GeoffM

Good Evening,

Last year the AC Compressor on my 2004 Honda Civic went. I called my local Honda dealer for and estimate to replace it and this is what I got: AC COMPRESSOR REPLACEMENT LABOR $495.00 PARTS $569.12 TAX $74.49 TOTAL $1138.61!!! Now, I'm by no means knowledgeable about auto maintenance, but this seems like highway robbery!! I've seen AC Compressors online for $150 to $200.00 and when I asked them about it he just gave me a song and dance. Anyway, what is the average price? I plan to call some mechanics tomorrow to get some estimates because $1,138.61 is outrages!!

Geoff

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

$1200 is about normal for that kind of job. That's why I never bothered to replace my compressor when my 2002's AC started being super intermittent.

Bear in mind, you're getting Honda OEM parts installed by certified Honda techs. Dealership labor cost is typically about.. $125-150/hr or so? I'm getting verification on that one, but non-dealership labor costs are typically 80-100/hr. Assuming it takes like 3 hours to do (that's also factoring in environmentally friendly R-134A evacuation), that puts it at $165/hr. A little high based on my estimate, but nevertheless, not too far out of the ball park.

Now, parts. List price on an A/C compressor for your car is $767.33 (source: p/n 38810-PLM-A12). That is for a new genuine Honda OEM part, or at the very least, a Honda certified remanufactured part. Online compressors you're likely looking at are third party, highly likely remanufactured parts (think AutoZone Duralast parts). Now, on that site that I linked, it's selling for $515.65 (plus shipping). Part number 38800-PLM-A12RM is also a compressor that includes clutch and coil, remanufactured by Honda, and doesn't include the core charge if you choose to keep your old compressor. That's not even throwing in the cost of the refrigerant that they'd undoubtedly need to recharge.

But I digress. List price is often a hair lower than what dealerships sell the same part for (and this site is a genuine Honda OEM parts dealer). If I took a look at those list prices, I'd expect to pay close to $800-900 for a compressor from a dealership.

tl;dr: Price sounds about right for a dealership and maybe some smaller shops, too.

edit: small anecdotal bit about list price vs. dealership price. About 5 months ago, bought a head gasket kit from a dealership. They cut me a deal since I said I could get it cheaper online. At the time, I could have gotten it for about $250 overnighted from Majestic Honda (the aforementioned site linked above). List price on the gasket kit is about $350. I paid just under $325ish after they cut me a deal after they quoted me at $380 before tax. I needed it a day before I visited the dealership, so I sucked up that extra cost.

mhammond1127

mac25

Well OP If you had bought the parts and installed everything yourself, you would understand why the price is what it is.

-you have to pay for the knowledge of the techs
-their time
-the shops overhead (rent, heat, other utilities)
-cost of tools

-and most importantly profit.


Every successful business charges at least 3x what they bought the part for to sell it.

This covers Overhead, wages, and profit.