Suzuki Exaggerated time to replace headlight bulb in flat rate mechanics book. Pulaski Nationwide

Suzuki garage contacted to change driver's side headlight. I was told that it was a "big job" that required a minimum of 2 hours mechanics time. I questioned this asking what had to be done and was told that the front bumper had to be removed in order to remove the headlight assembly and that it was quite involved. They were going to charge $140.00 to replace one bulb, but also said that I should "replace both sides while it was apart.". They said that this was a standard cost by the price set in the flat rate mechanic's book. I refused the service and took the car to an independant garage who quoted the same time and slightly cheaper rate ($120.00). This garage said that the rate was set by Suzuki for the amount of time that it takes the average mechanic to do the exchange.

This is the ripoof. they set the repair time at 2 hours, but I dropped the bumper and changed the bulb myself in 15 minutes. I am not even a mechanic. It is literally 5 screws to remove before removing the headlight assembly. It ended up just costing 13 dollars for the bulb. I also looked at the passenger side bulb and noticed that it is accessible without removal of the bumper so there would have been no reason to change it as the Suzuki garage claimed, unless it was blown.

I noticed that there are a multitude of people that this has happened to after checking the internet. I feel this should be changed in the flat rate mechanic's book to a more realistic time. If I had been a mechanic, it probably would have only taken 10 minutes to exchange the bulb.