Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ferrari Digest: Service Time Schedule F355

[BRIGANDBAR (BRIGANDBAR]

I certainly cannot comment from a mechanic's (professional or amateur)  
perspective on book times, but having examined the books of a number of  
dealerships, both "import" and domestic to the U.S. I can say that the  
"professional 
technicians" working for these dealerships appear to "beat" book  times, 
generally by a significant amount, on a regular basis.
 
In the case of certain brands such as Jaguar and Volkswagen the average  
dealership tech. would beat the book times by enough to log 12-14 billable 
hours  
in an 8-9 hour day. In some others such as Toyota and other far eastern brands 
 the average was something like 11 hrs and the domestic brands run somewhere 
in  between. The technicians that I interviewed would universally say that 
these  "book times" were only guidelines and that if they ran into one of those 
cases  where there was a lot of rust, or older broken or damaged parts it would 
take  far longer than the "book time" and that they were not paid for time 
spent on a  car that was brought back by a customer for adjustments or to be 
reworked so  there had to be some "leeway" built into their system (I never 
understood this  particular explanation as if they did the job right, and took 
the 
time allowed  instead of rushing through it to beat the "book time" they might 
not have as  many customer returns that they were complaining about and I 
would guess that  the "book times" were designed to leave enough time to do it 
right the first  time) so book times only represented an "average" time to be 
spent on each job.  Either way it would not explain the fact that on virtually 
every day of their  work week they would "book" more hours than they were 
physically on site and  that even that the shop would be open for business.
 
Apparently, the "book times" are designed to specify the normal amount of  
time to be spent on a job by a professional, skilled and competent mechanic and 
 
probably don't relate to what a DIY owner would take doing the same job.   
But then again, if they virtually always (that, of course, creates the 
exception 
 that I was always told about) exceed the time required by the times required 
by  the pro's it they might be a reasonable guideline for the rest of us.
 
No offense to the pro's on the list, I would assume that in the Ferrari  
dealerships, and in most of the independent shops that are used by those of us  
who might be described as "fanatics" the circumstances would differ and there  
would be less pressure on cutting corners and worrying about it later.
 
Dr. Steve  

1964 Rolls  Royce Silver Cloud III...........1975 Pontiac GV Conv.
1980 MB  450SL..................................1982 RR Corniche
1985 MB 280 GE  G-Wagen................. 1985 GMC Brigadier 20 Ton 
Winch/Wrecker
1988 Rolls  Royce Silver Spur................1990 Cadillac "Eagle" Hearse
1994 F-350  Powerstroke 4x4................1995 Ferrari 348 Spyder
1996 Bronco  ......................................2000 Lincoln Town Car
2004  Excursion...................................(+ Audrey's 2x MB's)
and  a
1976 Fire Truck...................................HAHN, WARNER &  SWASEY- 
DUPLEX 
DIVISION  HOWE  APPARTUS . MODEL #R400 FIRE  TRUCK w/a 100' Tower


Dr. Stephen B. Spies, CES,  CFI
Director, Forensic Sciences Laboratory
Explosives Engineering  Technologies

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