engineering charges

[betty boop]

Heres an interesting question. Last week I saw a 150 HP outboard as you know, it had been serviced with the head coming off bolts removed and reseated - all the usual servicing stuff. invoice was £3500.

Ive been in contact with a broker in south east France with a 140 Suzuki same age engine and coincidently had the same work completed, Replacing the engine block, cylinder head gasket, intake gasket, low housing gasket Thermostat -he invoice for that was 2900 euro. at 1.2 exchange rate thats £2.4K

My point is this - Would it be cheaper to trailer your boat to France/ Europe etc, get the work done/ have a holiday and come home? Its not like thats a small amount of money to penny pinch over. Yes the jobs could be significantly different but if anything the French work seems (all thing being equal) to be more than the UK work.

Interesting thought if theres a big service or repair to be done.

[betty boop]

Heres an interesting question. Last week I saw a 150 HP outboard as you know, it had been serviced with the head coming off bolts drilled / seized and reseated etc- all the usual servicing stuff. invoice was £3500.

Ive been in contact with a broker in south east France with a 140 Suzuki same age engine and coincidently had the same work completed, Replacing the engine block, cylinder head gasket, intake gasket, low housing gasket Thermostat -he invoice for that was 2900 euro. at 1.2 exchange rate thats £2.4K

My point is this - Would it be cheaper to trailer your boat to France/ Europe etc, get the work done/ have a holiday and come home? Its not like thats a small amount of money to penny pinch over. Yes the jobs could be significantly different but if anything the French work seems (all thing being equal) to be more than the UK work.

Interesting thought if theres a big service or repair to be done.

[Ianfs]

Not sure why you quoted yourself.

With the labour question I suppose it depends on labour costs as well as which engineer was used for the 150hp in the UK. I've come across supposed Marine Engineers who are complete rip offs and others who will work their butts off for a reasonable wage.