LK,
Maybe I did not explain it well enough. I thought I was agreeing with you about maybe charging a dignostic fee. Also I'm saying once you are there you probibly have the repair work.
A shop would charge a standard dignostic fee included in that was a list of tests and up too 1 hour time. Even if it took a few hours to find the problem nothing more would be charged. Once in a while you have a nightmare vehicle. What makes cars difficult is because of movement, vibration, tempitures, and the lower voltages the problems can be very intermitant. It can take a lot time for a problem to act up before anthing will test bad. For these cases the customer would have to be called to get more $. Dignostic laber was never the money maker. The money is in the repairs. The customers never seemed to have a problem with this. If your asking where I worked I can give a long list of dealers and independant shops.
I can't say that is how every place does it. I'm willing to bet if you called some shops and said my car stalls sometimes on cold days how much to fix they would give you one number but they will not look at it all day or longer for that number.
Tom
