I've just read (in the USA) that Avidyne have a flat rate repair charge of $2500 for any bezel (front panel) related faults.
That seems totally outrageous. $2500 for a broken switch or knob for example.
What are Garmin like, on say the GNT750?
GTN750 repair $1300 All the prices are here: http://www8.garmin.com/support/outofwarranty.html
What about an airspeed indicator that is not tight anymore on the static side. Does it make sense to repair (mostly in terms of costs)? I wouldn’t mind about a replace, but if a repair is more cost-sensitive is there a recommendation on a shop?
It depends. Stuff worth a few hundred or less is not worth doing, in general. And if there is a leak there may be other issues, due to age.
Otherwise, I always send stuff to the US. My experiences with European repair firms have been generally dreadful.
If you are looking for outrageous repair prices, look no further than repair of a WX-500. L3 sold the rights to the system to Extant. Before they sold it, L3 charged $2000 for repair. Extant upped that to $3,500, highway robbery. So, I bought one to install in my Bonanza at my last panel update. It was determined that the processor unit was bad during the installation, so I got back to the seller and he agreed to pay half of the repair cost. Requested a quote from Extant and was going to pay the extortion, but Extant upped the price to $6,150 plus another $500 if I wanted an 8130-3.
No one that handles other Stormscopes is willing to touch them for repair. All other Stormscopes can typically be repaired for less than $1000. I finally found a used WX-500 that had a bad antenna and I bought the processor for $2000, and so far it works great.
The thing is, electronics has not changed.
One thing which is changing is that the number of people who know what a resistor looks like is reducing, due to retirement and few newcomers.
I would expect circuit diagrams for the WX500 do exist, for those who really want them? I have a huge private site with this stuff, but who wants to do repairs? I have complete circuit diagrams (MMs) for the KFC225, for example, including their “smoking servos”.
The problem, which applies to so many frustrating avionics issues, is that since Garmin took over the universe (with crumbs left over for other players like Avidyne), the market for repairing this stuff is continually shrinking. Just look at EuroGA and how many people tell you to rip out everything “old” and install new stuff, while rarely mentioning stuff like this which nobody wants to talk about because most affected people have to watch their dealer relationship!
Ebay is often the solution 
Peter wrote:
Just look at EuroGA and how many people tell you to rip out everything “old” and install new stuff, while rarely mentioning stuff like this which nobody wants to talk about because most affected people have to watch their dealer relationship!
I posted the relevant SBs and pointed out that Garmin are in effect giving a 5 year warranty. What’s to criticise? All of Garmin stuff like this is public domain, not hidden behind dealership confidentiality. Their flat-rate repair charges and much lower than Honeywell, Avidyne, S-Tec or Extant.
What’s to criticise?
You get downtime – regardless of the reason.
I know there is an amazing acceptance of downtime in GA – something I never understood, but see all the time. New kit most definitely does not deliver anything special, and the older owners know this well. The fact that Garmin fix stuff is relevant if you are based near a Garmin dealer, or your plane can practically and legally fly to a Garmin dealer and that Garmin dealer has not cut your throat because you posted something on some forum. Your chance of making a fly-in to say Croatia are exactly zero.
All of Garmin stuff like this is public domain
MMs? That must be a very recent change!
You should contribute to EuroGA more often, wigglyamp, not just when someone is critical of some avionics business 
As someone in the business you have so much to contribute.
Their flat-rate repair charges and much lower than Honeywell, Avidyne, S-Tec or Extant.
Honeywell is the main historical vendor in GA and is a dead company now… STEC soon will be a dead company too. Avidyne will keep going, in their narrow market sector.
