Well the guy working on the car needs to get paid something to do it or are you in the habit of working for free, most people are not. The standard rate to hook up the "scan tool" as you refer to it and interpret codes is 1 hour labor. The service manager did cut him a deal and only charged him half an hour to look at it and replace the faulty gas cap. That is more than fair, how long do you think that tech spent on that problem, between getting the ticket, finding the car, pulling the code, checking the gas cap on the smog machine, getting the part, installing a new cap and running it through it's leak check diagnostic to make sure that it was the only source of a large leak and was indeed fixed, writing it all down on the ticket, reporting to the service advisor, waiting for the customer approval, closing the ticket. This all takes time and yes it is all part of the picture. Now consider that you are in a brand new state of the art facility, that dealer in Buena Park is less than a year old, with all of the overhead that comes with it.
If you want it done for less you can come to my shop where I won't give you a ride home, I won't offer you a cup of coffee, I won't wash your car when I am done with it, you can hang out in the customer waiting area next to the water cooler and read the paper, if you want you are welcome to come back and bullshit with the guy working on your car who by the way is the same guy that wrote you up and pulled the parts, etc. And guess what I am going to charge you an hour labor too, but if your nice and/or a regular customer I may not even charge you at all. Point is you generally get what you pay for and the guy working on your car needs to get paid for it, period.


Mark