Why We Publish Our Prices (and Most Workshops Don’t)
Search any car service and count how many show a dollar figure. Almost none — because franchise networks structurally can’t commit hundreds of independently priced sites to one number, and many independents would rather quote once your car is already on the hoist. We publish ours — on the site, before you ever call. Here is why, and what it means for you.
Due for a service? Car Service Cranbourne West — from $349
The industry’s quiet default: quote after the keys
“Call for a price” is not an accident — it is a model. Once your car is on the hoist and your day is arranged around not having it, the quote arrives with all the leverage on one side. Most drivers accept it because comparing means starting the whole exercise again somewhere else.
Franchise chains have a second, structural reason: each site is independently owned and sets its own labour rate, so the brand above them can rarely publish a binding number for anything. The advertising is national; the price is whatever your local site says on the day.
What publishing does to our own behaviour
A published price disciplines the workshop, not the customer. When the page says a roadworthy is $330 flat and logbook servicing starts at $349 incl. GST ($299 Chinese brands and diesel utes, $500 European base rate with anything further approved by phone), we have nowhere to hide a bad estimate — so we estimate carefully, write the exact figure down before we start, and phone before anything grows. Twenty-two years in one suburb only works if the paperwork and the invoice always match.
How to use it, even if you never book here
Screenshot our prices and ask any workshop to match the transparency, not necessarily the number. A workshop that will put your figure in writing before the hoist — whoever they are — has already given you the only protection that matters. That standard, applied everywhere, is genuinely good for every driver in the corridor. We just happen to have volunteered first.
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Published Prices — FAQ
Structurally, many can’t: many franchise networks are made up of independently owned sites setting their own labour rates, so the brand can rarely commit to one number — and plenty of independents simply prefer to quote once the car is on the hoist. Neither is dishonest; it just leaves you comparing blind.
The published figure is the honest floor for the described job, and your exact price is fixed in writing before we start — that written figure is what you pay. If we find something extra, nothing happens until we’ve phoned you and you’ve approved it.
Then the extra work is itemised and quoted in writing before we do it — the European $500 base rate works exactly this way, and it’s the reason there are no surprise invoices here.
No, and we don’t claim to be. It means you can compare before you book, hold us to the number afterwards, and never pay for our time twice because a quote “grew”. Transparency is the promise; the market can judge the number.