Book rates: the saga continues

[Jay 535i]

an example my sister recently built a new house, they acted as their own general contractors and subbed out all the work that they couldn't do. For the block walls for the exterior of the house they got over 10 quotes, the price variation from one mason to another ranged more than 40k dollars to do the same job, same thing with the painting contractors, the only fields that were very close to each other with less than a 10% variation were the electricians and the plumbers. More than 10 quotes for each and they came up within 10% of each other without seeing anybody elses quotes. All other areas on the house had tremendous variations. So its the same with everything , you have to shop around for the best combination of price ,quality,service etc. Dealer are just like anybody else,someones going to push for more money somewhere. Get over it.

But those contractors didn't all claim to be derriving their quotes from the same book, did they?

OF COURSE you should shop around for most things. But you wouldn't expect that shopping 10 different Wal-Marts would get you 10 different quotes for Cheaper By The Dozen on DVD, would you?

Sorry, I know I broke my own rule and posted again. But this analogy is not, um, analogous. Compare apples and apples, please, and remember that, unlike the subcontractors in your story, BMW claims to use a book that results in consistent pricing across multiple dealers.