What to charge / Mechanics · Checked 31 October 2026
What to charge as a mechanic in 2026
Independent garages charge around £50 to £90 an hour for labour in 2026, main dealers £90 to £180, and mobile mechanics £30 to £60 plus a call-out fee of £40 to £90, according to the guides linked below. The DVSA caps the MOT fee at £54.85 for a car. Further down are average prices for services, brakes, clutches and cambelts from three booking platforms and the RAC, what the minimum wage means if you take on a technician, and a calculator for your own rate.
Rates
Typical mechanic rates in the UK
| Rate | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| An hour at an independent garage | £50 to £90 [1][2][3][4] | CarGarages’ March 2026 guide, excluding VAT. Whito’s 2026 report gives £55 to £95. WhoCanFixMyCar tells drivers most mechanics charge £35 to £80; Checkatrade’s average, via money.co.uk, is £60, up to £80. |
| An hour at a franchised main dealer | £90 to £180 [1][2] | CarGarages. Whito gives £100 to £180, and £80 to £130 for a marque specialist. |
| An hour for a mobile mechanic | £30 to £60 [5][4][1] | WhoCanFixMyCar, August 2025. Checkatrade’s average, via money.co.uk in June 2026, is £45, up to £60. CarGarages gives £50 to £80. |
| Mobile mechanic call-out fee | £40 to £90 [5][4] | WhoCanFixMyCar. Checkatrade’s average, via money.co.uk, is £65, rising to £85. |
| An hour for repair work, WhoCanFixMyCar | £70 to £100 [6] | Its repair comparison page, depending on location. Parts not included. |
| An hour for diagnostics | £60 to £100 [1][7] | CarGarages. £80 to £120 for complex electrical or programming work. The RAC’s flat-rate diagnostic averages £104. |
| MOT test, maximum fee for a car | £54.85 [8] | Set by the DVSA. £29.65 for a standard motorcycle. No VAT on the fee, and you can charge less than the maximum. |
Where you work changes the rate
- London: CarGarages gives £70 to £100 an hour for independents and £120 to £180 for main dealers, with premium brands often above £150. Whito puts London and South East independents at £80 to £120 and above, against £55 to £95 nationally. [1][2]
- The Midlands, CarGarages: independents £55 to £80, main dealers £85 to £130. Birmingham independents £60 to £75. [1]
- Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, CarGarages: independents £60 to £75, main dealers £90 to £120. It calls the North East comparable with Scotland. [1]
- Scotland and Wales, CarGarages: Scottish independents £50 to £70, or £55 to £75 in Edinburgh and Glasgow, with main dealers £80 to £120. Cardiff and Swansea £55 to £75, rural Wales £50 to £65. [1]
- Job prices by city, BookMyGarage: a full service averages £209 in Manchester and £258 in Oxford; a clutch £404 in Coventry and £734 in Hull. Data correct as of October 2026. [9][10]
Job prices
What common mechanic jobs cost
What customers are typically quoted, from published UK price guides. Use them as a check on your own quotes, not a fixed price list.
| Job | Typical price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Interim service | £191 [9] | BookMyGarage average from bookings. From £171 in Birmingham to £216 in Oxford |
| Full service | £236 [9][11][12] | BookMyGarage. RAC mobile mechanic quotes averaged £298.60 including parts, labour and VAT. Which? owners paid £260 at an independent and £361 at a dealer |
| Major service | £316 [9] | BookMyGarage. From £282 in Manchester to £344 in Oxford |
| MOT test, car | £54.85 maximum [8] | DVSA cap. No VAT on the fee |
| Diagnostic check | £104 [7] | RAC average for its flat-rate diagnostic, from £101 to £108 by make |
| Front brake pads | £99 [13] | ClickMechanic average, from £75 to £175. Rear pads £95, from £70 to £150. Usually 30 minutes to 1.5 hours |
| Front brake pads and discs | £277 [14] | BookMyGarage average. Rear pads and discs £246. By make from £199 (Suzuki) to £353 (BMW) |
| Clutch replacement | £589 [10][15][6] | BookMyGarage, from £377 (Hyundai) to £768 (Vauxhall). ClickMechanic: £400 average, most bookings £400 to £1,000, about 4 hours. WhoCanFixMyCar: £483.34 |
| Cambelt change | £350 [16][17][6] | BookMyGarage UK average, up to £1,200 on some makes, 3 to 6 hours. ClickMechanic: £300 average, most bookings £300 to £700, 2.7 hours. WhoCanFixMyCar: £426.76 |
BookMyGarage’s averages come from bookings on its site, marked correct as of October 2026. ClickMechanic’s come from its quote data and carry no date. WhoCanFixMyCar’s cover the last 12 months. None of the three says whether VAT is included; the RAC’s full service figure does.
Your numbers
Work out your own hourly rate
Start from what you want to earn, add what the business costs to run, and divide by the hours you can actually charge for. Travel, quoting, paperwork and chasing payments are not chargeable hours, so be honest about them.
