The trick with ‘driver’ cars is to buy one that requires as little service as possible, which is why (having come to that conclusion) I started buying Japanese cars ten years ago. I drive them until they start needing repairs then move on. My current car is starting to need the occasional repair now at 130K miles. I’ll try to run it to 200K miles. It doesn’t need ‘service’ of any significance except oil changes for which I’ve used the same local oil change place for years.
I think aircraft are quite different in that regard. Firstly they’re easier to work on and need it, secondly the mechanical components are shared to a great extent between types, and thirdly (for many or most types) there really aren’t ‘dealers’ in the automotive sense.
On this hourly rate thing, when does the clock stop and start. When is a mechanic actual working on say an engine re-build and when is he pottering around in between.
If a mechanics job for the day is to work on a particular engine/aircraft and he has say a 10 hour day in the shop, does that whole 10 hours get charged to the job ?
What about when he’s washing his hands for lunch, taking a phone call, having a cup of tea and the many other things that people have to do in a working day.
Some people can work very efficiently with everything to hand and a mental forward plan, others can have a lot of ‘down time’ due to bad planning or simple a lot of ‘interrupts’.
I’m not suggesting that people should work like slaves in this day and age, but way back in my machine tool day a management tool called ‘Time and Motion’ was introduced.
Man in suits with stop watches arrived on the shop floor with the aim of making people work more efficiently, without any more effort.
If every conceivable job has a specific and realistic time allotted to it, then jobs can be costed in advance. I doubt that works in aircraft maintenance. At least if the job gets done in the allocated time, you pay the standard price. But if it overruns it will be ah, yes, but, and you pay for the extra time, even if that was caused by inefficient working.
A Airline Captain friend of mine once said “the last person you want to fall out with is your engineer”. A good philosophy me thinks.
there really aren’t ‘dealers’ in the automotive sense.
I think that’s because the planes are mostly too old for the owners to go back to a “dealer”.
For younger types there certainly are dealers – e.g. Cirrus. Based on what I hear from their customers, I couldn’t possibly say they do a good job or deliver good value, and one of them did a terrible avionics job on my plane. But they serve a purpose because any nice aircraft which is still in production will attract a sizeable community of owners who just want to drop it off for a service like they do with their BMW/Merc/etc and don’t want to get involved with the details.
For example Air Touring went bust partly because Socata stopped making piston aircraft, and TBMs could be bought via other channels (the sole agency was not strictly enforced by Socata). There were other reasons too 
@Silvaire ..
What country is that? 140k as a living wage?
I hear real complaints about the official dealers of Cirrus an Diamond as well. Overpriced, overcharged and not top quality work.
For my Commander I go to my local shop who by now know the aircraft really well. Only once did I correct them and that was for something they did not know. They went about with trial and error .. Trying to understand .. Whilst I had given them the phonenumber of a resource who knew how to do it and was more then willing to explain it.
Now the bills are fine and their work is good. More importantly when I want something done quickly they will always do their best to squeeze me in.
That is what I am looking for.
What country is that? 140k as a living wage?
$140K is way way more than a living wage (in fact it’s a luxurious wage) anywhere in the western world.
Gosh… on $140k (say 90k GBP, 60k GBP after tax) I could send 2 kids to a private school (30k), pay child maintenance (25k), eat healthy food and live in a tent (5k) 
Now imagine what is possible if you keep your trousers zipped up
@Silvaire .. What country is that? 140k as a living wage?
My point was in response to $80/hr being called unfeasible for a mechanic trying to make a living, to point out that my friend who bills at that rate for A&P IA plus CFII work is grossing about $140K USD after expenses. That guy is very capable and resourceful. Otherwise I’ve noticed that US based A&P IAs working on helicopters for public institutions typically gross up to about $100K, or if if working on GA stuff for private companies or independently perhaps $60-80K USD. The latter does not attract much talent by my observation, and the better mechanics end up doing something else for their primary income, and A&P stuff as a sideline for acquaintances and friends.
For the avoidance of any confusion, I ought to mention that there is a vast difference between a freelance person getting $X and an employed person being billed by the company he works for at $X.
The first one takes home, after tax, about 0.7X. His travel to you is tax deductible, as are many other small items. And if you pay him cash (god forbid anybody would ever do that ) he takes home 1.0X.
The second one takes home, after tax, about 0.2X.
