I have been phoning around for for someone to give me a decent quote to install my OEM Short Shifter gearbox which I got from Suncoast (they're awesome).
Beverly Hills Porsche quoted me 3 hours.
Long Beach Porsche quoted me 4 hours.

By all accounts in this forum the install should take 1.5-2 hours. So either the installs are being done by complete novices, or they are trying to make a quick (or not so quick) buck.

Do I negotiate with them? Do I tell them that the correct amount of time for the install is max 2 hours? Anyone have any tips for getting better quotes from a Porsche Service center? Does being a PCA member help?

Find an indy mechanic in your area. One who sponsors PCA is a good bet. Or DIY. This is a very easy job, minimal tools required.

perhaps they are giving time for any surprises that may pop up!

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"Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!"

A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!

Yeah. maybe they were April 1st special prices.

Most shops use published times guides to establish pricing - I beleive one of the more common ones is published by Mitchell.

Believe it or not these publications break down the simple task to the very complicated. i.e. Change oil .5 hours, rebuild transmission 8.0 hours, etc. Shops take the time estimate and multiply by their hourly rate.

May come as a big surprise to some of you, but many a dealer service writer and mechanic are paid on commission. They key for them is to maximize time billed, but do in faster time so as to be more profitable. As long as they don't go over their estimate (and you agreed to the estiamte by signing that paper) they are good to go. ...Back in the day I used to work at a shop that specialized in RX-7's. A common repair was replacing the clutch. Labor rate called for 7 hours. First one took me 15 hours, but after that I got it down to about 2 hours and could whip out several in a day. all day long we charged 7 hours labor becuase thats waht the labor book called for.

I realize I got off topic a bit, but should give you some insight. feel free to call out your service writer and ask to see where they get the labor rate from.

The official TSB from Porsche on installing the short shifter is 100TU (time units), which I believe are minutes; thus they should only charge you an hour and a half and maybe at the most round up to two hours. Porsche publishes their own time estimates for most retrofits and repairs to regulate the maximum labor compensation given to dealers for a specific repair under warranty. While they don't have to follow this regulation for something the customer is paying for; a good honest dealership will and this has been discussed here before; that there are in fact dealerships that only charge an hour and a half or two hours to install the short shifter, yet there are others that charge as much as 7 hours labor for the same install.

- Suneet

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- Suneet

1TU = 1/100 hour
100TU = 1 hour

I'll bet the dealers are thrilled to install an oem Porsche part you bought from another dealer that you'll now expect them to warranty.

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Dan

thanks for the correction; that really clears things up...

Also...I never wanted to convey that they should install it for free under warranty; just that they should charge what Porsche has already determined to be the install-time... so sorry if I came across unclear.

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- Suneet

Nothing unclear about your post. My comment was directed to the OP's situation and implied that perhaps the dealers aren't going out of their way to be accomodating.

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Dan

No kidding.