What does tech inspection cost?

[Phokaioglaukos]

Interesting discussion on Rennlist (http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/sh...p?t=377758) about what people pay for pre-DE tech inspections. It's $20 at Riesentöter's Saturday tech, $50 and up at a shop or dealer, but many in other regions (Potomac, for one) are getting tech inspections done for free.

I have no qualms about paying a shop the ½ hour charge or so to pull the wheels and check the items on our form, so I'm very surprised to read that so many shops and even dealers do that work for free, or a tip to the mechanic. Has this changed in our region over time? How can the shops afford to do even that small amount of work for free?

[Brian Minkin]

RTR gives a majority of what it collects for tech to the shops mechanics as a thank you for their help with getting cars on the lifts and doing minor maintenance items for people who can not do these things themselves.  I have heard that some dealers will tech their customers cars for free but have never personally seen this in our region.

[Darren]

I was curious about how consistent the cost of a tech inspection is from all of our tech inspection sites, so I decided to call all of them and ask.

The average price is $85.

Here's what I was told (in order of price):

Holbert's $150
Dougherty $109.98 (1 hour, usually actually takes them longer)
Brandywine $108.50 (1 hour)
Don Rosen $105 (1 hour)
Mike Tillson Motorcars $90 (1 hour)
AWE tuning $85 (1 hour)
Woodlawn Foreign Car ($85 first time, if you get it serviced there regularly $42.50)
Performance Auto $71 (.8 hour)
Meenan Transmission $65
Robert Fox $50
Possum Hollow $50 (.5 hour)
Don Galbraith $46 (.5 hour)

Vision Porsche (They were unsure, so I sent the tech form and they are going to email me back)

Disclaimer -- The lower priced shops in this list, I'm guessing, probably are expecting to make money on follow-up work or other work that needs to be done at the same time, for example brake flushes.  There is a current thread about Rennlist about this, which prompted Chris' post.  Many areas of the country seem to get tech inspections for "free", but remember, there is no "free lunch".  Under Paul W's direction, I think our shops are doing a much more thorough job than most of the country.

The shops that list .5 hour are probably spending more time than that.  Think about the amount of time it takes to get the car into the shop, up on a lift, and the wheels off.  That is .5 hour of work before you even get started.