Old days vs. now

[427TJ]

My buddy had to replace the fuel pump in his wife's '99 Suburban. He's a civil engineer and he complained to me about who would have thought up locating a fuel pump inside the gas tank. (He also has a '67 SS 396 Camaro.) Here is my reply to him:



What do you mean "whoever came up with putting the electric fuel pump inside the gas tank?" An ENGINEER thought that up! Jeez!!! Well, an engineer who was tasked by the corporate bean counters to figure out a way to force owners to have to bring their cars to the dealer to get the fuel pump replaced at $70-100 an hour. We used to be able to change a Chevy fuel pump ourselves in about an hour. Then the corporations figured out that it was more profitable to force owners to have the dealership service department do the work so fuel pumps got a lot more complicated and relocated inside the fuel tank. Who wants to take that on in their home garage on a Saturday? Therefore: KA-ching! goes the GM cash register.

Fuel pump for a 1967 Camaro: $25, in stock at Grand Auto
Misc. parts needed for job: $5
Time required by owner to swap at home on Saturday: 1 hour, $0
Total: $30 plus one hour of owner's time.

Fuel pump for 1999 Suburban: $150 (back-ordered for three weeks)
Misc. parts for the job: $50 (certain parts back-ordered for three weeks)
Dealership hourly labor rate: $80, rounded to next hour at one minute after previous hour
Hours required by the manual: 2
Hours actually spent on job: 5 (4 hours, two minutes = 5 hours charged = $400)
Hours your car sat at the dealership before work began: two days
Cost of having car towed back to dealer after installation of wrong pump stranded owner on freeway: $75
Hours spent back at shop after wrong pump was installed: one day (parts delay adds two days)
Total cost less charge for replacement of wrong pump: $600 (Dealer also ate towing charge) plus five days without car
Profit to dealer, even with mistake: $400