My twin plate? I actually just put it in the shed but it's easy to get back out. I never put it in the classified, I figured whenever I burn this clutch out I'd have it put back in, but I have no problem moving it on to somebody else either

 

how much again did you pay after everything?

 

Sorry to revive an old thread, I was just quoted $12,095 for a factory single plate clutch, flywheel and slave cylinder. The local dealer just became a franchised dealer 2.5 years ago and has been installing these instead of the twin plate clutches in customers' cars.

 

Please provide the name of the dealer so everybody can avoid them.

 

It's the Aston Martin dealer in the Denver area.

 

What model and year is yours?

 

2007 V8 Vantage 4.3 Manual. I'm also likely going the recommended route of the Velocity AP Twin Plate Clutch kit, doesn't seem like you can beat it with the improved performance and longevity.

 

Just making sure. The quote is ridiculous unless your car has 120k miles and every bolt is rounded off.
$4000 parts, 9 hours labor. Everything over that is because the car is in poor condition, or the dealer is padding the hours.

Absolutely the AP clutch is your best option, and finding a private Indi close experienced enough to do it.

 

Oh it's very ridiculous, my car has only 46k. They wanted 15 hours to do the job at $255/hr. With the remaining cost being parts.

 

That's how they pad the bill. AND they want $8000 for the clutch.

The US needs to do what the UK did. All Aston owners need to band together to force corporate into making their authorized service departments charge the same hours for the same job.

 

Mike Ward is over the top on labor, and on parts. Their customer service is great, but their prices, less so.

 

Anybody quoting $12k for this job simply doesn't want the business.

As these cars age, the fact is the main dealers are going to want less and less to do with them, so they raise the service prices to the point that customers simply move on. Mercedes does the same thing. Bring a 20 year old Mercedes to a dealer service center and they won't know which end is up. Then they'll quote you six times the market rate to fix whatever you brought it in for.

Thing is, an Aston isn't a Mercedes. Because of their low volume and exclusivity the company has a responsibility to ensure owners are taken care of reasonably, and not priced out of factory service simply because the dealerships only want to work on the modern cars.

 

The manufacturer has no such responsibility, moral, financial, or otherwise. Independent shops exist for this, and other reasons. Don't like the dealer rate? Pick up a wrench or find a shop that is more aligned with your financial expectations.

 

This is a great way to ensure your brand leaves a bad taste in the mouth of potential future customers.

Of course there is no 'responsibility' to do anything. It's just smart business. People with money to spend on an Aston Martin (of any year/model) have a lot of options. Making them feel like they're being ripped off is a good way to alienate them. And a good way to make them feel like they're being ripped off is to charge them $12k for something they know should cost $8k at the max, just because you don't want to be bothered with their older model.

People expect dealers to be more expensive than independent shops. But there's a difference between 'more expensive' and 'flagrant ripoff'.