This Land Rover Dealer Charges $500 Per Hour for Service

It's no secret that life in New York City is expensive. From food to housing to parking your car, the high cost of living affects pretty much every good and service sold in the United States' most-populated city. However, Land Rover Brooklyn’s service department has taken things to the eye-popping extreme by charging owners $499.99 per hour for labor—and nearly $500 for a standard oil change.

An Instagram Reel posted by oneightynyc, a car customization shop located in Coney Island, alerted me to this are-you-serious labor rate. I reached out to Land Rover Brooklyn via phone and asked for a quote on an oil change for a 2013 Land Rover LR4. They gave me a price of $452.27 before tax, which included a half-hour of labor plus parts. Now, an LR4 oil change kit from FCP Euro—which includes eight quarts of synthetic oil, a fresh filter, and a drain plug—costs $134.74. If you’re not interested in getting your hands dirty, RepairPal estimates the service should cost between $266 and 315, with 43% or $114.38 of that going to labor. In this case, Land Rover Brooklyn’s labor rate would cost a customer at least $137 extra on one of the most basic services.

The problem compounds when you consider a more complex job. Land Rovers aren’t known for being the most reliable vehicles (I briefly owned a 2001 Discovery II; poor choices) and a few hours spent diagnosing an electrical issue here could easily cost an owner $3,000 in labor alone. Timing chains? You do the math.