The starting numbers are examples, not a recommendation. Change them to match your year. The result is before income tax and National Insurance, and before VAT if you are registered.
Before you set a price
Costs your rate has to cover
- Paying a technician: from 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage for anyone aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour, rising to £13.21 from April 2027. The 18 to 20 rate is £10.85 and the under-18 and apprentice rate is £8. [18]
- Apprentices: the £8 rate applies under 19, or at 19 and over in the first year. After the first year an apprentice aged 21 must get £12.71. [18]
- VAT: registration is compulsory once taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000. After that you charge 20% on labour and parts. None of the platform averages above says whether VAT is included, so say it on every quote. [19][20]
What the job pays elsewhere
If you employ people
Minimum wage floors for technicians from April 2026
There is no national wage agreement for garages in the way BATJIC covers building firms, so the legal floor for anyone you employ is the National Living Wage and the National Minimum Wage, which change every 1 April. The rates below run from 1 April 2026, with the April 2027 rates in brackets. They say nothing about what you charge a customer; they set the least you can pay the person doing the work. [18]
The 39-hour week column is our arithmetic (the hourly rate times 39) so the table matches the other guides on this site. The National Careers Service says motor mechanics typically work 38 to 45 hours a week. [18][21]
| Grade | 39-hour week | An hour |
|---|---|---|
| 21 and over (National Living Wage) | £495.69 | £12.71 (£13.21 from April 2027) [18] |
| 18 to 20 | £423.15 | £10.85 (£11.27) [18] |
| Under 18 | £312.00 | £8 (£8.31) [18] |
| Apprentice (under 19, or 19 and over in the first year) | £312.00 | £8 (£8.31) [18] |
What that means for your charge-out rate: a technician on £12.71 an hour is paid for 39 hours whether or not you bill them all. Sell 30 of those hours and the wage alone is £16.52 for every hour you invoice, before employer’s National Insurance, holiday pay, rent, equipment, insurance and your own pay. That is why £50 to £90 an hour is normal for an independent garage with staff, and why a rate in the £30s only works for one person with low overheads. [18][1]
Pricing well
How to price your work as a mechanic
Sell hours against a time guide, or sell the job
Most garages publish a labour rate and bill the hours a job takes. Mobile mechanics more often quote a fixed price for the job. Either way, work from a time guide rather than a guess: ClickMechanic’s booking data puts a clutch at about 4 hours and a cambelt at 2.7, so at £60 an hour that is £240 and £162 of labour before the kit. If a job runs long because of seized bolts or a snapped stud, ring the customer before you carry on, and charge for the extra time.
Work your day rate out from your costs, then test it against the minimum wage
As an example: £35,000 in pay plus £12,000 of van, tools, diagnostic subscriptions and insurance, over 46 working weeks of 30 chargeable hours, is £47,000 ÷ 1,380 = £34.06 an hour, or about £272 for an eight-hour day. Now compare that with the legal floor for an employee. From April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour, so a technician on the minimum costs £101.68 in wages for an eight-hour day before employer’s National Insurance, holiday and the hours nobody can bill. If your rate would not cover paying yourself the minimum wage plus your costs, the chargeable hours are too optimistic or the rate is too low.
Fix the call-out fee and say it on the first call
WhoCanFixMyCar puts a mobile mechanic’s call-out at £40 to £90, and Checkatrade’s average, via money.co.uk, is £65. What it covers matters more than the number. Decide whether it includes the first 30 minutes of looking, whether it comes off the bill if the customer goes ahead, and whether evenings and weekends cost more. Then say it on the phone, before you set off. A fee agreed on the phone rarely gets argued about. One that first appears on the invoice does.
Treat the MOT as a fixed fee and price the rest around it
The DVSA sets the maximum MOT fee at £54.85 for a car and £29.65 for a motorcycle, with no VAT. You can charge less, and plenty of garages do to fill the ramp, but you cannot charge more, so the test itself will never carry your overheads. Decide in advance how you price the work an MOT finds: a labour rate for repairs, whether a retest is charged, and whether you quote before you touch anything. Someone who came in for a £54.85 test feels ambushed by a £400 bill they were not warned about.
Give the parts and labour split before they ask
Which? tells drivers to ask for a fixed quote that includes parts, labour and VAT, and WhoCanFixMyCar tells them to ask for the split, so your customer has already been told what to ask for. A written quote that gets paid without a row has: the registration and mileage; the fault in the customer’s words and what you found; the work you will do; each part with its price and whether it is original equipment or equivalent; the labour hours and the rate; VAT, stated as included or added; what happens if you find more once the job is open; when the car will be ready; and how and when you want paying.
Charge for diagnosis
Finding the fault takes the ramp, the scan tool and your time. The RAC charges a flat rate for a diagnostic and its average is £104. CarGarages’ 2026 guide puts diagnostics at £60 to £100 an hour and complex electrical or programming work at £80 to £120. Set a diagnostic fee, say whether it comes off the repair if you do the work, and stop giving an hour of fault finding away to someone who then takes your answer to a cheaper garage.
