How to quote car repairs as a mobile mechanic (and stop funding parts)

Mobile mechanics run the tightest quoting loop in the trades: diagnose on the driveway, price on the spot, order parts the same day, fit tomorrow. Every weak point in that loop costs real money, and the two weakest are almost always the same: the quote is a number in a text thread, and the parts go on your card before the customer has committed anything. Here is the system that closes both gaps.

Price parts and labour as separate lines

A text saying “£340 for the brakes” invites exactly one response: “I can get it cheaper”. A quote listing front pads and discs at £180, labour at £140, and brake fluid change as a £45 option is a different conversation, because the customer can see where the money goes and which part of it is your skill. Itemising also protects you when the customer supplies their own parts: your labour line stands on its own, and the warranty position (“parts warranty theirs, labour mine”) is already implied in writing.

Set your labour rate deliberately, not by feel. You carry a van, tools, diagnostics kit, insurance and dead miles between jobs; your hourly rate is not “garage rate minus something for no premises”, it is your own overhead maths. If you have never actually done that calculation, start with how to price a job for profit and put real numbers on the van, and claim the miles properly with the mileage calculator at HMRC rates.

Charge for diagnostics, honestly

The half hour with the scanner and the pressure tester is skilled work, and “free diagnostics” attracts the customers who collect free diagnostics. The clean structure: a fixed call-out plus diagnostic fee, stated up front, waived or deducted if the repair goes ahead. It filters the tyre-kickers, pays for the visits that do not convert, and costs you nothing on the ones that do.

Take the deposit before you order the parts

This is the rule that changes the business. Pads, discs, a clutch kit or a cam belt kit go on your card, for a car that is not yours, on the strength of a thumbs-up emoji. When the customer goes quiet, you own a clutch for a 2016 Qashqai.

The fix: quote with a deposit that covers the parts, taken by card at acceptance. The customer taps accept, pays 20% or the parts value, and only then does the order go in. A customer with money down does not vanish, and the one who will not put money down was the one who was going to. The full argument is in should you take a deposit; for a mobile mechanic it is not really an argument, it is survival.

Photos get repairs approved

Nothing converts a hesitant customer like seeing the part. The lipped disc, the weeping shock, the belt with cracks you can photograph through the cover: put the photo on the quote next to the line it justifies. “Recommended: front discs, see photo” approves itself. It also builds the file that protects you when a customer later claims the car “was fine before”.

The worked example

Brakes plus service on the driveway:

• Front pads and discs, supplied: £180
• Fitting, front axle: £140
• Interim service, parts and labour: £140
• Brake fluid change: £45 (optional, ticked by the customer)
• Air-con regas: £70 (optional, declined)

£505 quoted, £505 approved before parts were ordered, deposit covering the parts paid by card the same evening. The regas stays on file for next time; customers remember the options they declined.

Offer the add-ons, do not pitch them

Wipers, bulbs, the rear axle while the front is done, the regas in June: as tickable options on the quote, they sell themselves at a rate no driveway conversation matches. You are not upselling; the customer is choosing from a menu you priced calmly in advance.

The quote is your front of house

You have no reception, no waiting room, no branded overalls doing the reassuring. The quote is the only professional surface the customer sees before they trust you with their car, so a branded, itemised quote with photos, sent from the driveway before you have left, is your entire storefront. Snapquo built for mobile mechanics keeps your common jobs as saved items, builds the quote next to the car in about a minute, takes the parts deposit at acceptance, and invoices the balance in a tap when the keys go back. The first few documents are free, so the next diagnosis can be the test.