. A water pump on an 04 GMC van is almost 4 hours. The parts are not much different in cost. Jaguar's in my opion are more enjoyable to work on than M.B.s or Audi's or BMW's. We work on them all. After to many years of putting cars back together I have come to the conclusion, buy what you like. They all have problems. If there is really one great car, there would only be one car line.

 

Completely agree, David. Every make and model will have a common issue of some sort. No car is perfect. I've owned 2 BMWs, one Audi, one Saab, and a Lexus, but the Lexus is the only one of my cars I chose to have been serviced by the dealer only. All the others were serviced by highly skilled and recommended Indy shops. What you said about the complexity of different models within a manufacturer is bang on. The more complex, the greater the chances of a malfunction and the more time it takes to fix it (although that begs the question why Lexus has been able to design and manufacture its LS series for so long with as many bells and whistles as the competition AND have it be one of the most reliable cars on the road).

Anyway, when talking strictly hourly labor rates, I just wanted to see what the differences were between the brands. I'm sure there is some variability based on location but I was hoping to use this thread for general reference.

You said the difference in parts cost is minimal, which in interesting because I had heard the Mercedes parts are generally cheaper than the same part in a BMW or Audi, i.e. Audi oil pump vs a Mercedes oil pump.