The work you never get to quote for
A good rate only helps if the customer reaches you. Most callers who hit voicemail ring the next name on the list. If you miss three calls a week and two in five would have become a £236 job, that is about £1,226 of work a month going to someone else. See what a missed call costs, or how While You Work answers calls for mechanics while you are on a job.
Questions
What mechanics ask about pricing
How much do mechanics charge per hour in the UK?
WhoCanFixMyCar’s advice to drivers (September 2025) says most mechanics charge £35 to £80 an hour for labour, and its repair comparison page gives £70 to £100 depending on location, parts not included. CarGarages’ March 2026 guide puts independent garages at £50 to £90 an hour excluding VAT. Checkatrade’s average, as reported by money.co.uk in June 2026, is £60 an hour for a garage mechanic, up to £80.
How much do garages charge per hour compared with main dealers?
The 2026 guides put independent garages at £50 to £90 an hour (CarGarages) or £55 to £95 (Whito), and franchised main dealers at £90 to £180 or £100 to £180. Which? measured the gap in what owners actually paid for a service: £260 on average at an independent against £361 at a dealer.
What is the mechanic hourly rate in London?
CarGarages’ guide gives £70 to £100 an hour for independent garages in London and £120 to £180 for main dealers there, with premium brands often above £150. Whito’s 2026 report puts London and South East independents at £80 to £120 and above, against £55 to £95 nationally.
How much do mobile mechanics charge?
WhoCanFixMyCar says the average mobile mechanic charges £30 to £60 an hour, and some add a call-out fee of £40 to £90. Checkatrade’s average, reported by money.co.uk, is £45 an hour, up to £60, with a call-out fee averaging £65. On whole jobs, WhoCanFixMyCar’s data shows mobile mechanics cheaper for a battery (£133.26 against £234.82 at a garage) and a clutch (£549.12 against £670.82), and about the same for brake pads and discs.
How much should I charge as a mobile mechanic?
Work it out from your costs rather than from the averages. The calculator on this page does the sum: what you want to earn, plus van, tools, insurance and diagnostic subscriptions, divided by the hours you can actually bill once travel and quoting are taken out. Then check the answer against the published range of £30 to £60 an hour with a £40 to £90 call-out, and against the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour.
How much is an MOT in 2026?
The maximum fee, set by the DVSA, is £54.85 for a car and £29.65 for a standard motorcycle. There is no VAT on the fee. Garages can charge less than the maximum and many do.
How much does a car service cost in the UK?
BookMyGarage’s averages from bookings are £191 for an interim service, £236 for a full service and £316 for a major service. The RAC’s mobile mechanic quotes for a full service averaged £298.60 between September and November 2025, including parts, labour and VAT. Which? found owners paid £260 on average at an independent garage and £361 at a franchised dealer.
Sources
Figures checked on 31 October 2026. Price guides change, so check the source before you rely on a figure. Where a source says whether a price includes VAT, the page says so; where it does not, treat the figure as unconfirmed on VAT.
- CarGarages.co.uk, Car mechanic labour rates UK 2026: regional guide, 17 March 2026 (a garage directory's guide; it does not say where its figures come from).
- Whito, UK Automotive Marketing in Numbers: 2026 Data Report, published May 2026, last updated 27 October 2026.
- WhoCanFixMyCar, Questions to ask a mechanic before getting your car fixed, 19 September 2025.
- money.co.uk, How to get started as a mechanic, edited 4 June 2026; the rates it gives are Checkatrade's.
- WhoCanFixMyCar, Are mobile mechanics any good?, 5 August 2025.
- WhoCanFixMyCar, Car repair cost comparison, undated; averages for the last 12 months of bookings.
- RAC, Car diagnostics.
- GOV.UK (DVSA), Getting an MOT: MOT test fees.
- BookMyGarage, How much does a car service cost?, posted 16 February 2024; city tables marked correct as of October 2026.
- BookMyGarage, How much does a clutch replacement cost?, 19 January 2026; data correct as of October 2026.
- RAC, Full and interim car service, last updated 26 October 2026 (quotes collected 1 September to 30 November 2025).
- Which?, Car maintenance costs, 2 October 2026 (survey of 63,334 car owners, April to June 2025).
- ClickMechanic, Brake pads replacement cost guide, undated; from ClickMechanic's quote data.
- BookMyGarage, How much do brake pads and discs cost?, 30 June 2026; data correct as of October 2026.
- ClickMechanic, Clutch replacement cost guide, undated; from ClickMechanic's bookings and quote data.
- BookMyGarage, North East cambelt repairs: prices, reviews and local insights.
- ClickMechanic, Cambelt change cost guide, undated; from ClickMechanic's bookings and quote data.
- GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, rates from 1 April 2026, with April 2027 rates announced.
- GOV.UK (HMRC), How VAT works / When to register.
- GOV.UK (HMRC), VAT rates.
- National Careers Service (GOV.UK), Motor mechanic job profile.
- Which?, How to find a good garage, 28 April 2026.
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